The Nobel Foundation 2014 Annual Review 1 The Nobel Foundation 2014 Annual Review EDITORS: Annika Pontikis, Public Relations Manager, Linda Toth, Coordinator DESIGN/PRODUCTION: Martin Zetterquist, Formalix AB PRINTING: Göteborgstryckeriet AB PAPER: Galerie Art Matt All images in the Annual Review are © The Nobel Foundation, © Nobel Media AB or © The Nobel Museum AB, unless otherwise indicated. COVER IMAGES: May-Britt Moser, photo: Alexander Mahmoud Children visiting the Nobel Museum, photo: Hans Nilsson Thorbjørn Jagland, Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, photo: Ken Opprann A visitor wearing the age suit “Agnes” at Nobel Week Dialogue, photo: Niklas Elmehed Banner Nobel Week Dialogue, photo: Niklas Elmehed Subject to changes regarding exhibitions, programmes and events during 2015 For questions regarding the Annual Review, please contact: [email protected] The Nobel Foundation 2015 Nobel Prize®, Nobelprize.org®, Nobel Media®, Nobel Museum®, Nobel Peace Center®, Nobel Prize Concert®, Nobel Peace Prize Concert® and the Nobel Medal are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation The Nobel Foundation, P.O. Box 5232, 102 45 Stockholm, Sweden 2 A Word from the Executive Director Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation since 2011. When the Laureates are announced in efforts. We can learn much from them October each year, it propels research- and they can inspire us to make our PHOTO: STEFAN TELL STEFAN PHOTO: ers, authors and peace advocates into own contributions. But we are not lfred Nobel lived and worked the spotlight. The world’s attention is content with this alone. In the spirit during the second half of the momentarily directed towards scien- of Alfred Nobel, we aim to tackle the A19th century. It was a time tific progress and humanist questions greatest issues of our time. Today, that that had much in common with our that affect us all, either directly or can involve everything from climate own age. It was characterized by indirectly. The Nobel Prize attracts change to children’s rights to good scientific progress, improved commu- enormous media attention. As an schools. This publication provides nications, increased trade and rapidly example, during 2014 over 50,000 more information about some of what expanding international companies. articles were published in digital has taken place over the past year. Alfred Nobel, was deeply involved in media. Our largest project at present is all of this. However, like our own era, The Prize’s status brings with it the Nobel Center at Blasieholmen in it was also a time marked by social both opportunity and responsibility. Stockholm. Exactly one year ago David and political challenges and by signifi- Over the course of the year we have Chipperfield Architects Berlin was cant environmental impact. Anti-intel- worked to produce a strategy for our announced as winner of the com- lectual and xenophobic tides were also future activities and for managing our petition to design the Nobel Center. part of Nobel’s time, as were military unique brand. It is the Nobel Com- The City Planning Commission of expansion and rampant nationalism. mittees that, through their independ- Stockholm, backed by broad support, Alfred Nobel was shaped by ent and careful work when selecting have this spring decided to allow the the ideals of the Enlightenment. He the Nobel Laureates, have built the proposed detailed development plan, believed that people could make a good reputation of the Nobel Prize. based on the winning proposal, to be difference; that it was possible to To tend and strengthen the Prize’s presented for comments and sugges- understand and change the world if unique position and to make it acces- tions. This at the same time as we only you had the knowledge and the sible to a broader audience, we have have secured over 80 per cent of the courage. Unfortunately, this is not also spent the past 20 years creating estimated financing needed for the something we can take for granted in an extensive array of public activities project and the work of developing our own age. In many places in the around the Nobel Prize. These include the new centre’s activities has entered world, people who question religious exhibitions, digital productions, school an intensive phase. It will be an arena and other dogmas are jailed and programmes, more actively engaging in where the historical perspective meets tortured. Also in Western societies, new media and events in Sweden and the major challenges of tomorrow; an science and rationalism are challenged. Norway, as well as in many other plac- inspiring place that focuses on humani- That is why Nobel’s vision remains es in the world, such as Brazil, India, ty’s opportunities to shape, understand both important and potent. Japan and the United States. and improve our world. The Nobel Prize is a fantastic The Nobel Laureates and their LARS HEIKENSTEN source of knowledge and inspiration. achievements are the focus of our EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 1 Carl-Henrik Heldin, Chairman of the Board of the Nobel Foundation. Table of Contents 1 A Word from the Executive Director 4 The 2014 Nobel Laureates 8 The Nobel Prize in Social Media Chemistry Laureate 10 The Nobel Prize – A Source of Knowledge William E. Moerner. 