Wednesday, October 23, 2013

NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

2011 NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Medicine/Physiology

UTSW Researcher Bruce Beutler, Ralph Steinman and Jules Hoffman

Beutler discovered a molecule that would issue warning to any invading bacteria.

Announced on Oct 3

Physics

Announced on October 4
Saul Perimutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Reiss

Topic was in the so-called dark energy. The research is focused on how fast the cosmos, which has been expanding since its fiery birth in the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, is slowing down, and thus to find out if its ultimate fate is to fall back together in what is called a Big Crunch. Instead, they found that expansion of the universe is speeding up.


Chemistry

Announced on October 5
Israeli chemist Dan Shechtman discovered in 1982 of what would become to be known as "quasicrystal".

Nobel Peace Prize
Announced on October 7
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee
Yemeni human rights activist Tawakkul Karman

Nobel Prize in Economics
Announced on October 10, 2011
Christopher Sims, a Professor of Princeton, and Thomas Sargent of New York University.
Both friends from their graduate school days in Harvard discovered models demonstrating cause-and-effect relationship between the government policy and the economy.




2012 NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS





2013 NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Chemistry
This year, Chemistry meets Computer Science. Martin Karplus, 83, of the University of Strasbourg as well as Harvard; Michael Levitt, 66, of Stanford and Arieh Warshel, 72, of the University of Southern California won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work that employed sophisticated computer programs that use the classical laws of motion, dating from Newton to track the movement of a multitude of atoms and quantum physics to describe the breaking and forming of chemical bonds. The announcement came on October 9, 2013.

Literature
This year's Nobel for literature went to Canadian short story writer Alice Munro, 82, thirteenth woman to win the award. Munro is beloved among her peers such as Lorrie Moore, George Saunders, Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Franzen. The winner was announced on October 10, 2013.

Peace Prize
This year's Nobel Peace Prize had a surprise winner, just like last year's winner, European Union. On October 11, 2013, Organization for Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), now in the midst of the most challenging task of securing and destroying the chemical arsenals of Syria, was called out as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Physics
Physicists Francois Englert of Belgium and Peter Higgs of UK won the 2013 Nobel Prize for their theoretical discoveries on how subatomic particles acquire mass.

Economics
Nobel committee announced the winner of this year's Economics Nobel prize on October 14, 2013. This year's Nobel recipients are Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the University of Chicago and Robert Shiller of Yale University.

2014 NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Medicine
This year's Nobel for medicine went to a U.S.-British scientist, John O'Keefe of University College London and husband-wife team of Mary-Britt and Edvard Moser of Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. The prize, announced on October 6, 2014, was awarded for their research that made a paradigm shift in understanding how brain cells work in organizing thought process and stimulating inner working of GPS system at a given location. The research helps Alzheimer researchers to strive toward discovering a cure someday that will help patients to navigate through daily tasks.

Physics
This year's Nobel Prize for Physics was on October 7, 2014 shared by two Japanese physicists--Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano--and a Japanese-American, Shuji Nakamura, for their epoch-making research on a preliminary version of today's omnipresent Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs that had lengthened the life of bulbs compared to incandescent bulbs and helped cut greenhouse gases.

Chemistry
This year's Chemistry Nobel prize went to U.S. researchers Eric Betzig and William Moerner along with the German scientist Stefan Hell. The prize, announced on October 8, 2014, was awarded for the trio's research on creating sharper vision microscope that has helped scientific community to have a deeper look at the cells of living organism.

Literature
This year's Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to French novelist Patrick Modiano for his work focused on thematical variations such as "memory, about loss, about identity, about seeking". The award was announced on October 9, 2014.

Peace Prize
This year's Nobel Peace Prize announced on October 10, 2014 went to Malala Yousafzai, 17, the youngest recipient of the award, and a virtually unknown Indian children rights activist, Kailash Satyarthi.

