At 1:43 a. m, Bertozzi was awakened by a phone call from a Nobel committee representative who, revealing the momentous news, told her, "You have 50 minutes to collect yourself and wait until your life changes."
Instructed not to share the announcement outside of her tightest inner circle, the first person Bertozzi called was her father, William Bertozzi, a retired physics professor from MIT. "He's 91 and, of course, he was just overjoyed," said Bertozzi. "And then he called my sisters for me. One of my sisters and my dad watched it live."
Bertozzi was recognized for founding the field of bioorthogonal chemistry (生物正交化学), a set of chemical reactions that allow researchers to study molecules（分子）and their interactions in living things without involving natural biological processes, Bertozzi's lab has been using the new methods to answer fundamental questions about the role of sugars in biology, to solve practical problems, such as developing better tests for infectious diseases, and to create a new medicine that can better target tumors (肿瘤).
"I could not be more delighted that Bertozzi has won the Nobel Prize in chemistry," said Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne. "In pioneering the field of bioorthogonal chemistry, Bertozzi invented a new way of studying biomolecular processes, one that has helped scientists around the world gain deeper understanding of chemical reactions in living systems. Being a crown jewel in chemistry, her work has had remarkable real-world impact. The research achievements have been used to study how cells build proteins and other molecules, to develop new cancermedicines, and to produce new materials for energy storage, among many other applications."
"They call and I'm not even awake ... have hundreds of voicemails. This is how it's going to be all day. This is crazy," she said. Pausing between interviews about two hours later to check her messages, Bertozzi said, "My family is already booking their flights to Stockholm. It's amazing. Go back to sleep!"
