2023 Nobel Prize Winners
By Oliver Kwan ‘24
The 2023 Nobel Prize winners represent a diverse population of innovators, complex designers, and advanced minds who contribute their ideas to the world. The Nobel Prize is an award of the highest regard, given to “those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.” Alfred Nobel created five different categories to illustrate all ideas in the modern world. The five fields include Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. These awards are valued at the highest degree in the winners' respective fields. The 2023 winners exhibited a wide array of talents through their work.
Pierre Agostini, a physicist and emeritus professor at Ohio State University, won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics from his observations based on above-threshold ionization and the invention of the reconstruction of attosecond beating. He utilized the interference of two-photon transitions for the characterization of light pulses. These observations can be used to test the internal processes of matter, identifying the different events within the processes. The light pulses involved have been used to further explore the detail within atoms and molecules which can additionally be applied to medicinal and electronic fields.
Moungi Bawendi, a chemist and professor at MIT, won the award in the field of chemistry for his advancements in the chemical production of quantum dots. He has been one of the most cited chemists in the 21st century in his specified field. Quantum dots are minuscule semiconducting crystals that are viewed for their unique optical and chemical properties. In a field where not much progress had been made prior to Bawendi, he developed methods to create quantum dots that are stable and uniform. His influence in the synthesis of quantum dot research has created opportunities for large-scale technological applications of these dots for such things like lasers, biomedical imaging, and light-emitters.
Katalin Kariko developed a modern innovation in the field of RNA-mediated mechanisms that is applicable to our own lives. She is known for her discoveries creating nucleoside base modifications in the larger development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Kariko laid the foundation for mRNA vaccines despite receiving skepticism and overcoming many obstacles along the way. She was very undersupported at her previous institutions and was even deemed “not of faculty quality.” Her perseverance through these obstacles and use of her inventive ideas led her to these vast discoveries.
Within the subject of literature, playwright Jon Fosse was recognized for his innovative and inclusive play writing style. He has implemented a contemporary style that still holds threads from 19th century work. He also uses minimalism, lyricism, and an unorthodox use of syntax which have propelled him into the conversation of the best modern playwrights in the world. His works have been translated to over fifty different languages.
The fifth and final category of the Nobel Prize is peace. Narges Mohammadi received the award in this area for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and for her activism promoting human rights and freedom for all. She ran a human rights movement centered around the abolition of the death penalty. The strictly enforcing Iranian government sentenced Mohammadi to 16 years in prison, which she is currently serving , meaning that she received her Nobel Prize while in prison. Her willingness to speak out on highly controversial issues in a country where almost any backlash towards the government results in imprisonment has placed her at the forefront of influential activists in the world.
There are other winners within each field than the ones named, but all five of these 2023 winners across the sections of the Nobel Prize have been recognized at the highest levels of society for their accomplishments. These same people are the ones who will shape our world into its finest form.