2015 NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Physiology/Medicine
This year's Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was shared by three scientists: Willian C. Campbell with the Drew University in Madison, N.J.; Satoshi Omura with the Kitasato University in Tokyo; and Youyou Tu with the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. The award was announced on October 5, 2015 for their contribution in research and eventual discovery of medicine for parasite-borne diseases such as malaria, river blindness and filariasis.

Physics
This year's Physics Nobel Prize announced on October 6, 2015 went to scientists Takaaki Kajita of Japan and Arthur McDonald of Canada for their ground-breaking discovery of light-bearing subatomic particle neutrinos.

Chemistry
This year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry went to Tomas Lindahl of Francis Crick Institute in London; Paul Modrich of Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University School of Medicine; and Aziz Sancar of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The prize announced on October 7, 2015 lauded their contribution to mapping how the cell repairs its DNA and safeguards its genetic information.

Literature
This year's Nobel Prize for literature went to a Belarus journalist, Svetlana Alexievich, 67, who gave voice to men and women who lived under adverse conditions such as Afghans under Soviet occupation (1979-89) and people affected in the aftermath of Chernobyl nuclear disaster with her own sister killed and mother blinded. Her most acclaimed work was War's Unwomanly Face, a book based on oral accounting of thousands of women who took part in World War II. Alexievich is the 14th woman to get the award, announced on October 8, 2015, since it has begun in 1901.

Peace Prize
Norwegian Nobel Committee on October 9, 2015 bestowed this year's Nobel Peace Prize to a Tunisian civil society that had ushered a change toward democracy and political pluralism in the aftermath of Arab Spring. The committee hailed the National Dialogue Quartet, formed in 2013, for its "decisive contribution to building a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia" at a critical juncture when other nations in the Arab World were in the midst of chaos and instability. What was unique in the so-called Tunisian Model was the direction of the anti-establishment change that was ushered after a street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, had self-immolated himself in late 2010, setting off the Arab Spring and brought necessary changes to enhance democratization in the society.

2016 NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Medicine
This year's Nobel Prize for medicine on October 3, 2016 marked the beginning of award announcement, and it went to a Japanese scientist, Yoshinori Ohsumi of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, known for his pioneering research in the area of autophagy, the so-called cellular garbage-disposal system that eats away cells, recycles and replenishes them. His research provided valuable insight into cellular mechanism affecting the immune systems and resulting in diseases such as Parkinson's, paving the way for potential future cures. The term autophagy was introduced in 1963 by a Belgian scientist, Christian de Duve, who had shared the Nobel for medicine in 1974.

Physics
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on October 4, 2016 announced that three scientists who had worked in 70s and 80s in the field of so-called strange states of matter were the joint winners of this year's Nobel Physics Prize. David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz contributed to improvement in the field that might yield to significant improvement of computing prowess of electronic device in future.


Chemistry
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on October 5, 2016 named Fraser Stoddart of Northwestern University, Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Bernando Ferniga as the winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry. They had worked toward discovering the tiniest of machines that would one day make very powerful computers and instruments of sizes tinier than what we have now.

2017 NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Medicine
This year's Nobel Prize for medicine on announced on October 2, 2017, and awarded to three scientists--Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young. The Nobel Committee lauded the trio's effort to "peek inside our biological clock" by researching into genes of fruit fly in order to "explain how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the earth's revolution". The scientists looked at a protein, known as the PER, that breaks down during day time and synthesizes during night. It's this protein that works as part of functional block to help human body to adjust and synchronize with the earth's revolution.

Physics
This year's Nobel Prize for Physics announced on October 3, 2017 went to three U.S.-based scientists for their role in discovering the ripple effect of gravitational waves, first predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago, as these "gravitational waves will be powerful ways for the human race to explore the universe". The scientists accorded to with the award are Rainer Weiss of MIT, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne of CIT.

