Paul Alivisatos, president of the University of Chicago, is one of eight scientists awarded the ... [+]
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has announced the 2024 Kavli Prize Laureates in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience.
This year, eight scientists were selected for the Kavli Prize for outstanding research “that has broadened our understanding of the big, the small and the complex,” according to a press release. The laureates in each field will share a $1 million prize.
First awarded in 2008, the Kavli Prize is a partnership among The Kavli Foundation, The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. Its funding comes from The Kavli Foundation, formed in 2000 by Fred Kavli (1927-2013), a Norwegian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist. In 1958, Kavli founded the Kavlico Corporation in Los Angeles, and under his leadership, the company grew to become one of the world's largest suppliers of sensors for aeronautical, automotive, and industrial applications.
"The Kavli Prize 2024 honors outstanding researchers doing fundamental science that moves the world forward. They are exploring planets outside our solar system; they have broadened the scientific field of nanoscience towards biomedicine; and they are adding to our understanding of the neurological basis of face recognition,” said Lise Øvreås, president of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, in the press release.
Kavli Prize in Astrophysics
The 2024 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics was awarded to Sara Seager and David Charbonneau for discoveries of exoplanets and the characterization of their atmospheres. According to the citation, “they pioneered methods for the detection of atomic species in planetary atmospheres and the measurement of their thermal infrared emission, setting the stage for finding the molecular fingerprints of atmospheres around both giant and rocky planets. Their contributions have been key to the enormous progress seen in the last 20 years in the exploration of myriad exo-planets.”
Sara Seager is Professor of Physics, Professor of Planetary Science, and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she holds the Class of 1941 Professor Chair. After earning her Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University, Seager has become an award-winning scientist, specializing in the study of exoplanets, which are planets that orbit stars other than the sun.
David Charbonneau is Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University, where he earned his Ph.D. He also did post-doctoral research at the California Institute of Technology. A much-decorated researcher, Charbonneau has pioneered the observation of exoplanetary movement and the atmospheres of exoplanets.
Kavli Prize in Nanoscience
Three Americans were jointly awarded the Prize in Nanoscience. Robert S. Langer, Armand Paul Alivisatos, and Chad A. Mirkin were recognized as pioneers “whose breakthroughs have combined nanostructured synthetic materials with biologically active molecules. They have pioneered their use in therapeutics, vaccines, bioimaging and diagnostics, contributing foundationally to the field of nanomedicine. In addition, the three laureates have contributed to the societal impact of their research by founding companies to translate their fundamental science into biomedical applications.”
Robert S. Langer earned his Sc.D in Chemical Engineering at MIT. He joined MIT’s faculty in 1978. According to his official biography, Langer has written more than 1,250 articles, and his patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 250 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies.
Armand Paul Alivisatos is President of the University of Chicago, where he also holds the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professorship. Prior to Chicago, Alivisatos was the provost of the University of California, Berkeley and the Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. A University of California, Berkeley Ph.D., Alivisatos is widely acclaimed for his groundbreaking research on the physical chemistry of nanocrystals.
Chad A. Mirkin is the Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, and Medicine at Northwestern University. He earned his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University and has authored more than 870 manuscripts, been issued more than 430 patents and has founded multiple companies.
Kavli Prize in Neuroscience
Nancy Kanwisher, Winrich Freiwald, and Doris Tsao were awarded the Kavli Prize in neuroscience for their discovery of a localized and specialized area of the brain responsible for facial recognition. According to their citation, “in the early days of functional brain imaging, Nancy Kanwisher pinpointed the brain’s center for face processing, answering a longstanding question about whether some brain regions specialize in specific tasks. Doris Tsao and Winrich Freiwald then expertly combined functional imaging and recording from individual brain cells in macaque monkeys to reveal a six-region system that compiles facial information into a complete picture. Taken together, the laureates' work allows a glimpse of the neural architecture of the human mind.”
Nancy Kanwisher is the Walter A. Rosenblith Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and a founding member of the McGovern Institute at MIT. Prior to MIT, she was a faculty member at UCLA and Harvard University. Kanswisher earned her Ph.D. from MIT and is a widely recognized authority on specifying the areas of the brain that uniquely respond to places, bodies, sentence meaning, music, and other stimuli.
Winrich Freiwald is currently the Denise A. and Eugene W
Doris Tsao is a professor in the the department of molecular & cell biology and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. Tsao completed her Ph.D. in 2002 at Harvard University, after which she started an independent research group at the Institute for Brain Research at the University of Bremen in 2004. She then joined the faculty of Caltech in 2009 before moving to the University of California, Berkeley in 2021.
