Friday, July 10, 2009

NOBLE PRIZE

Women Nobel Prize Winners for Literature


1909Selma Lagerof of Sweden
1926Grazia Deledda of Italy
1928Sigrid Undset of Norway
1938Pearl Buck of the U.S.
1945Gabriela Mistral of Chile
1966Nelly Sachs of Sweden
1991Nadine Gordimer of South Africa
1993Toni Morrison of the U.S.
Toni Morrison
Archive Photos
1996Wislawa Szymborska of Poland
2004Elfriede Jelinek of Austria
2007Doris Lessing of the United Kingdom

Women Nobel Peace Prize Winners


1905Bertha von Suttner (Austria)
1931Jane Addams (U.S.)
1946Emily G. Balch and John R. Mott (U.S.)
1976Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams (both Northern Ireland)
1979Mother Teresa of Calcutta (India)
Mother Teresa
Archive Photos
1982Alva Myrdal (Sweden)
1991Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma)
1992Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemala)
1997International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Jody Williams (U.S.)
2003Shirin Ebadi (Iran)
2004Wangari Maathai (Kenya)

Women Nobel Prize Winners in Science

Linda Buck

(Physiology or Medicine, 2004)

She and fellow American Richard Axel discovered how the olfactory system—the sense of smell—works and how people are able to recognize and remember more than 10,000 odors.

Marie Sklodowska Curie

Marie Curie
AIP Niels Bohr Library

(Physics, 1903 and Chemistry, 1911)

Marie Curie is considered the most famous of all women scientists. She was the only woman ever to win two Nobel Prizes. By the time she was 16, Marie had already won a gold medal at the Russian lycée in Poland upon the completion of her secondary education. In 1891, almost penniless, she began her education at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1903 her discovery of radioactivity earned her the Nobel Prize in physics. In 1911 she won it for chemistry.

Irene Curie

(Chemistry, 1935)

Irene Curie was the daughter of Marie Curie. She furthered her mother's work in radioactivity and won the Nobel Prize for discovering that radioactivity could be artificially produced.

Gerty Radnitz Cori

(Physiology or Medicine, 1947)

Gerty Cori was the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in science. She studied enzymes and hormones, and her work brought researchers closer to understanding diabetes. She won the Nobel Prize for discovering the enzymes that convert glycogen into sugar and back again to glycogen.

Barbara McClintock

(Physiology or Medicine, 1983)

Barbara McClintock studied the chromosomes in corn/maize and her work uncovered antibiotic-resistant bacteria and a possible cure for African sleeping sickness.

Maria Goeppert Mayer

(Physics, 1963)

Maria researched the structure of atomic nuclei. During World War II she worked on isotope separation for the atomic bomb project.

Rita Levi-Montalicini

(Physiology or Medicine, 1986)

Rita is an Italian neuroembryologist known for her co-discovery in 1954 of nerve growth factor, a previously unknown protein that stimulates the growth of nerve cells and plays a role in degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease. She received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986.

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin

(Chemistry, 1964)

Dorothy discovered the structures of penicillin and vitamin B(12). She won the Nobel Prize for determining the structure of biochemical compounds essential to combating pernicious anemia.

Gertrude Elion

(Physiology or Medicine, 1988)

Gertrude Elion is the only woman inventor inducted into The Inventors Hall of Fame. She invented the leukemia-fighting drug 6-mercaptopurine. Her continued research led to Imuran, a derivative of 6-mercaptopurine that blocks the body's rejection of foreign tissues.

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

(Physiology or Medicine, 1977)

Rosayln Yalow won the Nobel Prize for developing radioimmunoassay, a test of body tissues that uses radioactive isotopes to measure the concentrations of hormones, viruses, vitamins, enzymes, and drugs.

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

(Physiology or Medicine, 1995)

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard won the Nobel Prize using the fruit fly to help explain birth defects in humans.

Nobel Prize for Economic Science

For years not listed, no award was made.


