NOBEL PRIZE 2011

Ø  PHYSICS: Saul Perimutter (52) – US; Brian Schmidt (44) – US; Australian; Adam G. Riess (42) – US for discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Ø  CHEMISTRY: Dan Shechtman (70) – Israel for the discovery of quasicrystals – having pentagons that doesn’t repeat itself exactly.

Ø  PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE: Bruce Bentler (US); Jules Hoffman (France); Ralph Steinman (Canada) for immune system.

Ø  LITERATURE: Thomas Transtromer (80) (Sweden) for his condensed, translucent images in his poetry collections characterized by economy, correctness and poignant metaphors.

Ø  PEACE: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf – Liberia; Leymah Gbowee – Liberia; Tawakul Karman – Yemen (All women)

Ø  ECONOMICS: Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims – US – for developing statistical tools to unravel effect of monetary policy on economy.

NOBEL PRIZE 2008

Physiology or Medicine: French scientists, Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS that has killed millions of people since 1980 got the prize. Herald zur Hausen, Director of Cancer Research Center, shared half of the prize for the work that went against the current dogma as to the cause of cervical cancer. He set forth the oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) caused cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women.

Chemistry: Osamu Shimomura of Japan and Martin Chalfic and Roger Tsien of the US won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for a fluorescent protein (GFP) that has revolutionized research in medicine and biology, enabling scientists to get a visual fix on how organs function, on the spread of disease and the response of infected cells to treatment.

Physics: Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Masbawa, two Japanese won the Physics Prize along with Japanese-born-American Yoichiro Nambu for theoretical work in fundamental particles.

Literature: The French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, an author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization was awarded Nobel Prize for Literature.

Peace: Finland’s former president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize for a long career of peace making around the world from Namibia to Kosovo.

Economics: U.S. economist Paul Krugman, a prolific columnist and fierce critic of Washington's economic policies, Princeton University professor was awarded the prize for the formulated of a new trade analysis theory, which determines the effects of free trade and globalisation, as well as the driving forces behind worldwide urbanisation.

NOBEL PRIZE FOR 2007

Medicine: Mario Capecchi (USA), Martin Evans (UK) and Oliver Smithies (USA) for the creation of ‘designer mice’ to track the role of different genes in human development and disease.

Physics: Albert Fest (France) and Peter Gruenberg (Germany) for their pioneering work that led to the miniaturized hard disk, one of the breakthroughs in modern information technology – Giant Magneto Resistance (GMR).

Chemistry: Gerhard Ertl (Germany) for studies of chemical reaction on solid surfaces, which are key to understanding such questions as why the ozone layer is thinning – Surface Chemistry.

Literature: Doris Lessing (UK) for five decades of epic novels that have covered feminism and politics, as well as her youth in Africa.

Peace: Al Gore (USA) and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the international campaign for action against Global Warming. The IPCC is headed by an Indian environmentalist Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri.

Economics: Americans Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson for developing a theory that helps explain situations in which markets work. They laid the foundations of mechanism design theory which plays a central role in contemporary economics and political science.