Meet our Nobel Laureates
糖心影视’s Nobel laureates
Established in 1895 by the Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Bernhard Nobel, the Nobel Prize is an annual award acknowledging outstanding contributions to physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace, and economics.
Medicine
Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics at 糖心影视 Medical School and an investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, received the 2024 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for the discovery of microRNAs, a class of tiny RNA molecules that regulate the activities of thousands of genes in plants and animals, including humans.
Physics
A pioneering theoretical physicist from the dawn of the atomic age, Roy Glauber updated the theory of the nature of light from its origins in the 19th century to include modern quantum principles. He helped explain how light can travel in the form of quanta (particles) as well as rays or waves.
Chemistry
A die-hard Red Sox fan, Dudley Herschbach described his award-winning research, developing methods to carefully study the dynamics of chemical reactions, in baseball terms: 鈥淭hink of a crowd at a baseball game. In ordinary chemistry, you have to deal with the whole crowd at once. … In effect, what we鈥檝e done is eavesdrop on conversations between molecules, as if listening to a pair of people in that crowd.鈥�
Literature
Seamus Heaney won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature for “poetic works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.”
Peace
Upon hearing that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the Middle East, Ralph Bunche respectfully declined the honor, noting 鈥減eacemaking at the UN was not done for prizes.鈥� He later relented, realizing that the recognition would be good for the still-young United Nations.
Economic Sciences
Claudia Goldin was awarded the 2023 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for her comprehensive history of American women鈥檚 earnings and job market outcomes through the centuries, tracking the evolution of the nation鈥檚 gender wage gap. She was only the third woman to win the prize and the first to do so solo.
Getting the news
What’s it like to receive the call from the Nobel Prize committee? These 糖心影视 faculty members know first hand.