Receiving Line Meeting of the Minds Ambassador of Sweden and Mrs. Jan Eliasson hosted one of the largest gatherings of Nobel Prize laureates, past and present, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Nobel awards. After a reception at the White House, the laureates headed to the Embassy of Sweden where the room quickly filled with stimulating conversations and debates. Guests, dignitaries and ambassadors from Belgium, Finland, Iceland and Portugal all got the chance to probe these great minds for their scientific, political and philosophical insights. Later, Ambassador Eliasson praised the Nobel awards for truly being an international prize and talked about how grateful he was for the institution and how it has ìinspired Swedish scienceî and kept it on its toes. ìIn absence of Eiffel Towers and Statues of Liberty, the Nobel prizes are very big for a small country like Sweden,î Ambassador Eliasson said. The ambassador also joked about how he had the ìhighest concentration of brain power in the Washington area and perhaps in the United Statesî with him that night. Two winners from this year and last year topped off the splendid evening with speeches. Paul Greengard, the 2000 laureate for medicine, led a toast to the ambassador and his wife and amused the crowd with his tales about the pitfalls of being a Nobel victor. Then, a representative for the ìClass of 2001,î Eric Cornell, who won for physics, described the thrill and the haze of all the emotions that come with finding out you have been picked for such a prestigious honor. A mix of nearly 20 laureates from 1958 to 2001 attended the reception, with awards ranging from medicine to peace. Basketball Diplomacy Ambassador of Lithuania Vygaudas Usackas led his embassy team for another exciting round of Basketball Diplomacy, as the Lithuanian Embassy met a U.S. State Department squad at the Quantico Marine base in Virginia. The State Department edged the Lithuanian Embassy, 61-59, as the Lithuanian shooter missed a potential game-winning three points. Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis, on a visit to Washington, D.C., for the U.S.-Baltic Partnership Commission meeting, also took to the court with his Lithuanian teammates. The game was the third match between the two countries this year. Before this game, the friendly rivalry stood at one win each. A U.S. team of diplomats, politicians and reporters defeated the Lithuanians, 65-57, at a NATO meeting in May in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. Lithuania evened the playing field, however, in July when it beat a U.S. team, 69-40, during a visit by Arturas Paulauskas, speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament. An interesting sidenoteóAmbasasdor Usackasí wore the number 2002 on his jersey to represent the year Lithuania expects to receive an invitation to join NATO.