Chemistry
This year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded on October 4, 2017 to three European-born scientists who had discovered a new way of assembling molecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins  in three-dimensional images, thus helping researchers peek through the inner structures of molecules and understanding the make-up of viruses such as Zika. The Nobel committee issued a statement, giving credit to the technique, cryo-electron microscopy, for "detailed images of life's complex machineries in atomic resolution". The awardees are Jacques Dubochet, a retired biophysicist from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland; Joachim Frank, a Columbia University professor; and Richard Henderson of British Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology.

Literature
This year's Nobel Prize for Literature was named on October 5, 2017, and the Nobel Committee called the Japanese-born, Britain-based Kazuo Ishiguro, the author of renowned novel The Remains of the Day, "one of the most exquisite novelists in our time".

Peace
This year's Nobel Peace Prize went to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a civil society group that anchored a global movement, leading to a U.N. treaty this summer (July 2017 summer) to promote nuclear disarmament. The treaty, Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, was approved at the U.N. by two-third member nations, but opposed by all nine nuclear powers with collective total of more than 15,000 weapons in their arsenal. The Nobel Committee announced its choice on October 6, 2017, and issued a statement that lauded the decade-old Geneva-based organization for its fight against the "risk of nuclear war". ICAN Executive-Director Beatrice Fihn is a tireless advocate of getting rid of nuclear weapons, and led a grass-root movement that yielded the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a landmark U.N. treaty, in July 2017. The treaty will go into effect once 50 nations ratify it. Guyana, Thailand and Vatican are the first three member states to have already done that. The treaty is several notches up compared to Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that limits, but not bans, the nuclear weapons. In 2007, a bipartisan former U.S. officials--former Secretaries of State George Schultz and Henry Kissinger as well as former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Senator Sam Nunn, D-Ga--first brought the idea of ridding the world of nuclear weapons to world's conscience, and a grass-root movement, named Global Zero, had been born.

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Figurehead of Swedish Academy Found Guilty
A Swedish court on October 1, 2018 convicted and sentenced Jean-Claude Arnault, a prominent figure at the Swedish Academy, the body entitled for Nobel Prize for Literature, to two years in jail for raping a woman in 2011. In November 2017, the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter published that 18 women had made allegations of sexual assaults against Arnault, but for many cases, the limit of statute had expired. In June 2018, prosecutors charged Arnault, 72, a French photographer, who along with his wife, owned Forum, a popular cultural venue tied to the Swedish Academy, on two counts of rapes involving the same women in two separate cases. In response to swirling allegations of sexual harassment at the heart of Swedish Academy, this year's Nobel Prize for Literature was cancelled.
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2018 NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Medicine
This year's Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology went to James Allison of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Tasuku Honjo, a longtime professor at Kyoto University, for their landmark research of turning the body's immunity system against the cancer itself, an innovative approach that gave rise to many effective therapies and emerging medications. Announcing the names of Nobel Prize winners on October 1, 2018, the Nobel Committee issued a statement, hailing  their accomplishments as establishing "an entirely new principle for cancer therapy". Allison's research in basic science on how to block "checkpoint" protein on T cells so that those cells are now free and can attack the cancer has eventually led to tangible result in terms of discovery of a new checkpoint inhibitor drug, Ipilimumab, that has been approved in 2011 by the Food and Drug Administration. 

Physics Nobel Prize Awarded for Pioneering Work on Laser Technology
This year's Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded October 2, 2018 to a trio of scientists--Arthur Ashkin of Bell Lab, Gerard Mourou of Ecole Polytechnique in France and the University of Michigan and Donna Strickland of the University of Waterloo in Canada--for their ground-breaking work on laser technology that had led to invention of many applications such as optical disk drive, laser printers and optical scanners that people are now used to in the everyday life. Strickland is the first woman to receive Nobel in Physics in 55 years. Maria Goppert-Mayer won the Nobel in Physics in 1955 for work on nuclei. The first woman who had won Nobel in Physics was Marie Curie, who had received the distinction in 1903. 

