2024 Nobel Prize winners and their contributions

Here is a list of 2024 Nobel Prize winners and a brief description of their contributions:

1. Physiology or Medicine:

Winners: Victor Ambrose and Gary Ruvkun

Contribution: They discovered microRNA. MicroRNAs are small molecules that play an important role in gene regulation. They are interested in how cells regulate gene activity and develop. If gene regulation does not work properly, it can lead to serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes or autoimmunity. Therefore, understanding the regulation of gene activity has been an important goal for many decades.

2. Physics :

Winners: John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton

Contribution: John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton got the nobel prize for their work on machine learning. Hopfield developed a framework that could store and reconstruct information. And  Hinton invented a method that independently finds different features of the data.

3. Chemistry

Winners: David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper 

Contribution: Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper solved a 50-year-old problem by creating AI models. The discovery was made by predicting the three-dimensional image of the protein. On the other hand, David Baker received this award for discovering a new protein.

Baker discovered a new protein in 2003. Since then, his research team has developed a series of new proteins that have been used in drugs, vaccines, and sensors. And Hassabis and Jumper's AI model can predict the structure of at least 200 million proteins, previously thought impossible.

According to the Royal Swedish Academy statement, life would not exist without proteins. So now it is possible to make assumptions about proteins, and new proteins can also be made. As a result people will benefit.

4. Literature

Winner : Han Kang (South Korea)

Contribution: In 2024, South Korea's Han Kang won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The fragility of human life and the pain has repeatedly come up in Han's pen and prose has become poetry. As reported by the Nobel committee, that is why this recognition has been given to Han.

Han Kang, a 53-year-old fiction writer, was the second South Korean and the country's first person to receive the prestigious award in literature. Earlier in 2000, former President Kim Dae-jung received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Han Kang won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 for his novel "The Vegetarian"that she wrote in  2007 .

Her other remarkable books  are The Wind Blows, Go (2010), Human Acts (2016), The White Book (2017), We Do Not Part (2021), Greek Lessons (2023) and the short story collection Europa.

5. Peace:

Winner: Nihon Hidankyo (Japanese Atomic Bomb Survivors Organization)

Contribution: The organization has been advocating for nuclear disarmament for decades, sharing the devastating effects of nuclear weapons through personal testimony, and promoting peace.

6. Economy:

Winners: Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson

Contribution: The Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded for research on the prevailing disparity in wealth between different nations in different countries.

This year Nobel winners will receive a Nobel medal, a certificate and 1.1 million Swedish krona /104,682.17 US dollar. Among the categories where there are multiple Nobel winners , the money will be divided as announced.

The award will be handed over to the winners on December 10, Alfred Nobel's death anniversary.