The Nobel Prize is extensively regarded as the world’s most prestigious award, so one would count on a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry to have excelled in the topic in college. However, there is truly one Chemistry Laureate who holds the distinction of getting failed the subject in higher college – despite the fact that he says it is simply because his teacher took a dislike to him.
On Tomas Lindahl’s 83rd birthday, the Nobel Prize Organisation celebrated the Swedish scientist and his achievements with an Instagram post reminding the planet of his special distinction – being the only Chemistry Laureate in the planet who flunked the subject.
“At school I had a teacher that didn’t like me and I didn’t like him. At the end of the year he decided to fail me,” Dr Lindahl was quoted as saying by the official Instagram manage of the Nobel Prize.
“The ironic thing is that the topic was chemistry.
“I have the distinction of being the only Chemistry Laureate who failed the subject in higher college!”
“Great story,” wrote one person in the comments section. “I’m glad it did not quit you from pursuing your path,” said another.
Tomas Lindahl was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with American chemist Paul L Modrich and Turkish chemist Aziz Sancar for “mechanistic research of DNA repair”.
Born on January 28, 1938, in Stockholm, Sweden, he received his PhD degree from the Karolinska Institute.