1969
Ragnar Frisch (Norway) and Jan Tinbergen (Netherlands), for work in econometrics (application of mathematics and statistical methods to economic theories and problems)
1970
Paul A. Samuelson (U.S.), for efforts to raise the level of scientific analysis in economic theory
1971
Simon Kuznets (U.S.), for developing concept of using a country's gross national product to determine its economic growth
1972
Kenneth J. Arrow (U.S.) and Sir John R. Hicks (U.K.), for theories that help to assess business risk and government economic and welfare policies
1973
Wassily Leontief (U.S.), for devising the input-output technique to determine how different sectors of an economy interact
1974
Gunnar Myrdal (Sweden) and Friedrich A. von Hayek (U.K.), for pioneering analysis of the interdependence of economic, social, and institutional phenomena
1975
Leonid V. Kantorovich (U.S.S.R.) and Tjalling C. Koopmans(U.S.), for work on the theory of optimum allocation of resources
1976
Milton Friedman (U.S.), for work in consumption analysis and monetary history and theory, and for demonstration of complexity of stabilization policy
1977
Bertil Ohlin (Sweden) and James E. Meade (U.K.), for contributions to theory of international trade and international capital movements
1978
Herbert A. Simon (U.S.), for research into the decision-making process within economic organizations
1979
Sir Arthur Lewis (U.K.) and Theodore Schultz (U.S.), for work on economic problems of developing nations
1980
Lawrence R. Klein (U.S.), for developing models for forecasting economic trends and shaping policies to deal with them
1981
James Tobin (U.S.), for analyses of financial markets and their influence on spending and saving by families and businesses
1982
George J. Stigler (U.S.), for work on government regulation in the economy and the functioning of industry
1983
Gerard Debreu (U.S.), in recognition of his work on the basic economic problem of how prices operate to balance what producers supply with what buyers want
1984
Sir Richard Stone (U.K.), for his work to develop the systems widely used to measure the performance of national economics
1985
Franco Modigliani (U.S.), for his pioneering work in analyzing the behavior of household savers and the functioning of financial markets
1986
James M. Buchanan (U.S.), for his development of new methods for analyzing economic and political decision-making
1987
Robert M. Solow (U.S.), for seminal contributions to the theory of economic growth
1988
Maurice Allais (France), for his pioneering development of theories to better understand market behavior and the efficient use of resources
1989
Trygve Haavelmo (Norway), for his pioneering work in methods for testing economic theories
1990
Harry M. Markowitz, William F. Sharpe, and Merton H. Miller (all U.S.), whose work provided new tools for weighing the risks and rewards of different investments and for valuing corporate stocks and bonds
1991
Ronald Coase (U.S.), for his pioneering work in how property rights and the cost of doing business affect the economy
1992
Gary S. Becker (U.S.), for “having extended the domain of economic theory to aspects of human behavior which had previously been dealt with—if at all—by other social science disciplines”
1993
Robert W. Fogel and Douglass C. North (both U.S.), for their work in economic history
1994
John F. Nash, John C. Harsanyi (both U.S.), and Reinhard Selten (Germany), for their pioneering work in game theory
1995
Robert E. Lucas, Jr. (U.S.), for having had the greatest influence on macroeconomic research since 1970
1996
James A. Mirrlees (U.K.) and William Vickrey (U.S.), for “their fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives”
1997
Robert C. Merton and Myron S. Scholes (both U.S.), for developing a formula that determines the value of stock options and other derivatives
1998
Amartya Sen (India), for his contributions to welfare economics
1999
Robert A. Mundel (U.S.), for his work on monetary dynamics and optimum currency areas
2000
James J. Heckman and Daniel L. McFadden (both U.S.), for developing methods used in statistical analysis of individual and household behavior
2001
George A. Akerlof, A. Michael Spence, and Joseph E. Stiglitz (all U.S.), for market analyses with asymmetric information.
2002
Daniel Kahneman (U.S.) for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science and Vernon L. Smith (U.S.) for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis.
2003
Robert F. Engle (U.S.) and Clive W. J. Granger (UK), for developing statistical tools to improve analysis of stock prices and other data.
2004
Finn E. Kydland (Norway) and Edward C. Prescott (U.S.) “for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles.”
2005
Robert J. Aumann and Thomas C. Schelling (both U.S.)
2006
Edmund S. Phelps (U.S.) for “his analysis of intertemporal tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy”

Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

For years not listed, no award was made.


