These Are the Winners of the 2024 Nobel Prizes

The 2024 Nobel Prize announcements began on Oct. 7, recognizing groundbreaking contributions to humanity.

The first prize, in the category of physiology or medicine, went to a pair of American scientists on Monday for their work in discovering microRNAs. The second prize, in the category of physics, went to an American and British Canadian on Tuesday for their pioneering work on machine learning.

Recipients of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, literature, peace, and economic sciences will be announced over the coming week. Winners are given a medal, a personal diploma, and a cash award of about $1.1 million. Established by Alfred Nobel in 1901, past laureates have included Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Below is a list of all of this year’s winners as they are announced.

Physiology or medicine

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were on Monday awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of microRNAs, a class of small molecules essential for gene regulation. Their research has uncovered how these microRNAs influence cellular behavior and contribute to various health challenges, including cancer and heart disease. As the understanding of these tiny regulators expands, so does the potential for innovative therapeutic approaches to complex medical conditions.

Read More: What to Know About MicroRNA, the Nobel-Prizewinning Discovery

Ambros and Ruvkun's work began in the 1990s when they studied roundworms, uncovering the intricate relationship between specific genes and the regulatory role of microRNAs. This discovery revealed that microRNAs can bind to messenger RNA, influencing the production of proteins critical for cellular functions. Their findings, published in Cell in 1993, opened new avenues for understanding genetic communication within cells. Thomas Perlmann, secretary general of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, called their work “truly fundamental for all physiology.”

Physics

John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton were on Tuesday awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for their use of statistical physics concepts in the development of artificial neural networks. Artificial neural networks play a fundamental role in machine learning and artificial intelligence by allowing machines to find and recognize patterns in extremely large datasets.

Read More: The A to Z of Artificial Intelligence

At a press conference, Ellen Moons, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, explained the significance of their work. “These artificial neural networks have been used to advance research across physics topics as diverse as particle physics, material science, and astrophysics. They have also become part of our daily lives, for instance, in facial recognition and language translation.”

She also warned that the powerful technological advancement comes with risks. “However, while machine learning has enormous benefits, its rapid development has also raised concerns about our future. Collectively, humans carry the responsibility for using this new technology in a safe and ethical way for the greatest benefit of humankind,” she said.

Hinton was on the inaugural TIME100 AI list in 2023.

Chemistry

David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for their work predicting and designing the structure of proteins. Per a press release issued by The Royal Swedish Academy of Science, "Baker has succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins. Hassabis and Jumper have developed an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins’ complex structures. These discoveries hold enormous potential."

Hailing from the U.S., Baker was born in Seattle, WA, and Jumper was born in Little Rock, AR. Meanwhile, Hassabis hails from London, U.K. Hassabis and Jumper featured on the 2024 TIME100 AI list.

Commenting on the trio's achievements, Heiner Linke, the Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said: “One of the discoveries being recognised this year concerns the construction of spectacular proteins. The other is about fulfilling a 50-year-old dream: predicting protein structures from their amino acid sequences. Both of these discoveries open up vast possibilities."

Literature

Han Kang was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday for her “intense poetic prose” focusing on “historical traumas,” colonial violence, and the “fragility” of humanity, per a press release by The Royal Swedish Academy.

The South Korean author is known for works such as The Vegetarian—which won the International Booker prize in 2016—The White Book, Human Acts, and Greek Lessons. Kang, 53, has been a writer for over 30 years, but The Vegetarian was her first novel to be translated into English in 2015, and led to widespread acclaim and attention.

“Han Kang writes intense, lyrical prose that is both tender and brutal,” said Anna-Karin Palm, a co-opted member of the Nobel Committee for Literature, in an interview with the Nobel Prize Museum after the announcement. “There’s continuity as to themes, that is quite remarkable, but at the same time, a huge stylistic variation that makes every book a new aspect or a new expression of these central themes.”

Read More: Meet Han Kang, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

Peace

The Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. Chosen by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the organization won for its efforts to imagine and “achieve a world free of nuclear weapons” through elevating the voices of those who survived the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs.

Soon after the atomic bombs in August 1945, survivors—also known as Hibakusha— started a grassroots movement and worked to create “widespread opposition” to nuclear weaponry. Nihon Hidankyo became the “largest and most influential” Hibakusha organization, providing accounts and sending yearly delegations to the United Nations to testify about the devastation they experienced.

“The Hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons,” the committee said in a press release on Friday.

Read More: Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivors Live in Fear of Another Nuclear Catastrophe

Economic Sciences

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson were awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel on Monday, Oct. 14.

In a press release, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said of the decision: "This year’s laureates in the economic sciences have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity. Societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better. The laureates’ research helps us understand why."

Acemoglu was born in 1967 and hails from Istanbul, Turkey. Johnson was born in 1963 and comes from Sheffield, United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Robinson was born in 1960 and was affiliated with the University of Chicago at the time of the award.

With reporting by Nik Popli, Olivia-Anne Cleary, Anna Gordon, and Rebecca Schneid.