Nobel on Chemistry Awarded to Trio for Speeding up the Evolution to Develop New Drugs
Three scientists--Frances Arnold of the California Institute of Technology; George Smith of the University of Missouri; and Gregory Winter of the MRC Molecular Biology Lab in Cambridge, Englad--were honored on October 3, 2018 with Nobel in Chemistry for their groundbreaking work of speeding up the evolution of protein, leading to numerous medications, bio-fuels and a reduced environmental impact from some industrial processes. Arnold is the fifth woman awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry since it has started in 1901. Praising their work, the Royal Swedish Academy of Science said that the awardees "have taken control of evolution and used it for the purposes that bring the greatest benefit to humankind". 

#MeToo Movement Impacts Nobel Decision too
Nobel Peace Prize this year was awarded on October 5, 2018, and one of the two recipients stood as symbol of woman's struggle against sexual assault and discrimination and herself a survivor of sex slavery of the Islamic State. This year, Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized the immense sacrifice and services provided by the recipients to victims of the war and oppression. Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese physician, who runs his operation from a clinic in Bukavu, in the heartland of civil war, and has been providing the valuable medical and therapeutic services to numerous rape victims, has been one of the two recipients of Nobel Peace Prize this year. The second recipient, Nadia Murad, was taken hostage by ISIL during its sweep through Iraq in 2014. She was among 3,000 Yazidi women who had spent time as sex slaves in ISIL captivity. After her escape months later, Nadia Murad became an international advocate for the war zone rape victims, and was named in 2016 as the United Nations' Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking.

Economics Nobel Prize Awarded to American Duo for Research in Climate Change
The Royal Swedish Academy for Sciences on October 8, 2018 awarded Nobel Prize for economics to Professors William Nordhaus of Yale University and Paul Romer of the New York University for their contribution to the understanding of economics of global warming and climate change. Professor William Nordhaus is known as the "father of climate-change economics" looked at the economic impact of climate change on the societal outcome and his theory proposes a universal tax on carbon to fight climate change.


2019 NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Nobel Prize for Medicine Recognizes Research of Cell Response to Low Oxygen Level
The Nobel Prize for Physiology was on October 7, 2019 awarded to two American scientists--Dr. William Kaelin Jr. of Harvard University and Dr. Gregg L. Semenza of Johns Hopkins University-- and one British scientist, Peter J. Ratcliffe. Their research area is focused on how cells respond to low level of oxygen, and has been eulogized by the Nobel Committee as pioneering as it "revealed the mechanism for life's one of the most adaptive processes". Their research has potential in leading to sensory therapies or medicines that will activate or suppress cells to oxygen levels.

Physics Nobel Goes to Cosmologist, Star Gazers
This year's Nobel Prize for Physics went to Canadian-American cosmologist, James Peebles, an emeritus professor at Princeton University, and two Swiss star-gazers, Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz, both of the University of Geneva. James Peebles researched in the field of Cosmology and his theoretical research led to a framework for better understanding of our cosmos--including billions of galaxies and galaxy clusters. Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz researched into existence of exoplanet that would like ours. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on October 8, 2019 that they had "painted a picture of the universe far stranger and more wonderful than we ever could have imagined".

UT Prof Receives Nobel Prize for Chemistry at the Age of 97
University of Texas Professor John B. Goodenough, 97, Akira Yoshino and M. Stanley Whittingham on October 9, 2019 received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in their pioneering research that led to creation of lithium-ion battery and rechargeable technology. The Nobel Foundation said that their research had led to closer than ever to a "wireless and fossil fuel-free society".

A Controversial Writer, among the Two, to Receive Nobel Prize in Literature
After no Nobel Prize for Literature last year, the Swedish Academy on October 10, 2019 awarded 2018 Nobel Prize to Poland's Olga Tokarczuk, who had raised the literary voice against the current right-wing regime's autocratic bent. For 2019, the award went to Austrian writer Peter Handke, his soft corner for former Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic had raised strong sentiment from various quarters. He even spoke at the 2006 funeral of Milosevic, and called the dictator as "a rather tragic man".

