Fred Ramsdell

Dr. Fred Ramsdell was deep in Montana’s grizzly country on the final day of a three-week off-grid hike with his wife, Laura O’Neill, and their two dogs when the quiet wilderness was suddenly interrupted—not by a bear, but by an avalanche of text messages. His wife, staring at her phone, began shouting in disbelief: Dr. Ramsdell had won the Nobel Prize for medicine.

The immunologist’s phone had been on airplane mode, leaving the Nobel committee unable to reach him at the time. When Laura told him, “You’ve won the Nobel Prize,” his first response was a simple, incredulous, “I did …