Nobel Prize (Awards) 2020

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter(Affiliation at the time of the award: National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA), Michael Houghton (Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada) and Charles M. Rice (Affiliation at the time of the award: Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA) “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus”. They have made a decisive contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis, a major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in people around the world. The Nobel Laureates’ discovery of the Hepatitis C virus is a landmark achievement in the ongoing battle against viral diseases.

Nobel Prize in Physics 2020

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 with one half to Roger Penrose (Affiliation at the time of the award: the University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom ) “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity" and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel (Affiliation at the time of the award: University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany) and Andrea Ghez (Affiliation at the time of the award: University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA) "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy".

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier (Affiliation at the time of the award: Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, Germany) and Jennifer A. Doudna (Affiliation at the time of the award: University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA) “for the development of a method for genome editing”. Since Charpentier and Doudna discovered the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors in 2012 their use has exploded. The genetic scissors have taken the life sciences into a new epoch and, in many ways, are bringing the greatest benefit to humankind. This technology has had a revolutionary impact on the life sciences, is contributing to new cancer therapies and may make the dream of curing inherited diseases come true.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2020

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2020 is awarded to the American poet Louise Glück “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal”. Louise Glück made her debut in 1968 with Firstborn and was soon acclaimed as one of the most prominent poets in American contemporary literature.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2020

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 to the World Food Programme (WFP). The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security. In 2019, the WFP provided assistance to close to 100 million people in 88 countries who are victims of acute food insecurity and hunger. The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation addressing hunger and promoting food security. In 2019, the WFP provided assistance to close to 100 million people in 88 countries who are victims of acute food insecurity and hunger. In 2015, eradicating hunger was adopted as one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The WFP is the UN’s primary instrument for realising this goal. In recent years, the situation has taken a negative turn. In 2019, 135 million people suffered from acute hunger, the highest number in many years. Most of the increase was caused by war and armed conflict.

The Prize in Economic Sciences 2020

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2020 to Paul R. Milgrom (Affiliation at the time of the award: Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA )and Robert B. Wilson (Affiliation at the time of the award: Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA ) “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats”. The new auction formats are a beautiful example of how basic research can subsequently generate inventions that benefit society. The unusual feature of this example is that the same people developed the theory and the practical applications. The Laureates’ ground-breaking research about auctions has thus been of great benefit, for buyers, sellers and society as a whole.