2015 Nobel Prizes

This month, the 2015 Nobel prize winners were announced. These awards are given annually in the fields of chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and psychology/medicine (economics was added later). The awards were created via the will of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor and industrialist. He set up a fund and foundation, the Nobel Foundation, to run these prizes after his death. The awards are to be given to those who have “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” in their respective field. The nominees are selected by four different institutions: the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Karolinska Institute, the Swedish Academy, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee. They pick the sciences (chemistry, economics, physics), medicine/ psychology, literature, and peace respectively. The prize for a single category may be given up to three people a year. Winners each get a cash prize, diploma, and gold medal. The prizes cannot be nominated posthumously but a nominee still receives their prize if they die after their nomination. Nominees can decline prizes, and the prizes can be withheld in years too hard to deem winners, such as during war. This years winners came from all corners of the globe and are listed below.

Physics

Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald share the prize for the discovery of neutrino oscillations. They are from Japan and Canada, respectively.

Peace

The National Dialogue Quartet of Tunisia won for their efforts to bring democracy to their country after the Arab Spring.

Economic Sciences

Angus Deaton of Scotland won for his analysis of consumer spending and saving and how to analyze poverty.

Physiology or Medicine

William Campbell of Ireland and Satoshi Omura of Japan won for their development of a drug aimed to prevent illness from parasitic worms.

Tu Youyou of China also received the prize for the development of a drug that drastically reduces malaria deaths.

Chemistry

This award was shared amongst Tomas Lindahl of Switzerland, Paul Modrich of America, and the Turkish Aziz Sancar for their work in DNA repair. This has aided in the development of cancer treatments.

Literature

Writer Svetlana Alexievich of Belarus won for her work on events that were transformative to the Soviet Union.