Nobel Prize in Economics 2010 - Peter A. Diamond, Dale T. Mortensen, Christopher A. Pissarides

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2010

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2010/

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Peter A. Diamond

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Dale T. Mortensen

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Christopher A. Pissarides

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Photo: MIT

Photo: Lars Kruse/AU-foto

Photo: Nigel Stead/LSE

Peter A. Diamond

Dale T. Mortensen

Christopher A. Pissarides

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2010 was awarded jointly to Peter A. Diamond, Dale T. Mortensen and Christopher A. Pissarides "for their analysis of markets with search frictions".

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Press Release

11 October 2010
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2010 to
Peter A. Diamond
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA,

Dale T. Mortensen
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
and
Christopher A. Pissarides
London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
"for their analysis of markets with search frictions"

Markets with search costs

Why are so many people unemployed at the same time that there are a large number of job openings? How can economic policy affect unemployment? This year's Laureates have developed a theory which can be used to answer these questions. This theory is also applicable to markets other than the labor market.

On many markets, buyers and sellers do not always make contact with one another immediately. This concerns, for example, employers who are looking for employees and workers who are trying to find jobs. Since the search process requires time and resources, it creates frictions in the market. On such search markets, the demands of some buyers will not be met, while some sellers cannot sell as much as they would wish. Simultaneously, there are both job vacancies and unemployment on the labor market.
This year's three Laureates have formulated a theoretical framework for search markets. Peter Diamond has analyzed the foundations of search markets. Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides have expanded the theory and have applied it to the labor market. The Laureates' models help us understand the ways in which unemployment, job vacancies, and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy. This may refer to benefit levels in unemployment insurance or rules in regard to hiring and firing. One conclusion is that more generous unemployment benefits give rise to higher unemployment and longer search times.
Search theory has been applied to many other areas in addition to the labor market. This includes, in particular, the housing market. The number of homes for sale varies over time, as does the time it takes for a house to find a buyer and the parties to agree on the price. Search theory has also been used to study questions related to monetary theory, public economics, financial economics, regional economics, and family economics.

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Peter A. Diamond, US citizen. Born 1940 in New York City, NY, USA. Ph.D. 1963, Institute Professor and Professor of Economics, all at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA.
http://econ-www.mit.edu/faculty/pdiamond
Dale T. Mortensen, US citizen. Born 1939 in Enterprise, OR, USA. Ph.D. 1967 from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Ida C. Cook Professor of Economics at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~dtmort
Christopher A. Pissarides, British and Cypriot citizen. Born 1948 in Nicosia, Cyprus. Ph.D. 1973, Professor of Economics and Norman Sosnow Chair in Economics, all at London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/pissarid
The Prize amount: SEK 10 million, to be shared equally between the Laureates.
Contact: Erik Huss, Press Officer and Editor, phone +46 8 673 95 44, +46 70 673 96 50, erik.huss@kva.se

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.

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http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2010/sci.html

The Nobel Peace Prize 2010 - Liu Xiaobo - The Human Rights Champion

The Nobel Peace Prize 2010

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Liu Xiaobo

Residence at the time of the award: China

Prize motivation: "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China"

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Photo: Wikidemia Commons

Liu Xiaobo

The Nobel Peace Prize 2010 was awarded to Liu Xiaobo "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China".

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2010/

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The Nobel Peace Prize for 2010

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 to Liu Xiaobo for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace. Such rights are a prerequisite for the "fraternity between nations" of which Alfred Nobel wrote in his will.

Over the past decades, China has achieved economic advances to which history can hardly show any equal. The country now has the world's second largest economy; hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. Scope for political participation has also broadened.

China's new status must entail increased responsibility. China is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights. Article 35 of China's constitution lays down that "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration". In practice, these freedoms have proved to be distinctly curtailed for China's citizens.

