As the final Nobel Prize of 2021 was announced yesterday on 11th October, let’s have a quick look at all the winners this year as well as some quick facts regarding the prize and the winners.
Crux of the Matter
Quick Nobel Facts
The prize was established in the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895. Between 1901 and 2021, 943 individuals and 25 organizations won the Nobel Prizes. In 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank of Sweden established Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in the memory of Nobel.
Medicine Or Physiology
Ardem Patapoutian (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Scripps Research, US) and David Julius (University of California, US) were the winners. They were awarded “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch”.
Physics
½ of the prize went to Syukuro Manabe (Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA) and Klaus Hasselmann (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Germany). These two were awarded “for the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming”.
The other ½ went to Giorgio Parisi (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy). He was awarded “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales”.
Chemistry
Benjamin List (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Germany) and David W C MacMillan (Princeton University, US) were the winners. They were awarded “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis”.
These ‘organocatalysts’ fasten chemical reactions while being less expensive and more environment friendly than the usual catalysts like metals and enzymes.
Literature
Abdulrazak Gurnah, a Tanzanian writer based in England, was the winner. He was awarded “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”. Notably, he became the first Black writer to win this prize since Toni Morrison in 1993.
Peace
Maria Ressa (Philippine journalist) and Dmitry Muratov (Russian journalist) were the winners. They were awarded “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace”. Maria was the only female
Nobel Prize winner in 2021.
Economic Sciences
½ of the prize went to Joshua D Angrist (MIT, US) and Guido W Imbens (Stanford University, US). They were awarded “for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships”.
The other ½ went to David Card (University of California, US). He was awarded “for his empirical contributions to labour economics”.
Read more Summachar stories around Nobel Prizes
Nobel Prize: What Is It & Who Are The 2020 Winners
Trivia Thursday: Indian Nobel Prize Winners
Unusual Nominees Of Nobel Peace Prize 2020
Nobel Prize: What Is It & Trump Nomination
Nobel Prize: Controversies
Curiopedia
Alfred Nobel is known for inventing and patenting dynamite and other explosives. He used his enormous fortune from 355 patents to institute the Nobel Prizes.