Every year, The Nobel Prizes, established by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel in 1895, recognize extraordinary achievements by people who contribute greatly to science and humankind.
The winners of all but one of the Nobel Prizes for 2016 have been named. Here’s a list of all the winners this year and a look at their field of work which fetched them the coveted prize:
British-born scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Physics for studies of unusual states of matter such as in superconductors. Their contribution to theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter helped in understanding the ‘secrets of exotic matter’.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016 was awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, University of Strasbourg, France, Sir J. Fraser ,Stoddart Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA and Bernard L. Feringa University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
The trio got it “for the design and synthesis of molecular machines”. They developed molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added and have made what can be called as the ‘world’s smallest machines.’
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Yoshinori Ohsumi won the 2016 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology for his discovery of mechanisms for degrading and recycling cellular components. His discoveries opened the path to understanding autophagy and many physiological processes, such as in the adaptation to starvation or response to infection.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end. He was awarded the prize after he signed a peace agreement with Marxist rebels to end 52 years of war.
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences
British-American economist Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom of Finland on Monday won the Nobel Economics Prize for their work on contract theory. They developed contract theory, a comprehensive framework for analysing many diverse issues in contractual design, like performance-based pay for top executives, deductibles and co-pays in insurance, and the privatisation of public-sector activities.
The Nobel Prize in Literature
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature has not been awarded yet. The date will be set later.