2020 Nobel Prizes

The 2020 Nobel Prizes were awarded by the Nobel Foundation, based in Sweden. Six categories were awarded: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences.[1]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, programming for Nobel Week was limited, with some ceremonies and events taking place virtually.[2]

## Prizes

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### Physics

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Awardee(s)

| Roger Penrose

(b. 1931)

|  British  | "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity"  | [3]
| Reinhard Genzel

(b. 1952)

|  German  | "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy"
| Andrea M. Ghez

(b. 1965)

|  American

### Chemistry

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Awardee(s)

| Emmanuelle Charpentier

(b. 1968)

|  French  | "for the development of a method for genome editing"  | [4]
| Jennifer Doudna

(b. 1964)

|  American

### Physiology or Medicine

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Main article: 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Awardee(s)

| Harvey J. Alter

(b. 1935)

|  United States | "for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus"  | [5]
| Michael Houghton

(b. 1949)

|  United Kingdom
| Charles M. Rice

(b. 1952)

|  United States

### Literature

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Main article: 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature

Awardee(s)  |

|

| Louise Glück

(1943–2023)

|  United States | "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal"  | [6]

### Peace

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Main article: 2020 Nobel Peace Prize

Awardee(s)

| World Food Programme

(founded 1961)

| United Nations | "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict."  | [7]

### Economic Sciences

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Main article: 2020 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

Awardee(s)

| Paul Milgrom

(b. 1948)

|  United States | "for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats"[8] | [8]
| Robert B. Wilson

(b. 1937)

## Controversies

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### Chemistry

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The Chemistry Prize's awarding to Charpentier and Doudna provoked debates about who "discovered" CRISPR, with some arguing that scientists like Feng Zhang or Virginijus Šikšnys should have been properly credited.[9]

## Changes

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Each prize's awarding amount increased from 9 million Swedish krona to 10 million.[2]

## References

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1. ^ "All Nobel Prizes 2020". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
2. ^ a b "2020 Nobel Prize Winners: Full List". The New York Times.
3. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 4 May 2024. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
4. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 7 October 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
5. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
6. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2020". NobelPrize.org. Archived from the original on 8 October 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
7. ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 2020". NobelPrize.org. Archived from the original on 9 October 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
8. ^ a b "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2020". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 2020-10-12. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
9. ^ Chamary, J. V. "These Scientists Deserved A Nobel Prize, But Didn't Discover Crispr". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-12-09.

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* t
* e

2020 Nobel Prize laureates

Chemistry|

* Emmanuelle Charpentier (France)
* Jennifer Doudna (United States)

Literature (2020)|

Louise Glück (United States)

Peace (2020)|

World Food Programme

Physics|

* Roger Penrose (United Kingdom)
* Reinhard Genzel (Germany)
* Andrea M. Ghez (United States)

Physiology or Medicine (2020)|

* Harvey J. Alter (United States)
* Michael Houghton (United Kingdom)
* Charles M. Rice (United States)

Economic Sciences (2020)|

* Paul Milgrom (United States)
* Robert B. Wilson (United States)

Nobel Prize recipients
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