Bosnians Protest against Nobel Winner
Bosnian protesters held a demonstration outside Swedish Embassy in downtown Sarajevo on November 5, 2019, decrying the selection of Austrian writer Peter Handke, who had backed Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic and was one of the speakers at the late strongman's funeral.


Ethiopian Premier Wins Nobel Peace Prize
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on October 11, 2019 won the Nobel Peace Prize for "his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea".

Three, including a Bengali Economist, Receive Nobel for Anti-Poverty Work
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on October 14, 2019 announced recipients of this year's Nobel Prize in Economics. Abhijit Banerjee, his wife, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer have been credited for working in the intervention program and remedial tutoring in Kenya and India. Banerjee and Duflo, 46, youngest ever to win the prize, were academics in the MIT while Kremer teaches at Harvard. 

2020 NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Three Awarded Nobel on Hepatitis C Discovery 
Two U.S.-born scientists—Charles M Rice and Harvey J Alter—and one British-born scientist—Michael Houghton—won this year’s Nobel Prize for medicine for their pioneering work and discovering the Hepatitis C.  Nobel Committee lauded the trio by announcing the winners on October 5, 2020 at Stockholm and releasing a statement that read: “for the first time in the  history,  the disease can now be cured, raising hope for curing the Hepatitis C virus from the world”.

Nobel Prize for Physics Recognizes Researches on Black Holes
This year’s Nobel Prize for Physics was on October 6, 2020 awarded to three scientists—Roger Penrose of University of Oxford, Britain; Reinhard Genzel of Germany, a professor at Max Planck Institute in Germany as well as University of California in Berkeley; and American Andrea Ghez of the University of California, Berkeley—for their research in Black Holes, the mysterious gigantic vacuums in the universe known for devouring light and time. 

Two Women Win Nobel in Chemistry for Gene Editing Technology
This year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry on October 7, 2020 was awarded exclusively to women, only fourth time in Nobel’s 119-year history in the field of science, for the work done by French scientist  Emmanuelle Charpentier and American scientist Jennifer Doudna focused on creating so called “molecular scissors”. Their discovery led to CRISPR-CAS9, a method used to edit animal genes

Nobel for Literature Goes to Pulitzer Winner
An American poet who had epitomized the literary boldness, inventiveness and concision was on October 8, 2020 awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature, only the 16th woman since the prize had been introduced in 1901. Loise Gluck won Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for The Wild Iris, National Book Award in 2014 for the Faithful and Virtuous Night and National Humanities Medal in 2015. 

WFP Receives Nobel Peace Prize
In the era of U.S. withdrawing from every international and multilateral institution, a U.S.-initiated, American-led international body won the Nobel Peace Prize for its outstanding service of providing aid to precarious and, often dangerous, places of the world. Shedding a spotlight on the value of globalism that can drive value to marginalized of the world, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said on October 9, 2020 that World Food Program, led by Former Republican Governor David Beasley of South Carolina, turned the “eyes of the world towards the millions of people who suffer from or face the hunger”.  WFP Executive Director David Beasley, who had been appointed by Donald Trump to head the Rome-based program in 2018, heard about the award in Niger, and he called it a team effort. According to WFP, 690 million people currently face some forms of hunger. 

Two Stanford Economists’ Nobel Win for Work in Auction Theory
This year’s Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded on October 12, 2020 to a former thesis adviser and his student—Robert Wilson, 83, and Paul Milgrom, 72—for their innovative research and discoveries in auction. Their work “benefited sellers, buyers and taxpayers around the world”, the Nobel Committee said in lauding the two Stanford economists. Their work has touched millions of people and thousands of companies around the world, including online auction, auctions related to telecom spectrum and airwaves among many transactions that have become commonplace these days. 

