The winners of 2014’s Nobel Prizes were announced recently. The prestigious prize is awarded each year for exceptional contributions to the fields of Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, Literatures, and Peace. Another medal, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is also considered a Nobel Prize, though not one established by Alfred Nobel himself.
Physics
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics was shared by Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources” (Nobel Foundation). Their contributions lead to the development of LED lights found in the screens of smartphones, computers, and other technologies. Amano and Akasaki are both associated with Nagoya University in Japan. Nakamura is a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara; making him the 6th Nobel Prize laureate of the faculty.
Chemistry
This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, and William Moerner for “the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”. The three are associated with Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, and Stanford University, respectively. Their contributions have allowed optical microscopes to “peer into the nanoworld.”
Physiology or Medicine
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to John O’Keefe, May-Britt Moser, and Edvard Moser for “their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain”. O’Keefe is associated with University College London and May-Britt and Edvard Moser are both directors of the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience.
Literature
This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to French novelist Patrick Modiano “for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the [German] occupation [of France]“. His win was considered a surprise as only a few of his novels had ever been translated in to English.
Peace
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”. Kailash Satyarthi is an Indian children’s rights activist. His work on improving living conditions for children in impoverished areas has also won him many other humanitarian awards including the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ward, and the Wallenberg Medal. Malala Yousafzai made international headlines after she was shot multiple times in an assassination attempt by the local Taliban for her activism in attempting to better education for women in Pakistan.
Economic Sciences
The year’s Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was awarded to French economist, Jean Tirole “for his analysis of market power and regulation”. Tirole is a professor of economics at the Toulouse School of Economics.
The 13 winners of this year’s Nobel Prize join an exclusive group of just under 900 people and organizations to have been awarded the esteemed prize.
Joshua Bi is the online editor of Pulse Magazine.
