The Nobel laureates of 2013
The Nobel Prizes are awarded in Oslo and Stockholm on December 10. Here's our overview of the winners.
Praise for the commitment against chemical weapons
The Nobel laureates were announced in October and receive their medals on December 10, anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel. This year the Nobel Peace Prize goes to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), whose Director General Ahmet Üzümcü welcomed the prize as important symbolic support for the OPCW's current mission in Syria.
The daughter receives the medal
"Mom, you won!" The winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Canadian author Alice Munro, learned about her triumph from her daughter. Because the 82-year-old is not able to travel to Stockholm, her daughter will accept the medal on her behalf. Apart from the Peace Prize, all the Nobel medals are awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science for three US scholars
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science was awarded to the US economists Eugene F. Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the University of Chicago and to Norbert J. Schiller of Yale. Their work influenced the stock markets and the behavior of investors, the committee said. They are awarded for their method of observing the price formation processes on the stock markets.
A lesson for the prime minister
US scientists Martin Kaplus, Michael Levitt, and Arieh Warshel received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their computer models that decode chemical processes. "He understood my short lesson and said that he will ask that his ministers also limit their statements to one minute," said Israeli-born Warshel of his brief phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Nobel Prize in Physics for the "god particle"
Peter Higgs (85), of Great Britain, and Francois Englert (80), of Belgium, share the Nobel Prize in Physics for their prediction of the "god particle," the long-unknown piece in the standard model of particle physics. Higgs, after whom the particle is named, was a favorite for the Prize. The lesser-known Englert theoretically predicted the existence of the particle at the same time as Higgs.
Two Americans and a German receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
German biochemist Thomas Südhof and two US scientists James Rothman and Randy Schekman share the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. They discovered a transport mechanism in human cells whose defects cause diabetes or tetanus. Thomas Südhof has been lecturing at the University of Stanford for many years. Before that he worked at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen.