Nobel winner Allison hears the news from his son

STOCKHOLM (AP) – James Allison learned he had won the Nobel Prize in medicine this morning in a phone call from his son.

Allison of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center won the 2018 Nobel Prize on Monday along with Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University in Japan.

Allison, who was in a New York hotel for a scientific meeting, told a press conference later Monday that the Nobel committee had trouble reaching him to break the news. But his cellphone lit up with a call from his son at 5:30 a.m., when the names of the winners were released.

Allison says soon “there were people beating on my door at 6 in the morning with Champagne.”