2024 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded for Applications of Statistical Physics to Machine Learning!

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to physicist John Hopfield and computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton.

The official prize citation is "for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks". However, I strongly prefer the phrasing along the lines of "for the statistical-physics basis of neural networks", which is how mathematical physicist Barry Simon described it.

Here is the information, press release, and other materials from The Nobel Foundation.

Naturally, I am strongly in favor of more Nobel Prizes being awarded for foundational interdisciplinary work, as that is the world in which I live. Unsurprisingly, many traditional physicists are arguing against and doing their common practice of staking territorial claim (as we also often see on the job market and in other arenas). This is an old battle, and we can look forward to a later phase when somebody gets a physics Nobel Prize for work in networks. That said, I am grateful to see people arguing about science, rather than about other ideological things!

2020 Nobel Prize in Physics

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was announced today.

The first thing that I noticed was that my Mathematical Institute (Unversity of Oxford) colleague Roger Penrose got half the prize. Additionally, Andrea Ghez from UCLA's physics department shared the other half of the prize with Reinhard Genzel. Ghez also got a Ph.D. from Caltech in 1992, so several of my institutions (and my former home department at Oxford!) did very well today. Congratulations!

Here is the terse citation: 

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 with one half to Roger Penrose "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity" and and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy".

Some other websites to look at are the popular blurb and more advanced information from the Nobel page. Additionally, here are UCLA's press release and a blurb from University of Oxford's Mathematical Institute.

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Awarded for Work on the Circadian Rhythm

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for discovering molecular mechanisms that control the circadian rhythm!

RIP Ken Arrow (1921–2017)

Ken Arrow, who was the youngest recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, has died

Like many Nobel-memorial laureates in economics, Arrow has an undergraduate degree in mathematics (in his case, as part of a double major with social science). He also earned a Masters degree in mathematics. Arrow has an entry in the Mathematics Genealogy Project.

Some of my students have heard me mention "impossibility theorems" in voting and social choices. If you're going to name one pioneer in that area, that person is Ken Arrow.

(Tip of the cap to Jennifer Nicoll Victor.)

Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize in Literature!

Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Prize in Literature! Very cool!

Here is the press release.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry in Recognition of Molecular Motors and Nanomachines

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded for the creation of molecular motors and nanomachines. Here is the press release.

2016 Physics Nobel Prize for Topological States of Matter

The 2016 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to David J. Thouless, F. Duncan M. Haldane, and J. Michael Kosterlitz "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter."

So exciting!

(This was a big subject that I remember often being discussed in Caltech's condensed-matter theory group when I was part of it. I am sure that it still is.)

Theoretical condensed-matter physics, statistical mechanics, and topology are the big winners. That's just about a home-team victory this year!

(My preference still would have been chaos being recognized, but I am very happy with this year's result. I also want Michael Berry to get a richly-deserved award for geometric phases.)

Update (10/05/16): Here is an editorial about the (very severe) lack of women who have won the Nobel Prize in Physics. And a couple of weeks ago, a top contender Deborah Jin died way too young, so among other tragedies, now she can't get the Nobel that her work richly merits.

"Parasitic Disease Scientists Win Nobel"

CNN.com's tagline to their article about today's Nobel Prize doesn't distinguish between "parasitic disease-scientists" and "parasitic-disease scientists".

The power of the hyphen. :)

RIP John Nash (1928–2015)

Mathematician John Nash and his wife were killed yesterday in a taxi accident.

Nash won the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for the work in his 27-page PhD thesis that invented the theory of non-cooperative games. Not bad. (As Joe Jewell pointed out, Nash's thesis also only has 2 references.)

Nash had recently accepted his Abel Prize (the mathematics equivalent of a Nobel Prize) for entirely different work.

Sylvia Nasar's 1994 article about John Nash, which is based on her book, is a fascinating read. Nasar's book formed the basis for the movie A Beautiful Mind.

Nash is also one of the people who invented the game Hex.

If you want to read more about Nash, go to FAQ maintained by Princeton University.

(Tip of the cap to numerous people, and thanks to Carlos Castillo Chávez for posting the article by Sylvia Nasar.)

Update (5/26/15): As I suspected, this was the final leg of their journey home after Nash was in Norway to receive his Abel Prize.

Update (5/29/15): Here is an article in the popular press about Nash's work on isometric embeddings.

2014 Nobel Peace Prize

The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzay "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education."

As noted in the CNN article covering the prize, there is significant design in the sharing of the prize of these two individuals from disparate backgrounds and beliefs (and from ones that have often come into conflict with each other).

At age 17, Malala Yousafzay is the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (and I would assume of any Nobel Prize, though the article neglects to mention this). I absolutely love one of the side tidbits in CNN's article: "Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai will give her first statement after school".

Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine Awarded for Work on the Brain's Navigation System

This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine went to a trio for their work on the brain's navigation system. It's also great that neuroscience (and systems neuroscience, no less) was recognized with a Nobel.

A particularly relevant Scholarpedia entry is the one on grid cells (which, along with "place cells", help the brain to determine where it is and where it is going), whose authors --- a team of wife and husband --- comprise two of the three newly-minted Nobel Laureates.

Now about my horrible sense of navigation...

Update (10/10/14): I neglected to post the official announcement.

Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded for Measurements on Individual Quantum Systems

I should have written a brief blog entry yesterday when the announcement was made, but here it is now.

Serge Haroche and Dave Wineland have won the physics Nobel Prize in 2012 for pioneering experiments that measure single quantum systems. This is important for quantum computing, among other things. John Preskill has described some of their work in this blog entry.

On my end, I'm happy to see a Nobel Prize for this topic (go quantum mechanics!) instead of particle physics and other things of that ilk. :)

RIP Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012)

Elinor Ostrom, the only Nobel Laureate to be produced by my high school (Beverly Hills High School), has died of pancreatic cancer.

(Tip of the cap to James Fowler.)

Quote of the Day: Nobel Prize Edition

CNN.com has an absolutely wonderful quote in its sidebar on its article about this year's Nobel Prize in Literature: The award has gone to obscure Europeans three of the past four years.

Hah! Well done! (I approve!)

Chemistry Nobel Prize Awarded for Quasicrystals

Physics didn't work out this year, but the Nobel Prize in Chemistry has gone to some very cool stuff---namely, it's been awarded for the experimental discovery of quasicrystals, which are (i) damn cool and (ii) caused the very definition of "crystal" to need to be changed. You can read more about it on wikipedia.

Weekend at the Karolinska Institutet

That's an interesting loophole: The new Nobel Prize in Medicine pays unintentional homage to Weekend at Bernie's. Maybe they'll prop the new Nobel Laureate up during the ceremony?

The article I am citing mentions that the Nobel Peace Prize is the most anticipated of the prizes. Personally, I care most about the prize in Physics, and I hope that Michael Berry finally get his richly deserved Nobel Prize this year. Fingers crossed! (That said, I would kill for a Nobel Peace Prize...)

Nobel Prize Predictor

Thomson Reuters (who produce the Web of Science, among other things) have a Nobel Prize Predictor. (I've linked directly to the physics page, but one can find interesting predictions in the other ones as well---e.g., Eric Lander in Biology/Medicine.) Michael Berry ought to already have a Physics Nobel. My Mathematical Institute colleague Roger Penrose is unsurprisingly also on the physics list. It would be especially awesome if he won, because then the department would almost certainly have a big Nobel Party!

First an Ig Nobel and Now a Nobel

Andre Geim, one of the new Nobel Laureates in Physics (for the discovery of graphene), has become the first Ig Nobel Laureate to also be a Nobel Laureate. That's pretty cool! Ironically, Geim shared his Ig Nobel with Michael Berry, who deserves a Nobel Prize for his work on geometric phase. So I was hoping that Michael Berry would be the first person to get this particular distinction...

"Father" of the Test Tube Baby and other "Awesome" Quotations

I want to distinguish my "Quote of the Day" series from what I will called a "Quotation of the Day".

The article in which this occurs is from CNN.com, and it concerns the awarding of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to the "Father of the Test Tube Bay". This isn't my main point, but using the term Father of the test tube baby is pretty ambiguous, don't you think? (It's pretty "awesome", too.)

But that's not the only gem in this paper. If you look at the sidebar, you find out that the 2009 prize went to Americans who 'solved "a major problem in biology"'. Yes, a major problem in biology is actually in quotes. Well, tomorrow somebody (hopefully Michael Berry!) will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for solving a major problem in physics, and on Monday somebody will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for solving a major problem in economics. (Strictly speaking, one can get an awarded for contributions that help lead to a solution, rather than a solution itself, but that still means that one is solving something major in the field relevant to the prize in question---even if that solution is only a piece of a solution to a larger problem.) In the article itself, this quote is followed with a more specific statement about what the 2009 Laureates in Physiology or Medicine actually did. But the ambiguous phrase was still in quotes. What the Hell? Talk about unnecessary quotations...

First Beverly Hills High School graduate to win Nobel Prize

I didn't realize this until I just saw this in the new issue of Beverly Hills Weekly, but Elinor Ostrom, one of the two new Nobel Laureates in economics (and the first woman ever to win this particular Nobel) was graduated from my High School in 1951. She thus becomes the first person from Beverly High ever to win a Nobel, and presumably my high school will place her in its hall of fame soon. (This seems like it's a pretty severe oversight that this hasn't happened already.)

I have to admit a very small bit of mixed feelings because I was kind of hoping (though obviously without thinking it would actually happen) that I might eventually become the first Beverly alum to do that. Ah well. Not that I'm ambitious or anything...