2021 NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Medicine Nobel Laureates' Work May One Day Lead to Better Chronic Pain Management Therapies
Nobel prize for medicine this year has been awarded to two American scientists--David Julius of University of California at San Francisco and Ardern Patapoutian of Scripps Research Institute at La Jolla, California--for their work and discovery on how our body system responds to heat and pressure. Although the application of their discoveries are still at nebulous form, "this really unlocks one of the secrets of the nature", said Thomas Perlmann, secretary general of the Nobel Committee, announcing the winners on October 4, 2021. David Julius has used capsaicin to identify and zero in on the nerve sensors that respond to heat. Separately, Ardern Patapoutian has identified the so called pressure-sensitive sensors in cells that respond to mechanical stimulation. Julius-Patapoutian duo's work on heat- and pressure-sensitive nerve sensors may one day lead to better chronic pain management therapies instead of the current regimen of over-reliance of pain killers. Their discoveries have real world consequences from health care and economics perspectives as one in five people of the world suffer from chronic pain. 

Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to Trio for Research in the "Complex Physical Systems"
On October 5, 2021, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to Syukuro Manabe of the United States, Klaus Hasselmann of Germany and Giorgio Parisi of Italy. Half of the prize will be shared by Syukuru Manabe of Princeton University and Klaus Hasselmann of Max Planck Institute of Oceanography at Hamburg. The other half will go to Parisi, a theoretical physicist at Sapienza University of Rome. Syukuru Manabe has been doing pioneering research in climate science since 1960s, and has discovered relationship between solar radiation and vertical movement of the air due to convection. That work on air-mass model led to an important conclusion--if you double the carbon emission, that will increase the surface temperature by 2 degree Celsius. Klaus Hasselmann has showed how weather, which works on a time scale of days, influences ocean climate over time scale of years. Giogio Parisi studied a material called the spin glass, in which a bed of copper atoms was sprinkled with iron atoms. Iron atoms normally act as a magnet, except in spin glass. Parisi solved the problem why with a method known as a "cornerstone of the theory of the complex systems". Goran K. Hansson, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, told reporters at Stockholm that the three scientists had made "groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems".

Chemistry Nobel Recipients Built Molecules in Environmentally Cleaner Way
This year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to Benjamin List of Max Planck Institute of Germany and David W.C. MacMillan of Princeton University for their pioneering work to revolutionize the process of manufacturing molecules. In a reading to laud the ingenious and environmentally cleaner way to build molecules, Nobel panel member Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede said on October 6, 2021 that both scientists had demonstrated through their work that molecules could be produced safely, efficiently and less hazardous way, and it was "already benefitting the human kind greatly". Scientists used to build molecules by linking atoms in an often complex arrangement, which was slow and tedious. Before the beginning of the millennium, there were two broadly popular methods of speeding up the molecule production: (1) leveraging complicated enzymes and (2) metal catalysis. This had changed after Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan independently worked on a revolutionary way of building molecules by combining the small organic molecules. 

Literature Nobel Honors Work, Imagination of Migrants' Struggle 
This year's Nobel Prize for Literature was given to Tanzania-born, British writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, who, as a refugee, had crossed many continents and cultures to put his imprimatur on many of his novels such as Memory of Departure, Pilgrims Way, Paradise, By the Sea, Desertion and Afterlives.  His work reflects the inherent struggle that he has to endure as a refugee through various stages of his journey, eventually culminating to his arrival at Britain  at the age of 18. Announcing the award on October 7, 2021, the Swedish Academy said that the award was in recognition of Gurnah's "uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee". Abdulrazak Gurnah recently retired as a professor of the Department of English and Post-colonial Literatures at the University of Kent. 