For over two decades, Liu Xiaobo has been a strong spokesman for the application of fundamental human rights also in China. He took part in the Tiananmen protests in 1989; he was a leading author behind Charter 08, the manifesto of such rights in China which was published on the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 10th of December 2008. The following year, Liu was sentenced to eleven years in prison and two years' deprivation of political rights for “inciting subversion of state power". Liu has consistently maintained that the sentence violates both China's own constitution and fundamental human rights.

The campaign to establish universal human rights also in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad. Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China.

Oslo, October 8, 2010

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2010/press.html

Congratulations Sir.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 - Mario Vargas Llosa

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010

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Mario Vargas Llosa

Mario Vargas Llosa

Born: 28 March 1936, Arequipa, Peru

Prize motivation: "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat"

Photo: Ulla Montan/Norstedts

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Photo: Ulla Montan/Norstedts

Mario Vargas Llosa

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 was awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2010/press.html

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The Permanent Secretary

Press Release
7 October 2010

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010

Mario Vargas Llosa

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2010 is awarded to the Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa

"for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat".

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Biobibliographical notes

Mario Vargas Llosa was born on March 28, 1936 in Arequipa, Peru to Ernesto Vargas Maldonado and Dora Llosa Ureta. After his parents divorced, he grew up with his mother and grandfather in the city of Cochabamba in Bolivia. The family moved to Piura, Peru in 1946 where his grandfather held an appointment as a civil servant. His parents were reunited in 1947 and settled in Lima. Mario Vargas Llosa went to a Catholic school in Lima. Later his father sent him to the military school, Leoncio Prado. After graduating from Colegio Nacional San Miguel in Piura, Mario Vargas Llosa studied law and literature in Lima and Madrid. In 1955, he married Julia Urquidi. In 1959, he moved to Paris where he worked as a language teacher and as a journalist for Agence-France-Presse and the national television service of France. As an author, he had an international breakthrough with the novel La ciudad y los perros (1963; The Time of the Hero, 1966). This novel, which builds on experiences from Leoncio Prado, was considered controversial in his home land. A thousand copies were burnt publicly by officers from Leoncio Prado. In 1964 Mario Vargas Llosa divorced Julia Urquidi. The following year, he married his cousin, Patricia Llosa. After having lived alternately in Paris, Lima, London and Barcelona, he returned to Lima in 1974. In 1975 he was elected to the Peruvian Academy. He has lectured and taught at a number of universities in the USA, South America and Europe. In 1990 he ran for the Presidency representing the FREDEMO alliance in Peru, but lost the election. In 1994 he was elected to the Spanish Academy, where he took his seat in 1996. In recent years he has lived in Barcelona, Madrid, Lima, Paris and London. His well known works include Conversación en la catedral (1969; Conversation in the Cathedral, 1975), La guerra del fin del mundo (1981; The War of the End of the World, 1984) and La fiesta del chivo (2000; The Feast of the Goat, 2001). He is also a noted journalist and essayist.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2010/bio-bibl.html

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Mario Vargas Llosa's official web site

On Mario Vargas Llosa from Pegasos Author's Calendar

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Mario Vargas Llosa signing books. Photo taken in Pietrasanta, Italy, on June 13, 2010. Photo: Daniele Devoti, Creative Commons

Mario Vargas Llosa (left) with Mexican author Carlos Fuentes (right) at Harvard University. Photo taken in April 1979. Photo: Mario Vargas Llosa official web site

Mario Vargas Llosa with his daughter Morgana. Photo taken in 1979. Photo: Mario Vargas Llosa official web site

Mario Vargas Llosa with his son Alvaro. Photo taken in Cuzco, 1978. Photo: Mario Vargas Llosa official web site

Mario Vargas Llosa signing books, together with his sons, Gonzalo and Alvaro. Photo taken in Sevilla in April 1974. Photo: Mario Vargas Llosa official web site

Mario Vargas Llosa (right) and Gabriel García Márquez (far left). Photo taken in 1972. Photo: Mario Vargas Llosa official web site

From left to right: José Miguel Oviedo, Mario Vargas Llosa, Marta de Oviedo, Mercedes de García Márquez and Gabriel García Márquez. Photo taken in Lima, 1967. Photo: Mario Vargas Llosa official web site

