Pictures from the celebration
Gala celebration of Royal jubilee and Nobel anniversary
On 1 October 2022 the Royal Academy held a gala event to mark the 100th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Niels Bohr and the Golden Jubilee of H.M. Queen Margrethe of Denmark.
By Rikke Reinholdt Petersen
– “Niels Bohr, as a recipient of the Order of the Elephant, is the closest the science community has come to the Royal Family, but the Royal Family has long been close to the science community”.
These were the opening words of Professor Marie Louise Nosch, president of the Royal Academy – and thus one of Bohr’s direct successors to the position – at the Academy’s major celebratory event of the year, which took place on 1 October 2022 in the Great Hall of Christiansborg Palace.
Much in common
In her address to H.M. The Queen, President Nosch spoke of the enduring connection between the Academy and its patron:
– “The Queen’s father, King Frederik IX, was fond of visiting the Academy; as a young crown princess, your Majesty attended Academy meetings and as a sovereign, Your Majesty has helped to keep a public focus on the Academy as a national resource by attending our celebrations and award ceremonies and authorising the establishment of Queen Margrethe II’s Science Award in 2015”.
The President expressed her deep gratitude to the Queen for her commitment and went on to highlight an important point concerning the long tradition of cooperation:
– “The Danish Royal Family, by electing to prioritise the sciences and the Royal Academy, serves to highlight the relevance of science for our society”.
According to Nosch the monarchy and the sciences share many similarities:
– “The monarchy and the sciences have common traits. Both go back many thousands of years to antiquity, the monarchy as a form of government, the sciences as a form of thinking. A monarch’s reign, like the sciences, is in for the long haul, and endurance is our strength. Although the media and the public like to focus on individual people, scientists and sovereigns understand that we are merely part of a long line of people reaching far back and on whose shoulders we stand. We apply ourselves with dedication when we have a task to fulfil but we are well aware that ultimately what matters is the contribution we have made and which will endure after we are gone”.
Paths which cross
Apparently not only the sciences and the monarchy cross paths in various ways. In his speech about Bohr former president of the Academy, Mogens Høgh Jensen, described a very special meeting at the Carlsberg Honorary Residence, pointing out how H.M. The Queen of Denmark and Professor Niels Bohr had also crossed paths:
– “The late Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to Denmark in 1957 and on that occasion visited the Honorary Residence together with the Danish royal couple and the young 17-year-old heir to the throne, Princess Margrethe was present. Tomas Bohr [Niels Bohr’s grandchild and today member of the Royal Academy] remembers how all the grandchildren at the time donned their Sunday best and stood in a line with neatly parted hair to greet the Princess”.
The anecdotes about Niels Bohr concluded with a clear message from Jensen, who, like Bohr, is a professor at Niels Bohr Institute:
– “Niels Bohr is no longer with us. But his physics, his personality and the institute are very much alive”.
Later in the evening, the speeches by Nosch and Jensen were followed by speeches by the Minister of Science and Higher Education, Jesper Petersen, and not least H.M. The Queen, who thanked the Royal Academy for its book, Monarkier, published on the occasion of the royal patron’s jubilee and presented to the royal patron by its editor, Dr. Marianne Pade, who briefly explained how the book was a product of a symposium on monarchies held in February this year and also attended by H.M. The Queen.
Prior to the speeches and presentation of the book, there was a dinner, entertainment provided by the Orchestra of the Danish Royal Guard presented by Frederik Cilius and Mathias Hammer, and a quadrille for the guests.