1901
Emil A. von Behring (Germany), for work on serum therapy against diphtheria
1902
Sir Ronald Ross (U.K.), for work on malaria
1903
Niels R. Finsen (Denmark), for his treatment of lupus vulgaris with concentrated light rays
1904
Ivan P. Pavlov (U.S.S.R.), for work on the physiology of digestion
1905
Robert Koch (Germany), for work on tuberculosis
1906
Camillo Golgi (Italy) and Santiago Ramón y Cajal (Spain), for work on structure of the nervous system
1907
Charles L. A. Laveran (France), for work with protozoa in the generation of disease
1908
Paul Ehrlich (Germany) and Elie Metchnikoff (Russia), for work on immunity
1909
Theodor Kocher (Switzerland), for work on the thyroid gland
1910
Albrecht Kossel (Germany), for achievements in the chemistry of the cell
1911
Allvar Gullstrand (Sweden), for work on the dioptrics of the eye
1912
Alexis Carrel (France), for work on vascular ligature and grafting of blood vessels and organs
1913
Charles Richet (France), for work on anaphylaxy
1914
Robert Bárány (Austria), for work on physiology and pathology of the vestibular system
1919
Jules Bordet (Belgium), for discoveries in connection with immunity
1920
August Krogh (Denmark), for discovery of regulation of capillaries' motor mechanism
1922
In 1923, the 1922 prize was shared by Archibald V. Hill (U.K.), for discovery relating to heat-production in muscles; and Otto Meyerhof (Germany), for correlation between consumption of oxygen and production of lactic acid in muscles
1923
Sir Frederick Banting (Canada) and John J. R. Macleod(Scotland), for discovery of insulin
1924
Willem Einthoven (Netherlands), for discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram
1926
Johannes Fibiger (Denmark), for discovery of the Spiroptera carcinoma
1927
Julius Wagner-Jauregg (Austria), for use of malaria inoculation in treatment of dementia paralytica
1928
Charles Nicolle (France), for work on typhus exanthematicus
1929
Christiaan Eijkman (Netherlands), for discovery of the antineuritic vitamins; and Sir Frederick Hopkins (U.K.), for discovery of growth-promoting vitamins
1930
Karl Landsteiner (U.S.), for discovery of human blood groups
1931
Otto H. Warburg (Germany), for discovery of the character and mode of action of the respiratory ferment
1932
Sir Charles Sherrington (U.K.) and Edgar D. Adrian (U.S.), for discoveries of the function of the neuron
1933
Thomas H. Morgan (U.S.), for discoveries on hereditary function of the chromosomes
1934
George H. Whipple, George R. Minot, and William P. Murphy(U.S.), for discovery of liver therapy against anemias
1935
Hans Spemann (Germany), for discovery of the organizer effect in embryonic development
1936
Sir Henry Dale (U.K.) and Otto Loewi (Germany), for discoveries on chemical transmission of nerve impulses
1937
Albert Szent-Györgyi von Nagyrapolt (Hungary), for discoveries on biological combustion
1938
Corneille Heymans (Belgium), for determining importance of sinus and aorta mechanisms in the regulation of respiration
1939
Gerhard Domagk (Germany), for antibacterial effect of prontocilate
1943
Henrik Dam (Denmark) and Edward A. Doisy (U.S.), for analysis of vitamin K
1944
Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Spencer Gasser (both U.S.), for work on functions of the nerve threads
1945
Sir Alexander Fleming, Ernst Boris Chain, and Sir Howard Florey(all U.K.), for discovery of penicillin
1946
Herman J. Muller (U.S.), for hereditary effects of X-rays on genes
1947
Carl F. and Gerty T. Cori (U.S.), for work on animal starch metabolism; Bernardo A. Houssay (Argentina), for study of pituitary
1948
Paul Mueller (Switzerland), for discovery of insect-killing properties of DDT
1949
Walter Rudolf Hess (Switzerland), for research on brain control of body; and Antonio Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz(Portugal), for development of brain operation
1950
Philip S. Hench, Edward C. Kendall (both U.S.), and Tadeus Reichstein (Switzerland), for discoveries about hormones of adrenal cortex
1951
Max Theiler (South Africa), for development of anti-yellow-fever vaccine
1952
Selman A. Waksman (U.S.), for co-discovery of streptomycin
1953
Fritz A. Lipmann (Germany-U.S.) and Hans Adolph Krebs(Germany-U.K.), for studies of living cells
1954
John F. Enders, Thomas H. Weller, and Frederick C. Robbins (all U.S.), for work with cultivation of polio virus
1955
Hugo Theorell (Sweden), for work on oxidation enzymes
1956
Dickinson W. Richards, Jr., André F. Cournand (both U.S.), andWerner Forssmann (Germany), for new techniques in treating heart disease
1957
Daniel Bovet (Italy), for development of drugs to relieve allergies and relax muscles during surgery
1958
Joshua Lederberg (U.S.), for work with genetic mechanisms;George W. Beadle and Edward L. Tatum (both U.S.), for discovering how genes transmit hereditary characteristics
1959
Severo Ochoa and Arthur Kornberg (both U.S.), for discoveries related to compounds within chromosomes that play a vital role in heredity
1960
Sir Macfarlane Burnet (Australia) and Peter Brian Medawar (U.K.), for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance
1961
Georg von Bekesy (U.S.), for discoveries about physical mechanisms of stimulation within cochlea
1962
James D. Watson (U.S.), Maurice H. F. Wilkins, and Francis H. C. Crick (both U.K.), for determining structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
1963
Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, Andrew Fielding Huxley (both U.K.), and Sir John Carew Eccles (Australia), for research on nerve cells
1964
Konrad E. Bloch (U.S.) and Feodor Lynen (Germany), for research on mechanism and regulation of cholesterol and fatty-acid metabolism
1965
François Jacob, André Lwoff, and Jacques Monod (all France), for study of regulatory activities in body cells
1966
Charles Brenton Huggins (U.S.), for studies in hormone treatment of cancer of prostate; Francis Peyton Rous (U.S.), for discovery of tumor-producing viruses
