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2016 Nobel Prize Overview

Nobel Prize Winners 2016

Nobel Prize Winners
Medicine Yoshinori Ohsumi
Physics David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz
Chemistry Jean Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L.
Feringa
Literature Bob Dylan
Economics Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom
Peace Prize Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos

Nobel Prize in medicine - Yoshinori Ohsumi

The Nobel Prize in medicine has been awarded to a Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi, for
discoveries on how cells break down and recycle their own components.
About Yoshinori Ohsumi :
Yoshinori Ohsumi is a Japanese cell biologist specializing in autophagy. Ohsumi is a
professor in Tokyo Institute of Technologys Frontier Research Center.
About his Discovery :
Yoshinori Ohsumi, a 71-year-old biologist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, used
bakers yeast cells to shed light on a cellular process called autophagy (Greek for self-
eating). In a series of experiments conducted at the University of Tokyo in the late 1980s,
Ohsumi identified 15 genes that oversee cells elimination of damaged proteins and worn-out
organelles by moving them into a specialized cellular compartment and breaking them down to
provide the cell with nutrients.
The process of waste-elimination and cellular renewal that Ohsumi elucidated works the
same in human cells. It is an essential response to starvation and other types of
cellular stress, including viral and bacterial invasion, and contributes to cell
differentiation and embryo development.
Autophagy is the bodys internal recycling programme scrap cell components are
captured and the useful parts are stripped out to generate energy or build new
cells. The process is crucial for preventing cancerous growths, warding off infection and,
by maintaining a healthy metabolism, it helps protect against conditions like diabetes.
Dysfunctional autophagy has been linked to Parkinsons disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer
and a host of age-related disorders. Intense research is underway to develop drugs that
can target autophagy to treat various diseases.
The word autophagy originates from two Greek words meaning self-eating. It refers
to the process in which cellular junk is captured and sealed in sack-like

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membranes, called autophagosomes. The sealed contents are transported to

another structure called the lysosome, once considered little more than the cellular
rubbish bin.
Ohsumis findings were first published in 1992 in the Journal of Cell Biology. The Nobel
Committee, a Nobel Assembly working body that recommends
physiology/medicine laureates to the full panel, said Monday that Ohsumis
brilliant experiments have opened the way to intense research aimed at
developing disease treatments that target the process of autophagy.

Nobel Prize in Physics - David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael

Kosterlitz
The 2016 Nobel prize in physics is awarded to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael
Kosterlitz for their work on exotic states of matter.
About David James Thouless,
David James Thouless is a British condensed-matter physicist, Wolf Prize winner and laureate of
the 2016 Nobel Prize for physics along with Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz for
theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of
matter.
Dr. Thouless, 82, explored the behavior of swirling vortexes in super fluids and other
problems related to topological quantum numbers
He has made many theoretical contributions to the understanding of extended systems
of atoms and electrons, and of nucleons. His work includes work on super
conductivity phenomena, properties of nuclear matter, and excited collective
motions within nuclei.

About Duncan Haldane :

Frederick Duncan Michael Haldane is a British physicist who is Eugene Higgins Professor of
Physics at the physics department of Princeton University in the United States, and a
Distinguished Visiting Research Chair at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He shared the
2016 Nobel prize for physics with David J. Thouless and John Michael Kosterlitz.
Haldane is known for a wide variety of fundamental contributions to condensed matter
physics including the theory of Luttinger liquids, the theory of one-dimensional Spin
chains, the theory of Fractional Quantum Hall Effect, Exclusion Statistics, Entanglement
Spectra and much more.
He is currently developing a new geometric description of the fractional quantum
Hall effect that introduces the shape of the composite boson, described by a
unimodular (determinant 1) spatial metric-tensor field as the fundmamental collective
degree of freedom of FQHE states.

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About Michael Kosterlitz :

John Michael Kosterlitz is a professor of physics at Brown University and the son
of biochemist Hans Kosterlitz. He was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in physics along with David
Thouless and Duncan Haldane for work on condensed matter physics.
After a few post doctoral positions, including stints at the University of Birmingham,
collaborating with David Thouless, and at Cornell University.
Kosterlitz does research incondensed matter theory, one- and two-dimensional physics;
in phase transitions: random systems, electron localization, and spin glasses; and in
critical dynamics: melting and freezing.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry - Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart

and Bernard L. Feringa
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2016 has been awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser
Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa for developing molecular machines.
About Jean Pierre Suavage :
Jean-Pierre Sauvage(born October 21, 1944) is a French coordination chemist working
at Strasbourg University. He has specialized in supramolecular chemistry for which he has been
awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Sir Fraser Stoddart and Bernard
L. Feringa.
A prolific scientist, he has worked in several areas including electrochemical reduction of
CO 2 and models of the photosyntheti creaction center. A large theme of his work is
molecular topology, specifically mechanically-interlocked molecular architectures. He has
described syntheses of catenanes and molecular knots based on coordination
complexes.
He was elected a correspondent member of the French Academy of Sciences on March
26, 1990, and a member on November 24, 1997. He is currently emeritus professor at
the University of Strasbourg (Unistra).
About Sir J. Fraser Stoddart :
Sir James Fraser Stoddart is a Scottish chemist currently (as of 22 March 2014) at the
Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University in the United States.
He works in the area of supramolecular chemistry and nanotechnology. Stoddart
has developed highly efficient syntheses of mechanically-interlocked molecular
architectures such as molecular
Borromeanrings, catenanes and rotaxanes utilizing molecular
recognition and molecular self-assembly

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He has demonstrated that these topologies can be employed as molecular switches and
as motor-molecules.His group has even applied these structures in the fabrication of
nanoelectronic devices and nano electromechanical systems (NEMS).
About Bernard L. Feringa :
Bernard Lucas Ben Feringa is asynthetic organic chemist, specializing in molecular
nanotechnology and homogenous catalysis.
He is the Jacobus Vant Hoff Distinguished Professor of Molecular Sciences, at the
Strating Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, Netherlands, and an
Academy Professor and Chair of Board of the Science Division of the Royal Netherlands
Academy of Sciences.
He received the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with Sir J. Fraser
Stoddart and Jean-Pierre Sauvage, for the design and synthesis of molecular
machines.

