The winners of the 2003 Nobel Prizes

The week of October 6 marks the announcement of this year’s crop of Nobel laureates. Among those whose accomplishments will be extolled at the December 2003 ceremonies in Stockholm are:

Physics

Alexei A. Abrikosov, Vitaly L. Ginzburg, and Anthony J. Leggett

Alexei A. Abrikosov, Vitaly L. Ginzburg, and Anthony J. Leggett share this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work in two fields of quantum physics, superconductivity and superfluidity. Abrikosov explained the theory of superconductivity in strong magnetic fields. He based his work on Ginzburg’s theories, which refined scientists’ understanding of superconductors that repel magnetic fields. Leggett is honored for explaining how atoms interact and are ordered in superfluids—liquids that have no internal friction.


Chemistry

Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon

Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon share this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of structures and mechanisms that transport water and ions through cell membranes. A decade ago Agre identified the first of 11 water channel proteins, or aquaporins, that are now known. Aquaporins are a critical part of the blood-brain barrier and are essential for water transport in muscle, lung, and kidney tissues. Over the past seven years, MacKinnon determined the physical, chemical, and electrical structures of the ion channel, the porelike protein that controls the most basic functions of the nervous system.

Physiology or Medicine

Paul C. Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansfield

Paul C. Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansfield jointly receive this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work developing magnetic resonance imaging — familiar to many patients as MRI — for medical diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. In a strong magnetic field, atomic nuclei rotate at a frequency proportional to the strength of the field. If they absorb radio waves of the same frequency, their energy state increases, and they are said to resonate. When they return to a lower energy state, they emit radio waves. By tuning into the effects of magnetic resonance, Lauterbur developed a method for creating two-dimensional pictures of a subject in a magnetic field where a gradient has been introduced; Mansfield devised a mathematical technique to analyze such information to create a useful medical imaging technique.

Peace Prize

Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi is honored as this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner for her unfailing support of basic human rights as a lawyer, judge, writer, and activist. A promoter of women’s and children’s rights and democracy in Islamic culture, she was the first female judge in Iran before she was forced out in the 1979 revolution. The Norwegian Nobel Committee recognizes Ebadi’s work with the hope that "the Prize will be an inspiration for all those who struggle for human rights and democracy in her country, in the Moslem world, and in all countries where the fight for human rights needs inspiration and support."

Literature

John Maxwell Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee takes this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature for his oeuvre of exquisitely composed, analytically acute literary works that examine the diaphanous facade of morality in Western civilization. His novels and autobiographical works draw on the culture of apartheid and its aftermath but vary tremendously in setting and in tone. Coetzee was the first writer to win the coveted Booker Prize twice, first in 1983 for Life and Times of Michael K and again in 1999 for Disgrace.

Economics

Robert F. Engle and Clive W. J. Granger

Robert F. Engle and Clive W. J. Granger share this year’s Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences (the only one of the prizes not established by Alfred Nobel) for developing new methods to analyze market volatility, or random fluctuations in financial markets over time. Engle discovered a method for modeling time-varying volatility that is used by researchers and financial analysts to evaluate investment risks. Branger invented cointegration, a method for studying the relationship between two variables that vary independently over time, such as income and consumption.