Montana Camping Trip Interrupted by Nobel Prize Call

Fred Ramsdell wasn’t trying to escape fame; he was just out of reach. The 64-year-old immunologist and cofounder of Sonoma Biotherapeutics was parked in a campground near Yellowstone when his wife began screaming on Friday. She’d probably just seen a grizzly, he figured. Well, it seems she had just gotten back to cell service and received 200 text messages announcing that he had just won the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

For the previous few weeks, Dr. Ramsdell had been hiking across Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana with his wife, Laura, and their dogs in tow. Their 4Runner and teardrop trailer in tow, they had themselves a good ol' fashioned Griswold Family Roadtrip. As they were pulling into Livingston and finally getting reconnected to civilization, they learned that he had just been inducted into the world’s most exclusive scientific club.

Unplugged and Unbothered in Big Sky Country

At work, Ramsdell’s research helped revolutionize treatments for autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and Crohn’s. But while on vacation, he said he was just on the path to disconnect. “We tend to go  in remote areas,” he told The New York Times, which any local knows means “no bars of service and loving it.”

Ramsdell said he was “grateful and humbled” as he finally arrived at his home near Whitefish. For Montanans, that tracks. Out here, it’s easy to understand why a man who studies the human body’s defense systems would want to live in a state where you can defend your peace.

Evidence That Montanans Still Know How to Unplug

Most of us have made that trip, camping near Yellowstone, Elk Camp in White Sulpher Springs, or just driving until your phone pings “SOS.” Ramsdell’s story is a reminder that everyone, even a Nobel Prize-winning doctor, deserves some peace and quiet in the great outdoors.