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Independent Media is the Focus of Nobel Peace Prize
Norwegian Nobel Committee on October 8, 2021 selected two iconic news professionals who had braved the autocratic diktat and iron-clad whims to bring objective news to millions of people. Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of Rappler, and Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta Editor-in-Chief Dmitry Muratov won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Applauding the roles played by the duo of recipients of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, Beris Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Nobel Committee, said that "free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda". The countries where this year's Nobel Peace Laureates are based in are notable too in terms of suppression of independent media. In Philippines, 87 journalists have been killed since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, while 58 journalists were killed and seven were missing in Russia during the same time. After winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev donated part of his money to buy first computers for Novaya Gazeta and took a stake in the newspaper. 

Filipino Court Rejects Government Appeal, Allows Nobel Winner to Travel
Filipino government is hell-bent in trying to block the international travel of this year's Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Maria Ressa. However, the Philippine Court of Appeals on December 3, 2021 rejected the government argument that Maria Ressa was a "flight-risk", and granted a five-day window to the co-founder and CEO of Rappler to attend December 10, 2021, award event at Oslo. 
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Nobel Prize for Economics Given to Trio for "Empirical Work in Economic Sciences"
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on October 11, 2021 named three U.S.-based economists as the winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics for "completely" reshaping the "empirical work in economic sciences". Canada-born David Card of the University of California Berkley and late Alan Krueger have shown that raising minimum wage does not hinder hiring workers. Since the Economics Nobel is not given posthumously, Krueger has not been awarded. Card will get half of this year's Nobel Prize. The other half will go to Joshua Angrist of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Dutch economist Guido Imbens of Stanford University to unbury the profound insight into cause-and-effect relationship that have deeper implications in our society such as whether an extra year of school will contribute to the potential to earn more money. 

2022 NOBEL PRIZE RECIPIENTS

Medicine: Swede Awarded for Unlocking the Genetic Secrets of Neanderthal 
This year's Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to the Swedish scientist Svante Paabo for unlocking the genetic code of Neanderthal and establishing the link of how it had evolved into modern-day humans. Awarding the Prize on October 3, 2022, Anna Wedell, chair of the Nobel committee, said in a statement that Paabo and his team had found that "gene flow had occurred from Neanderthals to Homo sapiens, demonstrating that they had children together during periods of coexistence". Neanderthals diverged as a species around 800,000 years ago. 

Trio Win Nobel for Insight into Quantum Mechanics Key to Encryption 
This year's Nobel Prize for Physics was shared by French scholar Alain Aspect, American John Clauser, 79, and Austrian Anton Zeilinger, according to a citation by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, for their pioneering work on "quantum entanglement". David Haviland, chair of the Nobel Committee for the Physics, has said in a statement on October 4, 2022 that the quantum entanglement "has to do with taking two photons" that will have lasting connectivity between them although they are physically separated, immediately creating an opportunity for "measuring one over here and knowing something about the other one over" there. The net result is various technology applications to drive secure communication and encrypted information. 

Nobel Awarded for Molecules "Click" Effectively 
A trio of scientists were awarded on October 5, 2022 for their pioneering work in "click chemistry" with application in DNA mapping, cell exploration and new therapy design to cure diseases. Honoring two American recipients--Carolyn R. Bertozzi and K. Barry Sharpless--and Danish scientist Morten Meldal, Johan Aqvist, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that "it's all about snapping molecules together". Shapless has first won the Nobel Prize in 2001, and now is the fifth person who has received the Nobel Prize twice. Sharpless first illuminated the domain of how molecules "buckle". Carolyn R. Bertozzi has taken the "click chemistry to a new level", according to the Nobel Committee, by understanding and explaining how "click chemistry" works inside the human body, unlocking opportunities for launching new therapies. 

French Feminist Wins Nobel for Literature
On October 6, 2022, French author Annie Ernaux won the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature. Annie Ernaux blended autobiography and fiction to portray the society through the lens of a French working-class woman, focusing on equity, women's rights, abortion, sex, love and shame. 

