Every year, for the Nobel Prize, the Swedish Academy receives thousands of letters from all over the world recommending both well-known and obscure scientists and authors. Only qualified individuals can make such nominations, including members of the Swedish Academy and other academies, organisations, and societies that are conceptually and functionally comparable to it, professors at universities and colleges, previous Nobel Prize laureates, and leaders of writers’ and science organisations who are qualified to serve as ambassadors for their nations’ sciences, literature and fine arts.
The Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden, has made the announcement of the 2023 Nobel Prize winners which will be given out on December 10, 2023. The prize was founded by Alfred Nobel in accordance with his will.
Here’s a list of the 2023 Nobel Prize winners.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- Katalin Karikó
- Drew Weissman
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman share the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine as a result of their discoveries about nucleoside base changes, which allowed for the creation of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. This decision was made by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet.
Katalin Karikó: Katalin Karikó was born in 1955, Szolnok Hungary. In 1982, she graduated with a PhD from the University of Szeged, and from 1982 to 1985, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged. She then carried out postdoctoral studies at the University of Health Sciences in Bethesda and Temple University in Philadelphia. Later, she was hired as an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989, and she stayed there until 2013. At BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals, she later rose to the positions of vice president and senior vice president. She has been an Adjunct Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania since 2021 and a Professor at Szeged University since 2021.
Drew Weissman: Drew Weissman was born in Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1959. In 1987, he graduated from Boston University with both his MD and Ph.D. He completed his postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health after completing his clinical training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School. Weissman started his research team in 1997 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations and the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research.
Nobel Prize in Physics
- Pierre Agostini
- Ferenc Krausz
- Anne L’Huillier
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Anne L’Huillier, Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”.
Anne L’Huillier: Anne L’Huillier was born on 16 August 1958 in Paris, France. She received the Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 for her experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter.
Pierre Agostini: Pierre Agostini is affiliated with Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. He was also awarded the Nobel Prize for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter.
Ferenc Krausz: The Hungarian Physicist received the Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 for his contributions to experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter. He is currently affiliated with Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Garching, Germany; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- Moungi G. Bawendi
- Louis E. Brus
- Alexei I. Ekimo
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 is given to Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus, and Alexei I. Ekimov for their work on the discovery and development of quantum dots. These tiny particles, which have special qualities, are now emitting light from LED lights and television displays. They accelerate chemical processes and can provide a surgeon with good illumination of tumour tissue.
Moungi G. Bawendi: Dr. Bawendi has been a member of ACS for 29 years. He is the winner of the 2010 ACS Award in Colloid and Surface Chemistry, which was sponsored by Procter & Gamble Co. at that time, and the 1997 Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry, sponsored by Avantor. He is the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States.
Louis E. Brus: Dr. Brus has been a member of ACS for 45 years. He is the 2011 winner of the Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry, sponsored by DuPont, and the 2005 ACS Award in the Chemistry of Materials, also sponsored by DuPont. He has been a member of the Committee on the Petroleum Research Fund and an alternate councilor of the ACS Division of Physical Chemistry. He is the S. L. Mitchell Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, United States.
Alexei I. Ekimo: Dr. Ekimov is credited for the initial discovery of quantum dots. His seminal research laid the groundwork on which Bawendi and Brus were able to further their discoveries in quantum dot research. In 2006, he received the R.W. Wood Prize from Optica (formerly the Optical Society of America) for his “discovery and synthesis of quantum dots.” He currently is a chief scientist at Nanocrystals Technology Inc., United States.
Nobel Prize in Literature
- Jon Fosse
The Nobel Prize 2023 in Literature was awarded to Jon Fosse. He received this award as a motivation “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”.
Jon Fosse: Fosse was born 1959 in Haugesund on the Norwegian west coast. His immense œuvre written in Nynorsk and spanning a variety of genres consists of a wealth of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations. While he is today one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world, he has also become increasingly recognized for his prose. His debut novel Raudt, svart 1983, as rebellious as it was emotionally raw, broached the theme of suicide and, in many ways, set the tone for his later work.
Nobel Peace Prize
- Narges Mohammadi
Narges Mohammadi will receive the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize as a result of her efforts to fight for universal human rights and freedom as well as the oppression of women in Iran, according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Her valiant fight has cost her dearly personally.
Narges Mohammadi: Mohammadi is an Iranian human rights activist and Nobel laureate. She is the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), headed by her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi. Mohammadi has been a vocal proponent of mass feminist civil disobedience against hijab in Iran and a vocal critic of the hijab and chastity program of 2023. In May 2016, she was sentenced in Tehran to 16 years’ imprisonment for establishing and running “a human rights movement that campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty.” She was released in 2020 but sent back to prison in 2021, where she has since given reports of the abuse and solitary confinement of detained women.
Nobel Prize in Economic Science
- Claudia Goldin
The SVERIGES RIKSBANK Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of ALFRED NOBEL 2023 has been awarded to Claudia Goldin “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes”.
Claudia Goldin: Claudia Goldin provided the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labour market participation through the centuries. By trawling through the archives and compiling and correcting historical data, Goldin has been able to present new and often surprising facts.
Source: Nobel Prize
