Nobel Prize 2010 Winners

The Nobel Prizes for 2010 were announced in October 2010.

Medicine

British scientist Robert Edwards has been selected for the 2010 Nobel Prize for Medicine. He has been given this award for his pioneering work in in-vitro-fertilization (IVF). It was Robert Edwards whose pioneering research with his late colleague Patrick Steptoe (who died in 1988) led to the birth of the world’s first test tube baby.

The Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute which awarded the prize (worth ten million Swedish Kronor) described his work as a milestone of modern medicine. It said in a statement—“His work has made possible the treatment of infertility—a medical condition that affects a large proportion of humanity including more than 10% of couples worldwide” Edwards along with his late colleague Steptoe founded the Bourn Hall Clinic in Cambridge—which is the world’s first In-Vetro-Fertilization Centre.

Physics

Russian born Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of Manchester University were named joint winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics for 2010. They have been bestowed with the award for their groundbreaking work on experiments with graphene—a new form of carbon. Professor Geim is Dutch citizen. The Prize Committee said—“Since it is practically transparent and a good conductor, graphene could be used for producing transparent touch screens, light panels and may be even solar cells”. Thus graphene has immense possibilities. As a material graphene is completely new and almost completely transparent yet so dense that not even helium (the smallest gas atom) can pass through it.

Chemistry

Three scientists—Akira Suzuki and Ei-ichi Negishi from Japan and Richard F. Heck from United States of America have won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for 2010 in October 2010. They have been awarded the Nobel Prize for inventing new ways to bind carbon atom with uses that range from fighting cancer to producing thin computer screens. Akira Suzuki, Ei-ichi Negishi and Richard Heck shared the prize for the development of palladium—‘catalysed cross coupling’. The Nobel Committee for Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement—“Palladium—catalysed cross coupling is used in research worldwide as well as in the commercial production of—for example, pharmaceuticals and molecules used in the electronics industry”.

Literature

Peruvian—Spanish author and one of the most renowned novelists of his generation Mario Vargas Llosa (74) has won the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2010 for “his Cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt and defeat”. In the words of Peter England—Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy—“Mr. Llosa is one of the great Latin American storytellers—a master of dialogue who has been searching for the elusive concept known as the total novel and who believes in the power of fiction to improve upon the world”.

Mr. Llosa’s first major international breakthrough came in 1963, with the publication of the novel The Time of the Hero.

His other profoundly influential novel was The Feast of the Goat (2000). Other well known works include Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977), The War of the End of the World (1981) and, more recently, Death in the Andes (1993).

‘Conversation in the Cathedral’ published in 1969 was his monumental work.

Peace

Chinese political activist Liu Xiaobo (aged 54) who is in the jail has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010. The Norwegian Nobel Committee which gives the award said—“Mr. Liu has been given the award for his calls for political reform, for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”. “The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace” it said in a statement. “Such rights are a prerequisite for the fraternity between nations of which Alfred Nobel wrote in his will”.

Economics

Three economists—Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen of USA and British–Cypriot Christopher Pissarides have won the 2010 Nobel Economics Prize. They have been awarded for their work on why supply and demand do not always meet in the labour market and elsewhere. The jury lauded the trio for their analysis of markets with search frictions which helps explain how unemployment, job vacancies, and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy. It is important to mention that as per traditional theory labour market should work on their own, with job seekers finding available job and thereby creating balance. But the Diamond–Mortensen–Pissarides or DMP model–developed by the three show that markets do not always work in this way. The jury also noted that the trio’s work in search theory can also be applied to other areas including housing markets and public economics besides labour markets.