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In this article, we would discuss eminent personalities across fields who were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2015. The brief list inserted in the beginning of the article will look at their countries of birth, their affiliated universities and their contributions in the various fields.

About the Award:

Though he invented dynamite and held patents for 355 other discoveries, it was the establishment of the Nobel Prize that accorded much respect for Swedish chemist, engineer and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel. He donated 94 percent of his wealth to bestow the prize annually and without any bias to one’s nationality “on those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.”

First awarded in 1901, the Nobel Prize recognises extraordinary accomplishment in physics, chemistry, literature, physiology/medicine and peace. In 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, donated money to the Nobel Foundation on the 300th anniversary to set up the sixth award-the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences or the Nobel Prize in Economics.

2015 Nobel Prize winners – Given below is a quick list of all the awardees and their achievements. A more detailed description of the same is also provided after that.

1. PHYSIOLOGY/MEDICINE – William C. Campbell (born Ireland) (Drew University, USA) and Satoshi Omura (b. Japan) (Kitasato University, Japan) for discovering therapy for infections caused by roundworm parasites, and Tu Youyou (b. China) (China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China) for discovering the treatment for Malaria.

2. PHYSICS – Takaaki Kajita (b. Japan) (University of Tokyo, Japan) and Arthur B. McDonald (b. Canada) (Queen’s University, Canada) for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass.

3. CHEMISTRY – Tomas Lindahl (b. Sweden) (Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom), Paul Modrich (b. USA) (Duke University School of Medicine, USA) and Aziz Sancar (b. Turkey) (University of North Carolina, USA) for mechanistic studies of DNA repair.

4. LITERATURE – Svetlana Alexievich (b. Ukraine) (Belarus) for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.

5. PEACE – Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet (Tunisia) for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.

6. ECONOMICS – Angus Deaton (b. UK) (Princeton University, USA) for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare.

Details of the winners:

1. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine – The Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology is declared by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. This year William C Campbell (USA), Satoshi Omura (Japan) and Tu Youyou (China) have won the Nobel.

Campbell and Omura shared 1/4th the prize each for their discoveries about a new therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites. The duo were referred for the prize for their discovery of the drug avermectin, which was eventually modified into an effective derivative called ivermectin. The latter is used to treat river blindness and elephantiasis, both caused by roundworm parasites.

The remaining half of the prize went to Youyou for her work discovery of artemisinin-an effective antimalarial treatment that has saved millions of lives to date.

2. Nobel Prize in Physics – This award is declared by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Takaaki Kajita (Japan) and Arthur B. McDonald (Canada) won the prize this year for their discovery of neutrino oscillations, a phenomenon which concludes that neutrinos (the second most abundant particle in the Universe) have mass. Their achievement is of pathbreaking importance for particle physics and our understanding of the Universe.

3. Nobel Prize in Chemistry – This award is given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

This year’s Nobel in Chemistry is shared equally by Tomas Lindahl (UK), Paul Modrich (USA) and Aziz Sancar (USA) for “mechanistic studies of DNA repair”. The conclusion drawn was how cells repair damaged DNA at a molecular level and preserve the genetic configuration. Their discoveries have served as the basis for development of new cancer treatments.

4. Nobel Prize in Literature – This award is announced by the Swedish Academy and this year it has been conferred on Svetlana Alexievich of Belarus for “her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time”. Unfamiliar among English readers, Alexievich is a journalist whose writings have served as a voice of strength to the survivors of conflict of the former Soviet Union. With this she became the 14th woman to have won the coveted literature prize. The last woman to win the award was Alice Munro of Canada in 2013. Her first book War‘s Unwomanly Face (1985) was based on interviews with women who were part of the Second World War. Two of her most renowned works in English translation are Voices From Chernobyl (2005) and Zinky Boys (1992). While the former depicts the horrors of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, the latter is a collection of realistic accounts of the Soviet-Afghan War.

5. Nobel Peace Prize – This honour is given by the Norwegian Noble Committee. The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet has been declared the winner this year for its efforts in promoting pluralistic democracy in Tunisia since the Jasmine Revolution in 2011. The country was witnessing a nationwide social and political upheaval when the Quartet initiated a peaceful political movement, thereby preserving the fundamental rights of citizens.

The Quartet comprises four significant organisations, namely the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH) and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.

6. Nobel Prize in Economics – This award is declared by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Angus Deaton won the 2015 honour. He was born in Edinburgh and studied at Cambridge University, and later moved to Princeton University in 1983. The Nobel press release said that we must first understand individual consumption choices to design an economic policy which promotes welfare and reduces poverty. Angus Deaton has improved on this understanding more than anyone else, and “by linking detailed individual choices and aggregate outcomes, his research has helped transform the fields of microeconomic, macroeconomics and development economics”.

The focus on household surveys by Deaton has played a crucial role in transforming economics from an aggregate data-based theoretical field to an empirical field based on detailed individual data.

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