Back row from left: Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Paul Sartre, Mario Vargas Llosa and Daniel Mayer defending Peruvian political prisoners. Photo taken in Paris, April 1967. Photo: M.C. Orive Credits: Mario Vargas Llosa official web site

Mario Vargas Llosa and his wife Patricia. Photo taken in 1967. Photo: Mario Vargas Llosa official web site

Mario Vargas Llosa, as a child, together with his mother. Photo: Mario Vargas Llosa official web site

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010 - Awarded jointly to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010

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Richard F. Heck

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• Richard F. Heck

  Born: 1931, Springfield, MA, USA

  Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Delaware, USA

  Prize motivation: "for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis"

  

Ei-ichi Negishi

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• Ei-ichi Negishi

  Born: 1935

  Affiliation at the time of the award: Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

  Prize motivation: "for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis"

  

  Photo: Purdue University, USA

Akira Suzuki

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• Akira Suzuki

  Born: 1930, Mukawa, Japan

  Affiliation at the time of the award: Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

  Prize motivation: "for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis"

  

  Photo: Hokkaido University,
  

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010 was awarded jointly to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki "for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis".

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2010/press.html

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Press Release

6 October 2010

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2010 to

Richard F. Heck
University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA,

Ei-ichi Negishi
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

and

Akira Suzuki
Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

"for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis"

Great art in a test tube

Organic chemistry has developed into an art form where scientists produce marvelous chemical creations in their test tubes. Mankind benefits from this in the form of medicines, ever-more precise electronics and advanced technological materials. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010 awards one of the most sophisticated tools available to chemists today.

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for the development of palladium-catalyzed cross coupling. This chemical tool has vastly improved the possibilities for chemists to create sophisticated chemicals, for example carbon-based molecules as complex as those created by nature itself.

Carbon-based (organic) chemistry is the basis of life and is responsible for numerous fascinating natural phenomena: colour in flowers, snake poison and bacteria killing substances such as penicillin. Organic chemistry has allowed man to build on nature's chemistry; making use of carbon’s ability to provide a stable skeleton for functional molecules. This has given mankind new medicines and revolutionary materials such as plastics.

In order to create these complex chemicals, chemists need to be able to join carbon atoms together. However, carbon is stable and carbon atoms do not easily react with one another. The first methods used by chemists to bind carbon atoms together were therefore based upon various techniques for rendering carbon more reactive. Such methods worked when creating simple molecules, but when synthesizing more complex molecules chemists ended up with too many unwanted by-products in their test tubes.

Palladium-catalyzed cross coupling solved that problem and provided chemists with a more precise and efficient tool to work with. In the Heck reaction, Negishi reaction and Suzuki reaction, carbon atoms meet on a palladium atom, whereupon their proximity to one another kick-starts the chemical reaction.

Palladium-catalyzed cross coupling is used in research worldwide, as well as in the commercial production of for example pharmaceuticals and molecules used in the electronics industry.

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Richard F. Heck, American citizen. Born 1931 in Springfield, MA, USA. Ph.D. 1954 from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), CA, USA. Willis F. Harrington Professor Emeritus at University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA.

Ei-ichi Negishi, Japanese citizen. Born 1935 in Changchun, China (former Japan). Ph.D. 1963 from University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
www.chem.purdue.edu/negishi/index.htm

Akira Suzuki, Japanese citizen. Born 1930 in Mukawa, Japan. Ph.D. 1959, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, both at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.