1967
Haldan K. Hartline, George Wald (both U.S.), and Ragnar Granit (Sweden), for work on human eye
1968
Robert W. Holley, Har Gobind Khorana, and Marshall W. Nirenberg (all U.S.), for studies of genetic code
1969
Max Delbruck, Alfred D. Hershey, and Salvador E. Luria (all U.S.), for study of mechanism of virus infection in living cells
1970
Julius Axelrod (U.S.), Ulf S. von Euler (Sweden), and Sir Bernard Katz (U.K.), for studies of how nerve impulses are transmitted within the body
1971
Earl W. Sutherland, Jr. (U.S.), for research on how hormones work
1972
Gerald M. Edelman (U.S.), and Rodney R. Porter (U.K.), for research on the chemical structure and nature of antibodies
1973
Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz (both Austria), and Nikolaas Tinbergen (Netherlands), for their studies of individual and social behavior patterns
1974
George E. Palade, Christian de Duve (both U.S.), and Albert Claude (Belgium), for contributions to understanding inner workings of living cells
1975
David Baltimore, Howard M. Temin, and Renato Dulbecco (all U.S.), for work in interaction between tumor viruses and genetic material of the cell
1976
Baruch S. Blumberg and D. Carleton Gajdusek (both U.S.), for discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases
1977
Rosalyn S. Yalow, Roger C. L. Guillemin, and Andrew V. Schally (all U.S.), for research in role of hormones in chemistry of the body
1978
Daniel Nathans, Hamilton Smith (both U.S.), and Werner Arber(Switzerland), for discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics
1979
Allan MacLeod Cormack (U.S.) and Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield (U.K.), for developing computed axial tomography (CAT scan) X-ray technique
1980
Baruj Benacerraf, George D. Snell (both U.S.), and Jean Dausset(France), for discoveries that explain how the structure of cells relates to organ transplants and diseases
1981
Roger W. Sperry, David H. Hubel (both U.S.), and Torsten N. Wiesel (Sweden), for studies vital to understanding the organization and functioning of the brain
1982
Sune Bergstrom, Bengt Samuelsson (both Sweden), and John R. Vane (U.K.), for research in prostaglandins, hormonelike substances involved in a wide range of illnesses
1983
Barbara McClintock (U.S.), for her discovery of mobile genes in the chromosomes of a plant that change the future generations of plants they produce
1984
Cesar Milstein (U.K./Argentina), Georges J. F. Kohler (West Germany), and Niels K. Jerne (U.K./Denmark), for their work in immunology
1985
Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein (both U.S.), for their work, which has drastically widened our understanding of the cholesterol metabolism and increased our possibilities to prevent and treat atherosclerosis and heart attacks
1986
Rita Levi-Montalcini (dual U.S./Italy) and Stanley Cohen (U.S.), for their contributions to the understanding of substances that influence cell growth
1987
Susumu Tonegawa (Japan), for his discoveries of how the body can suddenly marshal its immunological defenses against millions of different disease agents that it has never encountered before
1988
Gertrude B. Elion, George H. Hitchings (both U.S.), and Sir James Black (U.K.), for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment
1989
J. Michael Bishop and Harold E. Varmus (both U.S.), for their unifying theory of cancer development
1990
Joseph E. Murray and E. Donnall Thomas (both U.S.), for their pioneering work in transplants
1991
Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann (both Germany), for their research, particularly for the development of a technique called patch clamp
1992
Edmond H. Fischer and Edwin G. Krebs (both U.S.), for their discovery of a regulatory mechanism affecting almost all cells
1993
Phillip A. Sharp (U.S.) and Richard J. Roberts (U.K.), for their independent discovery in 1977 of “split genes”
1994
Alfred G. Gilman and Martin Rodbell (both U.S.), for discovery of G-proteins that help cells respond to outside signals
1995
Edward B. Lewis, Eric F. Wieschaus (both U.S.), and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (Germany), for studies of the fruit fly that will help explain congenital malformations in humans
1996
Peter C. Doherty (Australia) and Rolf M. Zinkernagel (Switzerland), for discoveries about how the immune system recognizes virus-infected cells
1997
Stanley B. Prusiner (U.S.), for discovery of a new type of germ, called prions, that causes degenerative brain disorders
1998
Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro, and Ferid Murad (all U.S.), for discovering that nitric oxide acts as a signal in the cardiovascular system
1999
Günter Blobel (Germany and U.S.), for discovering that proteins have signals that govern their transport and localization in the cell
2000
Arvid Carlsson (Sweden), Paul Greengard, and Eric Kandel (both U.S.), for discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system
2001
Leland H. Hartwell (U.S.), R. Timothy Hunt, and Paul M. Nurse (both UK), for discoveries concerning control of the cell cycle, which may make new cancer treatments possible.
2002
Sydney Brenner (UK), H. Robert Horvitz (U.S.), and John E. Sulston (UK) for discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death.
2003
Paul C. Lauterbur (U.S.) and Sir Peter Mansfield (UK) for discoveries leading to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
2004
Richard Axel and Linda Buck (both U.S.) “for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system.”
2005
Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren (both Australia)
2006
Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello (both U.S.) for “their discovery of RNA interference - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA”
2007
Mario R. Capecchi (U.S.), Sir Martin J. Evans (U.K.), and Oliver Smithies (U.S.) for "their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells"

