I was fortunate enough to work with a number of Nobel laureates during my brief academic career. I found all of them humble, and approachable.

My favorite encounter was with a Nobel Laureate in Biology (I didn't know that at the time), who I met early in my freshman year at MIT in a Biology Dept mixer. I started talking to this gentleman, and asked him about his research. He went into some detail about reverse transcriptase (an enzyme that converts RNA into DNA). After listening intently, and trying to understand it, I asked him "How has your research panned out?" He looked at me, kind of quizzically, and said that, "The people in Stockholm seemed to like it." Even dumb freshman that I was, I realized that he had won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. OMG!! As I tried to slink away feeling like an idiot, he was amused enough by our conversation that he offered to be my biology department advisor, which I readily took him up on. I found every interaction with him to be great. Warm, entertaining, and truly concerned with my well-being, education, and future.

I have a number of similar stories with Nobel laureates that I embarrassed myself in front of (strangely, this turned out to be a strange talent of mine).

Every one of them, I would suggest, would be considered a true World's expert. And these experts were all a pleasure to speak with. And I'm pretty sure that it didn't hurt me to have letters of recommendation on my behalf written by Nobel laureates. For this I am eternally grateful.