On 6th November 2024, the Japan-Sweden Society hosted its Annual Nobel Dinner at the Tokyo American Club. Professor Svante Pääbo, the Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine 2022, was our distinguished guest speaker. He is Professor of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and also Adjunct Professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST). We were delighted to have Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado as our guest of honour at the event.
Seiji Morimoto, Acting President of JSS and a former Japanese Ambassador to Sweden, greeted the attendees and introduced Professor Pääbo’s achievements in his short welcome speech.
Professor Pääbo spoke on the theme “An Archaic Perspective on the Origin of Modern Humans”. It was an engaging presentation, in which he elaborated on his outstanding discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution. It was particularly enlightening that he discovered that we, Homo sapiens, have inherited genes from the extinct Neanderthals, which have brought both merits and demerits to human life.
Upon the conclusion of Professor Pääbo’s presentation, Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado shared her thoughts about it and thanked him for his speech.
The event was attended by some 90 members and guests. In addition to representatives from the Japanese-Swedish community, JSS was delighted to have several members from the Japan-Norway Society including its President, a former Japanese Ambassador to Norway among the event attendees.