Nobel Prize for Chemistry

1901
Jacobus H. van't Hoff (Netherlands), for laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions
1902
Emil Fischer (Germany), for experiments in sugar and purin groups of substances
1903
Svante A. Arrhenius (Sweden), for his electrolytic theory of dissociation
1904
Sir William Ramsay (U.K.), for discovery and determination of place of inert gaseous elements in air
1905
Adolf von Baeyer (Germany), for work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic combinations
1906
Henri Moissan (France), for isolation of fluorine, and introduction of electric furnace
1907
Eduard Buchner (Germany), discovery of cell-less fermentation and investigations in biological chemistry
1908
Sir Ernest Rutherford (U.K.), for investigations into disintegration of elements
1909
Wilhelm Ostwald (Germany), for work on catalysis and investigations into chemical equilibrium and reaction rates
1910
Otto Wallach (Germany), for work in the field of alicyclic compounds
1911
Marie Curie (France), for discovery of elements radium and polonium
1912
Victor Grignard (France), for reagent discovered by him; and Paul Sabatier (France), for methods of hydrogenating organic compounds
1913
Alfred Werner (Switzerland), for linking up atoms within the molecule
1914
Theodore W. Richards (U.S.), for determining atomic weight of many chemical elements
1915
Richard Willstätter (Germany), for research into coloring matter of plants, especially chlorophyll
1918
Fritz Haber (Germany), for synthetic production of ammonia
1920
Walther Nernst (Germany), for work in thermochemistry
1921
Frederick Soddy (U.K.), for investigations into origin and nature of isotopes
1922
Francis W. Aston (U.K.), for discovery of isotopes in nonradioactive elements and for discovery of the whole number rule
1923
Fritz Pregl (Austria), for method of microanalysis of organic substances discovered by him
1925
In 1926, the 1925 prize was awarded to Richard Zsigmondy (Germany), for work on the heterogeneous nature of colloid solutions
1926
Theodor Svedberg (Sweden), for work on disperse systems
1927
In 1928, the 1927 prize was awarded to Heinrich Wieland (Germany), for investigations of bile acids and kindred substances
1928
Adolf Windaus (Germany), for investigations on constitution of the sterols and their connection with vitamins
1929
Sir Arthur Harden (U.K.) and Hans K. A. S. von Euler-Chelpin (Sweden), for research of fermentation of sugars
1930
Hans Fischer (Germany), for work on coloring matter of blood and leaves and for his synthesis of hemin
1931
Karl Bosch and Friedrich Bergius (both Germany), for invention and development of chemical high-pressure methods
1932
Irving Langmuir (U.S.), for work in realm of surface chemistry
1934
Harold C. Urey (U.S.), for discovery of heavy hydrogen
1935
Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie (both France), for synthesis of new radioactive elements
1936
Peter J. W. Debye (Netherlands), for investigations on dipole moments and diffraction of X-rays and electrons in gases
1937
Walter N. Haworth (U.K.), for research on carbohydrates and vitamin C; and Paul Karrer (Switzerland), for work on carotenoids, flavins, and vitamins A and B
1938
Richard Kuhn (Germany), for carotenoid study and vitamin research (declined)
1939
Adolf Butenandt (Germany), for work on sexual hormones (declined the prize); and Leopold Ruzicka (Switzerland), for work with polymethylenes
1943
Georg Hevesy De Heves (Hungary), for work on use of isotopes as indicators
1944
Otto Hahn (Germany), for work on atomic fission
1945
Artturi Illmari Virtanen (Finland), for research in the field of conservation of fodder
1946
James B. Sumner (U.S.), for crystallizing enzymes; John H. Northrop and Wendell M. Stanley (both U.S.), for preparing enzymes and virus proteins in pure form
1947
Sir Robert Robinson (U.K.), for research in plant substances
1948
Arne Tiselius (Sweden), for biochemical discoveries and isolation of mouse paralysis virus
1949
William Francis Giauque (U.S.), for research in thermodynamics, especially effects of low temperature
1950
Otto Diels and Kurt Alder (both Germany), for discovery of diene synthesis enabling scientists to study structure of organic matter
1951
Glenn T. Seaborg and Edwin H. McMillan (both U.S.), for discovery of plutonium
1952
Archer John Porter Martin and Richard Laurence Millington Synge (both U.K.), for development of partition chromatography
1953
Hermann Staudinger (Germany), for research in giant molecules
1954
Linus C. Pauling (U.S.), for study of forces holding together protein and other molecules
1955
Vincent du Vigneaud (U.S.), for work on pituitary hormones
1956
Sir Cyril Hinshelwood (U.K.) and Nikolai N. Semenov (U.S.S.R.), for parallel research on chemical reaction kinetics
1957
Sir Alexander Todd (U.K.), for research with chemical compounds that are factors in heredity
1958
Frederick Sanger (U.K.), for determining molecular structure of insulin
1959
Jaroslav Heyrovsky (Czechoslovakia), for development of polarography, an electrochemical method of analysis
1960
Willard F. Libby (U.S.), for “atomic time clock” to measure age of objects by measuring their radioactivity
1961
Melvin Calvin (U.S.), for establishing chemical steps during photosynthesis
1962
Max F. Perutz and John C. Kendrew (U.K.), for mapping protein molecules with X-rays
1963
Carl Ziegler (Germany) and Giulio Natta (Italy), for work in uniting simple hydrocarbons into large molecule substances
1964
Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (U.K.), for determining structure of compounds needed in combatting pernicious anemia
1965
Robert B. Woodward (U.S.), for work in synthesizing complicated organic compounds