Human Rights Champions Win Nobel Peace Prize
On October 7, 2022, Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Belarusian human rights champion Ales Bialiatski, currently languishing in jail, Russian human rights group Memorial and Ukrainian group Center for Civil Liberties. Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Berit Reiss-Anderson said that the panel was honoring "three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful existence". 

Former Feds Chief One of Three Recipients of Economics Nobel Prize
Former Federal Reserves Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose steady stint (2006-2014) led the nation navigate through 2007-2008 economic recession, along with Douglas W. Diamond of The University of Chicago and Philip Dybvig of Washington University at St. Louise was on October 10, 2022 named the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Bernanke thoroughly researched the Great Depression and how run on banks had led to collapse of several banks that in turn had plunged the nation into the Great Depression. Before Bernanke's research, common idea was that the bank failures were the results of the economic meltdown. Ben Bernanke's research has proved it otherwise: bank failures often lead to economic contraction. John Hassler of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that the trio's research had brought insight into "why avoiding bank collapses is vital".

Nobel Becomes Sore Point of Political Contention after Announcement that Russia Will be Invited
Several Swedes  expressed their resentment on September 1, 2023 after the Nobel Foundation announced that it would send invitations to Russia, Iran and Belarus for this year's ceremony after excluding them last year to promote "opportunities to convey the important messages of the Nobel Prize to everyone". 

Nobel Foundation Retracts Invitations to Trio of Nations
After strong political blowback from the Swedish political hierarchy and international organizations, Nobel Foundation on September 2, 2023 withdrew invitations to Iran, Russia and Belarus for this year's award ceremony. 

2023 NOBEL PRIZES

MEDICINE: Nobel Awarded for mRNA Vaccine Research
The first of this year's Nobel awards was announced on October 2, 2023 by the prize panel. This year's awardees are Hungarian-American scientist Katalin Kariko and American scientist Drew Weissman, both professors of the University of Pennsylvania. They worked on the mRNA vaccine that had eventually led to the "unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health", a reading by the panel from Stockholm said. 

PHYSICS: Nobel Prize Recognizes Pioneering Research in the Field of Electron
Three scientists who worked separately in the fascinating and lightning-fast field of electrons, which Nobel Committee member Mats Larsson described as the "workforce in everywhere", won this year's Nobel Prize in Physics. French-Swedish physicist Anne L'Huillier--who won the Nobel along with French scientist Pierre Agostini and Hungarian-born Ferenc Krausz--is only the fifth woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. She told The Associated Press on October 3, 2023 that "for all the women, I say if you are interested, if you have a little bit of passion for this type of challenges, so just go for it". 

CHEMISTRY: Trio Win Nobel for Their Contribution in Quantum Dots
This year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to Moungi Bawendi of MIT, Louis Brus of Columbia University and Alexie Ekimov of Nanocrystals Technology Inc. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has lauded the trio for their contribution to the field of Quantum Dots, the very tiny particles that emit bright light and are used in medical imaging and other electronics devices. A statement issued on October 4, 2023 by the Stockholm-based Academy honored them as their work had eventually led to "Television screens and LED lamps". The quantum dots can emit different colors of light depending on the size of the particles. The trio worked on varying the size of quantum dots that had eventually led to a scalable, commercial process to give rise to many of the electronics devices and medical imaging equipment. 

PEACE PRIZE: Jailed Iranian Activist Wins Nobel Peace Prize
In recognition of her tireless work to promote and protect women's dignity and rights, Norwegian Nobel Committee on October 6, 2023 named Narges Mohammadi the winner of Nobel Peace Prize. 

ECONOMICS NOBEL: Harvard Educator Receives Nobel for Research in Gender Gap in Workplace 
Harvard Professor Claudia Goldin, 77, on October 9, 2023 won Nobel Prize in Economics for her research in why women were less likely than men to participate in the job market and, when they did, they would earn less money too.