Nobel Prize medals go on display in Davis Library

On Wednesday, the first floor of Davis Library was filled with students, but instead of having their eyes glued to laptop screens or textbooks, the students gazed at the Nobel Prize medals of Aziz Sancar and Oliver Smithies.

The medals of UNC’s two Nobel laureates will be on display in Davis Library for one year as a part of the “Be Inspired: Carolina’s Nobel Laureates” exhibit.

“When I learned that the University wanted to display Dr. Sancar and Dr. Smithies’ Nobel laureates in a place where people, especially students, would be able to view them and be inspired by them, I knew right away there could be no more perfect place than the Davis Library,” University Librarian Sarah Michalak said.

Smithies, UNC’s first Nobel laureate, won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2007 for his work involving genetically modified mice.

“I’ve never done a day’s work in my life,” Smithies said.

“What I do is what I want to do and what I enjoy doing and so when I come here, I am coming to play in a sense. To do the things that are exciting to me.”

Smithies said students need to find their passion and choose a job they enjoy, just like he did.

“Although I’m rather ancient, I still find the day-to-day work — or day-to-day play — enjoyable,” he said.

“So the message I want to convey to all you students is don’t do something that is work for the rest for your lives. Find something that you enjoy so much that you can say, as I said, ‘I’ve never done a day’s work.’”

Sancar earned the 2015 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work with DNA repair.

“As opposed to Dr. Smithies, I’m not good in the lab. I’m not good with my hands, so most of the work that earned us the Nobel Prize was done by my students and postdocs, and I am very grateful to them all,” Sancar said.

“It has taken UNC and the whole community of Chapel Hill to get me to where I am, and I am forever grateful for that.”

Sophomore Gabby Whiten said she attended the event because she saw Sancar recognized at a UNC volleyball game and wanted to celebrate his accomplishments again.

“They brought him along with the team, and they had him sit with the team and do the huddle ups with them, and they brought him out on the court, and the entire time he was just smiling from ear to ear. It was the cutest little thing,” she said.

Chancellor Carol Folt attended the ceremony and said her favorite part was seeing so many students crammed in the library’s first floor to celebrate the accomplishments of the two men.

“It’s really exciting to me, in part, because I’m a scientist so I admire what they do so much, but the very best was looking around that room and seeing so many students here and knowing both of them wanted (the medals) right where undergraduates would see it, so that’s kind of perfect,” she said.

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