1966
Robert Sanderson Mulliken (U.S.), for research on bond holding atoms together in molecule
1967
Manfred Eigen (Germany), Ronald G. W. Norrish, and George Porter (both U.K.), for work in high-speed chemical reactions
1968
Lars Onsager (U.S.), for development of system of equations in thermodynamics
1969
Derek H. R. Barton (U.K.) and Odd Hassel (Norway), for study of organic molecules
1970
Luis F. Leloir (Argentina), for discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in biosynthesis of carbohydrates
1971
Gerhard Herzberg (Canada), for contributions to knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals
1972
Christian Boehmer Anfinsen, Stanford Moore, and William Howard Stein (all U.S.), for pioneering studies in enzymes
1973
Ernst Otto Fischer (W. Germany) and Geoffrey Wilkinson (U.K.), for work that could solve problem of automobile exhaust pollution
1974
Paul J. Flory (U.S.), for developing analytic methods to study properties and molecular structure of long-chain molecules
1975
John W. Cornforth (Australia) and Vladimir Prelog (Switzerland), for research on structure of biological molecules such as antibiotics and cholesterol
1976
William N. Lipscomb, Jr. (U.S.), for work on the structure and bonding mechanisms of boranes
1977
Ilya Prigogine (Belgium), for contributions to nonequilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures
1978
Peter Mitchell (U.K.), for contributions to the understanding of biological energy transfer
1979
Herbert C. Brown (U.S.) and Georg Wittig (West Germany), for developing a group of substances that facilitate very difficult chemical reactions
1980
Paul Berg, Walter Gilbert (both U.S.), and Frederick Sanger(U.K.), for developing methods to map the structure and function of DNA, the substance that controls the activity of the cell
1981
Roald Hoffmann (U.S.) and Kenichi Fukui (Japan), for applying quantum-mechanics theories to predict the course of chemical reactions
1982
Aaron Klug (U.K.), for research in the detailed structures of viruses and components of life
1983
Henry Taube (U.S.), for research on how electrons transfer between molecules in chemical reactions
1984
R. Bruce Merrifield (U.S.), for research that revolutionized the study of proteins
1985
Herbert A. Hauptman and Jerome Karle (both U.S.), for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures
1986
Dudley R. Herschback, Yuan T. Lee (both U.S.), and John C. Polanyi (Canada), for their work on “reaction dynamics”
1987
Donald J. Cram, Charles J. Pedersen (both U.S.), and Jean-Marie Lehn (France), for wide-ranging research that has included the creation of artificial molecules that can mimic vital chemical reactions of the processes of life
1988
Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber, and Hartmut Michel (all West Germany), for unraveling the structure of proteins that play a crucial role in photosynthesis
1989
Thomas R. Cech and Sidney Altman (both U.S.), for their discovery, independently, that RNA could actively aid chemical reactions in the cells
1990
Elias James Corey (U.S.), for developing new ways to synthesize complex molecules ordinarily found in nature
1991
Richard R. Ernst (Switzerland), for refinements he developed in nuclear magnetic-resonance spectroscopy
1992
Rudolph A. Marcus (U.S.), for his mathematical analysis of how the overall energy in a system of interacting molecules changes and induces an electron to jump from one molecule to another
1993
Kary B. Mullis (U.S.) and Michael Smith (Canada), for their contributions to the science of genetics
1994
George A. Olah (U.S.), University of Southern California in Los Angeles, for research that opened new ways to break apart and rebuild compounds of carbon and hydrogen
1995
F. Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina (both U.S.), and Paul Crutzen (Netherlands), for their pioneering work in explaining the chemical processes that deplete the earth's ozone shield
1996
Richard E. Smalley, Robert F. Curl, Jr. (both U.S.), and Harold W. Kroto (U.K.), for discovery of a new class of carbon molecule
1997
Paul D. Boyer (U.S.), Jens C. Skou (Denmark), and John E. Walker (U.K.), for discoveries about a molecule that allows the human body to store and transfer energy between cells
1998
Walter Kohn (U.S.) and John A. Pople (U.K.), for their developments in the study of the properties of molecules and the chemical processes in which they are involved
1999
Ahmed H. Zewail (Egypt and U.S.), for creating the world's fastest camera, which captures atoms in motion
2000
Alan J. Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid (both U.S.), and Hideki Shirakawa (Japan), for the discovery and development of conductive polymers
2001
William S. Knowles (U.S.) and Ryoji Noyori (Japan) “for their work on chirally catalyzed hydrogenation reactions,” and K. Barry Sharpless (U.S.) “for his work on chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions.”
2002
John B. Fenn (U.S.) and Koichi Tanaka (Japan) for ionization methods analyses of biological macromolecules, and Kurt Wüthrich (Switzerland) for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution.
2003
Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon (both U.S.) for studies on channels in cell walls.
2004
Aaron Ciechanover (Israel), Avram Hershko (Israel), and Irwin Rose (U.S.) “for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.”
2005
Yves Chauvin (France), Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock (both U.S.)
2006
Roger D. Kornberg (U.S.) for “his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription”
2007
Gerhard Ertl (Germany) for "his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces"