12 A Struggle for the Right to Go to School 14 A New Home for the Nobel Prize in Stockholm 16 Alfred Nobel 18 For the Greatest Benefit to Mankind Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine Juleen Zierath. The Mosers at the Laureates in Physics Hiroshi Nobel Museum. Amano and Shuji Nakamura. 2 20 The Organisation Surrounding the Nobel Prize 22 The Institutions that Select the Nobel Laureates 24 The Nobel Foundation 26 Nobel Media AB 28 Nobel Museum AB 30 Nobel Peace Center Foundation 32 Nobel Peace Prize Research & Information AS 34 Nobelhuset AB The purpose of this annual review is to provide an overall picture of the Nobel Sphere as a whole and its member organisations. Supplementary information can be found in the Annual Reports of the Nobel Foundation and related organisations. THE MOSERS, PHOTO: JANERIK HENRIKSSON/TT NOBEL WEEK DIALOGUE BADGE, PHOTO: JONAS BORG JULEEN ZIERATH, PHOTO: JINGCHENG ZHAO OTHER PHOTOS: ALEXANDER MAHMOUD AND NIKLAS ELMEHED 3 The Laureate in Physics Isamu Akasaki was awarded for the invention of effective blue light-emitting diodes. The Laureates in Physics, Chemistry and Economic Sciences at the Royal Swedish Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi Academy of Sciences. visiting the Norwegian Nobel Institute. Litterature Laureate Jean Tirole4 Eric Betzig Patrick Modiano with family. xxxx The 2014 Nobel Laureates THE NOBEL PRIZE IN THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS 2014 CHEMISTRY 2014 WAS AWARDED TO WAS AWARDED TO Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and and Shuji Nakamura William E. Moerner “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence which has enabled bright and energy-saving white microscopy” light sources” THE MICROSCOPE REVOLUTIONIZED our ability to study LIGHTING PLAYS A MAJOR ROLE in our quality of life, but small objects. However, based on light’s wavelength, also consumes a substantial amount of the world’s a limit to the level of detail possible was calculated electricity. Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji to be 0.2 micrometers. Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell, Nakamura developed light-emitting diodes (leds), and William E. Moerner have discovered a way to thereby creating much more efficient light sources than circumvent this limitation. The methods make use were previously available. Leds are composed of very of fluorescence, a phenomenon in which certain sub- thin layers of semiconductors, materials with proper- stances become luminous after having been exposed ties that lie between those of electrical conductors and to light. In 1994, Hell developed a method in which insulators. Light is emitted when an electrical current one light pulse causes fluorescent molecules to glow, passes through these layers. Creating white light that while another causes all molecules except those in can be used for lighting requires a combination of a very narrow area to become dark. An image is red, green, and blue light. Red and green diodes were created by sweeping light along the sample. Moern- relatively easy to develop, whereas blue leds proved to er and Betzig helped create a method based on the be much more difficult to create. Ultimately, the Nobel fact that fluorescence in individual molecules can be Laureates used the difficult-to-handle semiconductor turned on and off using light. A single image is then gallium nitride to create them. During the 1980s and created by combining a large number of images in 1990s the Laureates successfully produced high-qual- which different molecules are activated. The methods ity gallium nitride, processed it, and combined it make it possible to see details that are only a few with other materials so that efficient blue diodes were nanometers—or billionths of a meter—long. Among created. other uses, this makes it possible to track processes occurring inside living cells. Shuji Nakamura with family and friends. Stefan W. Hell with family. ISAMU AKASAKI, PHOTO: ALEXANDER MAHMOUD PHOTO FROM THE ROYAL SWEDISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, PHOTO: MARCUS MARCETIC, © KUNGL. VETENSKAPSAKADEMIEN MALALA YOUSAFZAI AND KAILASH SATYARTHI, PHOTO: KEN OPPRANN JEAN TIROLE, PHOTO: JANERIK HENRIKSSON/TT ERIC BETZIG, PHOTO: ALEXANDER LJUNGDAHL PATRICK MODIANO WITH FAMILY, PHOTO: ALEXANDER MAHMOUD 5 THE NOBEL PRIZE IN THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE LITERATURE 2014 2014 WAS AWARDED TO WAS AWARDED TO Patrick Modiano John O’Keefe, May-Britt Moser “for the art of memory with which he has evoked the and Edvard I. Moser most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation” “for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positio- ning system in the brain” GOOD STORIES are often characterized by their explo- ration of universal but difficult questions, at the same THE AWARENESS OF ONE’S LOCATION and how to find the way to other places is crucial for both humans and time as they are grounded in everyday settings and his- animals.