Nobel Prize in Literature - Bob Dylan

The singer and songwriter Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for having
created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition, in the words of
the Swedish Academy.
About Bob Dylan,
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, artist and writer. He has been influential in popular
music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from
the 1960s when his songs chronicled social unrest, although Dylan repudiated suggestions
from journalists that he was a spokesman for his generation.
Nevertheless, early songs such as Blow in the Wind and The Times They Are a-
Changing became anthems for the American civil rights and anti-war Leaving behind
his initial base in the American folk music revival, his six-minute single Like a Rolling
Stone, recorded in 1965, enlarged the range of popular music.

Dylans lyrics have incorporated various political, social, philosophical, and

literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the
burgeoning counter culture.
His recording career, spanning more than 50 years, has explored the traditions
in American songfrom folk, blues, and country to gospel, rock and roll,
and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and
the Great American Songbook. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica.
Since 1994, Dylan has published six books of drawings and paintings, and his work has
been exhibited in major art galleries. As a musician, Dylan has sold more than
100 million records, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time.

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Nobel Prize in Economics - Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom

Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom were awarded the 2016 Nobel Memorial Prize in
Economic Science for their work on improving the design of contracts, the deals that bind
together employers and their workers, or companies and their customers.
About Oliver Hart :
Oliver Simon DArcy Hart is a British-born American economist and the Andrew E. Furer
Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Together with Bengt R. Holmstrm, he received
the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2016.
Hart is an American citizen and Jewish.He is married to writer Rita B. Goldberg, a
Harvard literature professor and author of the second-generation Holocaust memoir
Motherland: Growing Up With the Holocaust.
He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, since 1993,
at Harvard University. He was chairman of the Harvard economics department from
2000 to 2003.
He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Econometric
Society, of the American Finance Association, a corresponding fellow of the British
Academy, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
He has been president of the American Law and Economics Associationand vice
president of the American Economic Association, and has several honorary degrees.
Hart is an expert on contract theory, theory of the firm, corporate finance, and law and
economics. His research centers on the roles that ownership structure and contractual
arrangements play in the governance and boundaries of corporations.
About Bengt Holmstrom :
Bengt Robert Holmstrm is a Finnish economist who is currently Paul A. Samuelson Professor
of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Together with Oliver Hart, he
received the Central Bank of Sweden Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2016.
Holmstrm who belongs to the Swedish speaking minority of Finland .
He served as an associate professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of
Management at Northwestern University and as the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of
Management at Yale Universitys School of Management.
Holmstrm was elected Alumnus of The Year by the University of Helsinki
Alumni Association in 2010.
Holmstrm is particularly well known for his work on principal-agent theory.
In 2011, he served as President of the Econometric Society. He holds honorary
doctorate degrees from the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, the University of
Vaasa and the Hanken School of Economics in Finland. Most recently he was awarded
the 2012 Banque de France-TSE Senior Prize in Monetary Economics and
Finance, the 2013 Stephen A. Ross Prize in Financial Economics and the 2013

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Chicago Mercantile Exchange MSRI Prize for Innovative Quantitative

Applications.
Holmstrm was a member of Nokias board of directors from 1999 until 2012. He is a
member of the Board of the Aalto University.
In 2016 Holmstrm won the Nobel Prize in Economics together with Oliver Hart for their
contributions to contract theory.

Nobel Peace Prize - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016
to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the countrys
more than 50-year-long civil war to an end, a war that has cost the lives of at least 220 000
Colombians and displaced close to six million people.
About Juan Manuel Santos,
Juan Manuel Santos Caldern is the 32nd and current President of Colombia and sole recipient
of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
An economist by profession and a journalist by trade, Santos is a member of the
wealthy and influential Santos family, who from 1913 to 2007 were the majority
shareholders of the newspaper El Tiempo until its sale to Planeta De Agostini in 2007.
In 1981, he was appointed deputy director of El Tiempo, becoming its director two years
later.
In 1991, he was appointed by President Csar Gaviria Trujillo as Colombias first Minister
of Foreign Trade. Santos worked in expanding international trade with Colombia,
and worked in creating various agencies for this purpose
including: Proexport,Bancoldex and Fidu coldex.In 2000, he was appointed by
President Andrs Pastrana Arango as the 64th Minister of Finance and Public Credit.
Santos rose to prominence during the Administration of President lvaro Uribe Vlez. In
2005, he co-founded and led the Social Party of National Unity (Party of the U),
a liberal-conservative party coalition that backed the policies of President Uribe,
successfully supporting his attempt to seek a Constitutional reform to be able to run for
a second term.
In 2006, after Uribe was re-elected, and the Party of the U won a majority of seats in
both chambers of Congress, Santos was appointed Minister of National Defence, and
continued defending the security policies of President Uribe, taking a strong
and forceful stance against FARC and the other guerrilla groups operating in
Colombia.
President Santos initiated the negotiations that culminated in the peace accord
between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas, and he has
consistently sought to move the peace process forward.

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