Nobel Prizes
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace efforts. Internationally, the Nobel Prize is considered to be the highest distinction in the various disciplines. The prize, which was instituted by Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel, is to be distributed to “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind”, according to his will. Since 2001, the prize amount, which is derived from the income in interests on the Foundation’s investments, is set to 10 million Swedish kronor per category. To date, the following scientists from the Max Planck Society and its predecessor the Kaiser Wilhelm Society have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
In retrospect, the research awarded in this way reflects an important piece of scientific history since the beginning of the 20th century. The relevance of many of the works is particularly evident in the long term. The Max Planck Society counts 31 award winners in the natural science disciplines. In the year the prize was awarded, they were scientific members of the Max Planck Society or of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society as its predecessor.
Other scientists were no longer or not yet Scientific Members at the time the prize was awarded, but had carried out the most important part of their research in the Max Planck Society or had left a lasting mark on it through their commitment to research and administration.
2023 - Nobel Prize in Physics
Ferenc Krausz, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, together with Pierre Agostini and Anne L'Huillier, has been honoured with the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Nobel Committee is honouring the two reserachers for the foundation of attosecond physics. An attosecond is the billionth part of a billionth of a second. Laser pulses lasting only a few attoseconds can be used to track the movements of individual electrons. This not only provides fundamental insights into the behaviour of electrons in atoms, molecules and solids, but could also help to develop electronic components more quickly.
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2022 - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Medicine 2022 was awarded to Svante Pääbo "for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution". Pääbo succeeded in making the genetic material of extinct early humans available with more efficient extraction and sequencing methods. In 2010, he and his team were able to reconstruct a first version of the Neanderthal genome from bones that are tens of thousands of years old. He thus laid the foundation for the new discipline of palaeogenetics, which has revolutionised our understanding of the evolutionary history of modern humans within just a few years.
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2021 - Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021 was awarded jointly to Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis." The two researchers had discovered that small organic molecules also mediate chemical reactions. Previously, it was assumed that only enzymes and metals, including often toxic heavy metals or expensive and rare precious metals, could accelerate chemical reactions and steer them in a desired direction. It is particularly interesting that the small organic molecules are suitable for so-called asymmetric synthesis: In this process, only one of two enantiomers is formed - these are molecules that are like the left and right hand, i.e. cannot be spatially aligned. Such molecules are involved in all biological processes and also play an important role as medical agents.
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2021 - Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 was awarded "for pioneering contributions to the understanding of complex systems". One half goes jointly to Klaus Hasselmann and Syukuro Manabe "for the physical modelling of the Earth's climate, the quantification of fluctuations and the reliable prediction of global warming" and the other half to Giorgio Parisi "for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales".
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2020 - Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 was awarded jointly to Emmanuelle Charpentier from the Max Planck Research Unit for the Science of Pathogens (at the time of the awarded research at the University of Vienna and Umeå University) and Jennifer A. Doudna "for the development of a method for genome editing." The two award winners have described how the CRISPR-Cas9 system targets DNA and how it can be used as a versatile genetic tool to alter the genome. They have contributed significantly to the development of the CRISPR-Cas9 technology into a powerful and versatile tool that can be used to efficiently alter any gene sequence in the cells of living organisms.
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2020 - Nobel Prize in Physics
Reinhard Genzel, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, received the Nobel Prize for Physics 2020 together with Roger Penrose and Andrea Ghez. The Royal Swedish Academy honours the scientists for their black hole research. Using high-precision methods, the group around Genzel also observed bursts of brightness from gas in the immediate vicinity of the black hole and a gravitational redshift caused by this mass monster in the light of a passing star.
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2014 - Nobel Prize in Chemistry
In 2014, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to three researchers: Stefan W. Hell (Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen), Eric Betzig (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) and William E. Moerner (Standford University) in honour for their contributions to nano-optics, with which they have overcome the physical resolution limit of optical microscopy and imaging with a chemical trick.
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2007 - Nobel Prize in Chemistry
In 2007, Gerhard Ertl was honoured for his work on chemical processes on solid surfaces. His studies formed the basis for our understanding of industrial catalysts and catalytic processes. This means that today we are able to understand very different processes, such as the function of fuel cells or of catalysts in cars. Chemical reactions on catalytic surfaces play a vital role in many industrial operations, such as the production of artificial fertilizers.
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2005 - Nobel Prize in Physics
In 2005, Theodor W. Hänsch and the Americans Roy J. Glauber and John L. Hall were honoured for their research on spectroscopy. Hänsch and Hall received the coveted prize “for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique”. The scientists developed an optical frequency comb generator, which made it possible, for the first time, to count the number of light oscillations per second accurately. Such optical frequency measurements may be million-fold more accurate than determining the light wavelengths using conventional spectroscopy.
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