Nobel Prize Winners 2018
Date: October 8,2018
This years Nobel Prize was awarded this year to researchers for inventions in the field of laser physics which have made making precision instruments easier. These are used in industry as well as corrective eye surgery. Arthur Ashkin, 96 years, from the USA won half the prize, for his invention of “optical tweezers” that can grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells with their laser beam fingers. The other half of this prize was shared by Gerard Mourou of France, and Donna Strickland of Canada for together developing a method to generate ultra-short optical pulses. This is used in corrective eye surgery. Strickland is only the third female to have won this award in this category and it has happened after 55 long years.
Chemistry
The Nobel Prize for chemistry went to Frances H. Arnold, George P. Smith and Gregory P. Winter for using the principles of evolution to create new proteins. Arnold, a chemical engineering professor at California Institute of Technology, won half the prize and the other half was shared by Smith from the University of Missouri and Winter at the MRC laboratory in Cambridge in Britain.
The Nobel Prize is a set of six annual international awards bestowed in several categories by Swedish and Norwegian institutions in recognition of academic, cultural, or scientific advances. The will of the Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel established the prizes in 1895. The Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, economics and activism for peace.
The prize ceremonies take place annually in Stockholm, Sweden (with the exception of the peace prize, which is held in Oslo, Norway). This year’s ceremony will be held on 10th December 2018.