The Prize amount: SEK 10 million to be shared equally between the Nobel Laureates
Contacts: Erik Huss, Press Officer, phone +46 8 673 95 44, +46 70 673 96 50, erik.huss@kva.se
Annika Moberg, Editor, Phone +46 8 673 95 22, +46 70 263 74 46, annika.moberg@kva.se

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2010/sci.html

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Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 to Andre Geim, Konstantin Novoselov

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010

Andre Geim, Konstantin Novoselov

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010

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Andre Geim

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Konstantin Novoselov

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Photo: Sergeom, Wikimedia Commons

Photo: University of Manchester, UK

Andre Geim

Konstantin Novoselov

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was awarded jointly to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene"

Andre Geim, Konstantin Novoselov

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010

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Andre Geim

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Konstantin Novoselov

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Andre Geim

Born: 1958, Sochi, Russia

Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Prize motivation: "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene"

Photo: Sergeom, Wikimedia Commons

Andre Geim, Konstantin Novoselov

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010

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Andre Geim

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Konstantin Novoselov

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Konstantin Novoselov

Born: 1974, Nizhny Tagil, Russia

Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Prize motivation: "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene"

Photo: University of Manchester, UK

http://static.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/sciback_phy_10.pdf

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Graphene is an atomic-scale honeycomb lattice made of carbon atoms. Photo: Alexander Alus, licensed by Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

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Press Release

5 October 2010

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 to

Andre Geim
University of Manchester, UK

and

Konstantin Novoselov
University of Manchester, UK

"for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene"

Graphene – the perfect atomic lattice

A thin flake of ordinary carbon, just one atom thick, lies behind this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov have shown that carbon in such a flat form has exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics.

Graphene is a form of carbon. As a material it is completely new – not only the thinnest ever but also the strongest. As a conductor of electricity it performs as well as copper. As a conductor of heat it outperforms all other known materials. It is almost completely transparent, yet so dense that not even helium, the smallest gas atom, can pass through it. Carbon, the basis of all known life on earth, has surprised us once again.

Geim and Novoselov extracted the graphene from a piece of graphite such as is found in ordinary pencils. Using regular adhesive tape they managed to obtain a flake of carbon with a thickness of just one atom. This at a time when many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable.

However, with graphene, physicists can now study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties. Graphene makes experiments possible that give new twists to the phenomena in quantum physics. Also a vast variety of practical applications now appear possible including the creation of new materials and the manufacture of innovative electronics. Graphene transistors are predicted to be substantially faster than today’s silicon transistors and result in more efficient computers.

Since it is practically transparent and a good conductor, graphene is suitable for producing transparent touch screens, light panels, and maybe even solar cells.

When mixed into plastics, graphene can turn them into conductors of electricity while making them more heat resistant and mechanically robust. This resilience can be utilised in new super strong materials, which are also thin, elastic and lightweight. In the future, satellites, airplanes, and cars could be manufactured out of the new composite materials.

This year’s Laureates have been working together for a long time now. Konstantin Novoselov, 36, first worked with Andre Geim, 51, as a PhD-student in the Netherlands. He subsequently followed Geim to the United Kingdom. Both of them originally studied and began their careers as physicists in Russia. Now they are both professors at the University of Manchester.

Playfulness is one of their hallmarks, one always learns something in the process and, who knows, you may even hit the jackpot. Like now when they, with graphene, write themselves into the annals of science.

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Andre Geim, Dutch citizen. Born 1958 in Sochi, Russia. Ph.D. 1987 from Institute of Solid State Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Chernogolovka, Russia. Director of Manchester Centre for Meso-science & Nanotechnology, Langworthy Professor of Physics and Royal Society 2010 Anniversary Research Professor, University of Manchester, UK.
www.condmat.physics.manchester.ac.uk/people/academic/geim

Konstantin Novoselov, Brittish and Russian citizen. Born 1974 in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. Ph.D. 2004 from Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Professor and Royal Society Research Fellow, University of Manchester, UK.
www.condmat.physics.manchester.ac.uk/people/academic/novoselov

Prize amount: SEK 10 million to be shared equally between the Nobel Laureates.

Contact persons: Erik Huss, Press Officer, Phone +46 8 673 95 44, mobile +46 70 673 96 50, erik.huss@kva.se
Fredrik All, Editor, Phone +46 8 673 95 63, Mobile +46 70 673 95 63, fredrik.all@kva.se

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.

Congratulations!