Nobel Prize for Peace

For years not listed, no award was made.


1901
Henri Dunant (Switzerland); Frederick Passy (France)
1902
Elie Ducommun and Albert Gobat (Switzerland)
1903
Sir William R. Cremer (U.K.)
1904
Institut de Droit International (Belgium)
1905
Bertha von Suttner (Austria)
1906
Theodore Roosevelt (U.S.)
1907
Ernesto T. Moneta (Italy) and Louis Renault (France)
1908
Klas P. Arnoldson (Sweden) and Frederik Bajer (Denmark)
1909
Auguste M. F. Beernaert (Belgium) and Baron Paul H. B. B. d'Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque (France)
1910
Bureau International Permanent de la Paix (Switzerland)
1911
Tobias M. C. Asser (Holland) and Alfred H. Fried (Austria)
1912
Elihu Root (U.S.)
1913
Henri La Fontaine (Belgium)
1917
International Red Cross
1919
Woodrow Wilson (U.S.)
1920
Léon Bourgeois (France)
1921
Karl H. Branting (Sweden) and Christian L. Lange (Norway)
1922
Fridtjof Nansen (Norway)
1925
Sir Austen Chamberlain (U.K.) and Charles G. Dawes (U.S.)
1926
Aristide Briand (France) and Gustav Stresemann (Germany)
1927
Ferdinand Buisson (France) and Ludwig Quidde (Germany)
1929
Frank B. Kellogg (U.S.)
1930
Lars Olaf Nathan Söderblom (Sweden)
1931
Jane Addams and Nicholas M. Butler (U.S.)
1933
Sir Norman Angell (U.K.)
1934
Arthur Henderson (U.K.)
1935
Karl von Ossietzky (Germany)
1936
Carlos de S. Lamas (Argentina)
1937
Lord Cecil of Chelwood (U.K.)
1938
Office International Nansen pour les Réfugiés (Switzerland)
1944
International Red Cross
1945
Cordell Hull (U.S.)
1946
Emily G. Balch and John R. Mott (U.S.)
1947
American Friends Service Committee (U.S.) and British Society of Friends' Service Council (U.K.)
1949
Lord John Boyd Orr (Scotland)
1950
Ralph J. Bunche (U.S.)
1951
Léon Jouhaux (France)
1952
Albert Schweitzer (French Equatorial Africa)
1953
George C. Marshall (U.S.)
1954
Office of U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
1957
Lester B. Pearson (Canada)
1958
Rev. Dominique Georges Henri Pire (Belgium)
1959
Philip John Noel-Baker (U.K.)
1960
Albert John Luthuli (South Africa)
1961
Dag Hammarskjöld (Sweden)
1962
Linus Pauling (U.S.)
1963
Intl. Comm. of Red Cross; League of Red Cross Societies (both Geneva)
1964
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (U.S.)
1965
UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund)
1968
René Cassin (France)
1969
International Labor Organization
1970
Norman E. Borlaug (U.S.)
1971
Willy Brandt (West Germany)
1973
Henry A. Kissinger (U.S.); Le Duc Tho (North Vietnam)1
1974
Eisaku Sato (Japan); Sean MacBride (Ireland)
1975
Andrei D. Sakharov (U.S.S.R.)
1976
Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams (both Northern Ireland)
1977
Amnesty International
1978
Menachem Begin (Israel) and Anwar el-Sadat (Egypt)
1979
Mother Teresa of Calcutta (India)
1980
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Argentina)
1981
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
1982
Alva Myrdal (Sweden) and Alfonso García
Robles (Mexico)
1983
Lech Walesa (Poland)
1984
Bishop Desmond Tutu (South Africa)
1985
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
1986
Elie Wiesel (U.S.)
1987
Oscar Arias Sánchez (Costa Rica)
1988
U.N. Peacekeeping Forces
1989
Dalai Lama (Tibet)
1990
Mikhail S. Gorbachev (U.S.S.R.)
1991
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma)
1992
Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemala)
1993
F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela (both South Africa)
1994
Yasir Arafat (Palestine), Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin (both Israel)
1995
Joseph Rotblat and Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs (U.K.)
1996
Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta (East Timor)
1997
International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Jody Williams(U.S.)
1998
John Hume and David Trimble (Northern Ireland)
1999
Doctors without Borders (France)
2000
Kim Dae Jung (South Korea)
2001
United Nations and Kofi Annan
2002
Jimmy Carter (U.S.)
2003
Shirin Ebadi (Iran)
2004
Wangari Maathai (Kenya)
2005
Mohamed ElBaradei (Egypt) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
2006
Muhammad Yunus (Bangladesh) and the Grameen Bank
2007
Al Gore (U.S.) and United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Switzerland)

Why Isn't There a Nobel Prize in Mathematics?

When I was a student at a leading American university one of my mathematics professors answered the above question in class. He claimed that the Swedish mathematician Gosta Magnus Mittag-Leffler had run off with Alfred Nobel's wife. Supposedly, later in revenge Nobel refused to endow one of his prizes in mathematics. I loved repeating this juicy story, but my faith in it was somewhat shaken when I found out that Nobel had never married! A Swedish version of the story even made it into one of Howard Eves' s collections of mathematical anecdotes (p.13O of Mathematical Circles, Quadrants III and no, 1969). According to this version Mittag-Leffler, in the process of accumulating his own considerable wealth, antagonized Nobel. Nobel, afraid that Mittag-Leffler as the leading Swedish mathematician might win a Nobel prize in mathematics, then refused to institute such a prize.

Both versions of the myth were debunked in the definitive article pithy "Is There No Nobel Prize in Mathematics?" by Lars Garding and Lars Hormander (pgs. 73-4 of Mathematical Intelligencer7:3,1985). The authors point out that Mittag-Leffler and Nobel had almost no relation to each other; Nobel emigrated from Sweden in 1865 when Mittag-Leffler was a student and rarely returned to visit. Garding and Hormander state, "The true answer to the question (of the title) is that, for natural reasons, the thought of a prize in mathematics never entered Nobel's mind." Nobel's final will of 1895 bequeathed $9,OOO,OOO for a foundation whose income would support five annual prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine-physiology, literature, and peace. Four of the original five prizes were in fields which were close to Nobel's own interests, medicine being the exception.

A sixth Nobel prize in economic science was added in 1969. The addition of this new Nobel prize suggests the possibility at some future date of a seventh Nobel prize. With the blossoming of computer science, statistics, and applied mathematics in addition to mathematics itself, a strong case could be made for a new Nobel prize in the mathematical sciences. Perhaps some Math Horizons reader, upon making his fortune,... of course, there are the Fields Medals that are awarded at each International Congress of Mathematicians. But these are given only every four years to a mathematician under forty, and they are not well-known outside of mathematical circles.

