2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry announced

The winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry were announced at a press conference held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to David Baker for his work on "computational protein design" and to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for their work on "protein structure prediction."

According to the announcement, David Baker was awarded half of the prize for his work in "computational protein design," while Demis Hassabis and John Jumper were awarded the other half for their work in "protein structure prediction."

The statement noted that Hassabis and Jumper were awarded for developing an artificial intelligence model called "AlphaFold2" to predict the complex structures of proteins, while Baker received the award for constructing entirely new types of proteins.

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Moungi Gabriel Bawendi, Louis E. Brus, and Alexei I. Ekimov for their work on the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots.

WHO IS DAVID BAKER?

David Baker was born on October 6, 1962, in Seattle, Washington, USA. After completing his undergraduate studies at Harvard University in 1984, Baker earned his doctorate in biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1989. Focusing his work on proteins, Baker currently serves as the Director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington.

WHO IS DEMIS HASSABIS?

Born on July 27, 1976, in London, England, Hassabis completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge. A computer scientist and artificial intelligence researcher, Hassabis became one of the co-founders of Google's AI company, DeepMind.

WHO IS JOHN JUMPER?

John Jumper was born in 1985 in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. Jumper completed his undergraduate studies at Vanderbilt University and earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago.

ABOUT THE NOBEL PRIZES

The Nobel Prizes, awarded by the Nobel Foundation established on June 9, 1900, following the will of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, to those who have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind, are considered the most prestigious awards in the world. The Nobel Prizes are awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institute, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee in five categories: physics, chemistry, literature, peace, and medicine. In addition to these, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was first awarded in 1969, after the Swedish Central Bank decided in 1968 to establish an award in economics in memory of Alfred Nobel. The Nobel Prizes are presented to their recipients each year at a ceremony held on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. On the other hand, there have been a few years since the inception of the prizes in 1901 when they were not awarded. Most of the 49 total cancellations of the awards occurred during the First and Second World Wars.

Award ceremonies could not be held in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

News Source: 12punto