There is a larger question raised by the fact that apocryphal stories, such as the Nobel-math-prize myth, seem to have a life of their own. Are mathematicians justified in bending historical truth in order to serve laudable aims, such as illustrating that mathematicians are real people or interesting students in mathematics? Another example of this tendency concerns the famous story of Gauss's discovery as a ten- year old boy of a simple method for summing an arithmetic series. (Multiply the number of terms by the average of the smallest and largest terms.) Most mathematicians who teach will assert that the problem given to Gauss by his tyrannical school teacher was to sum the integers from 1 to 1OO. In fact, Gauss was given a more difficult problem "of the following sort, 81297 + 81495 + 81693 +... + lOO899, where the step from one number to the next is the same all along (here 198), and a given number of terms (here 1OO) are to be added." (p. 221 of E.T. Bell's Men of Mathematics, 1937). With this particular example it's easy to maintain historical truth by telling students that Gauss was given a problem like summing the integers from 1 to 1OO.

Mathematicians seem less likely to bend mathematical truth than historical truth. In this situation there is one technique which outstanding expositors like Paul Halmos have used in simplifying difficult mathematics. Halmos will either announce up front or in passing that he is going to lie a little. Perhaps mathematicians might use this technique when they find it necessary to bend historical truth


Nobel Prize for Literature 1901-2008

  1. 2008 J.M Le Clezio
  2. 2007 Doris Lessing
  3. 2006 Orhan Pamuk
  4. 2005 Harold Pinter
  5. 2004 Elfriede Jelinek
  6. 2003 J.M. Coetzee
  7. 2002 Imre Kertész
  8. 2001 V.S. Naipaul
  9. 2000 Gao Xingjian
  10. 1999 Günter Grass
  11. 1998 José Saramago
  12. 1997 Dario Fo
  13. 1996 Wislawa Szymborska
  14. 1995 Seamus Heaney
  15. 1994 Kenzaburo Oe
  16. 1993 Toni Morrison
  17. 1992 Derek Walcott
  18. 1991 Nadine Gordimer
  19. 1990 Octavio Paz
  20. 1989 Camilo José Cela
  21. 1988 Naguib Mahfouz
  22. 1987 Joseph Brodsky
  23. 1986 Wole Soyinka
  24. 1985 Claude Simon
  25. 1984 Jaroslav Seifert
  26. 1983 William Golding
  27. 1982 Gabriel García Márquez
  28. 1981 Elias Canetti
  29. 1980 Czeslaw Milosz
  30. 1979 Odysseus Elytis
  31. 1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer
  32. 1977 Vicente Aleixandre
  33. 1976 Saul Bellow
  34. 1975 Eugenio Montale
  35. 1974 Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson
  36. 1973 Patrick White
  37. 1972 Heinrich Böll
  38. 1971 Pablo Neruda
  39. 1970 Alexander Solzhenitsyn
  40. 1969 Samuel Beckett
  41. 1968 Yasunari Kawabata
  42. 1967 Miguel Angel Asturias
  43. 1966 Samuel Agnon, Nelly Sachs
  44. 1965 Mikhail Sholokhov
  45. 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre
  46. 1963 Giorgos Seferis
  47. 1962 John Steinbeck
  48. 1961 Ivo Andric
  49. 1960 Saint-John Perse
  50. 1959 Salvatore Quasimodo
  51. 1958 Boris Pasternak
  52. 1957 Albert Camus
  53. 1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez
  54. 1955 Halldór Laxness
  55. 1954 Ernest Hemingway
  56. 1953 Winston Churchill
  57. 1952 François Mauriac
  58. 1951 Pär Lagerkvist
  59. 1950 Bertrand Russell
  60. 1949 William Faulkner
  61. 1948 T.S. Eliot
  62. 1947 André Gide
  63. 1946 Hermann Hesse
  64. 1945 Gabriela Mistral
  65. 1944 Johannes V. Jensen
  66. 1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää
  67. 1938 Pearl Buck
  68. 1937 Roger Martin du Gard
  69. 1936 Eugene O'Neill
  70. 1934 Luigi Pirandello
  71. 1933 Ivan Bunin
  72. 1932 John Galsworthy
  73. 1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt
  74. 1930 Sinclair Lewis
  75. 1929 Thomas Mann
  76. 1928 Sigrid Undset
  77. 1927 Henri Bergson
  78. 1926 Grazia Deledda
  79. 1925 George Bernard Shaw
  80. 1924 Wladyslaw Reymont
  81. 1923 William Butler Yeats
  82. 1922 Jacinto Benavente
  83. 1921 Anatole France
  84. 1920 Knut Hamsun
  85. 1919 Carl Spitteler
  86. 1917 Karl Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
  87. 1916 Verner von Heidenstam
  88. 1915 Romain Rolland
  89. 1913 Rabindranath Tagore
  90. 1912 Gerhart Hauptmann
  91. 1911 Maurice Maeterlinck
  92. 1910 Paul Heyse
  93. 1909 Selma Lagerlöf
  94. 1908 Rudolf Eucken
  95. 1907 Rudyard Kipling
  96. 1906 Giosuè Carducci
  97. 1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz
  98. 1904 Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray
  99. 1903 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
  100. 1902 Theodor Mommsen
  101. 1901 Sully Prudhomme

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