YEAR after Years, men with exceptional qualities of head and heart have come up with ideas, inventions and creations which have enriched the human world. Their rich contributions have made the world a better and happier place to live in. It is but natural that the grateful human world recognizes their immensely valuable contribution.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2015

NATIONAL DIALOGUE QUARTET The Nobel Peace Prize 2015 was awarded to National Dialogue Quartet “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011”.

Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee Kaci Kullmann Five said that the Tunisian national dialogue quartet, which is a coalition of civil society organisations, was successful in forming an alternative peaceful political process in 2013 when Tunisia was on the verge of civil war.

Nobel Prize in Literature 2015

SVETLANA ALEXIEVICH | Belarusian investigative journalist and prose writer Svetlana Alexievich has been awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time”.

Being the 14th woman to win the prize, member of the Swedish Academy Sara Danius has referred to Alexeivich’s work as a “monument to suffering and courage in our time”.

Nobel Prize in Physics 2015

Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald | The Nobel Prize in Physics 2015 was awarded jointly to Japanese physicist Takaaki Kajita and Canadian astrophysicist Arthur B. McDonald “for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows neutrinos have mass”.

On receiving the prestigious award, Kajita said that it was “unbelievable”, thanking the “neutrinos” for his success. He also said at a press conference in Tokyo: “And since neutrinos are created by cosmic rays, I want to thank them, too.”

Neutrinos are subatomic particles produced by the decay of radioactive elements, and earlier were believed to have no electric charge. Kajita, at the University of Tokyo, and McDonald, at the Queen’s University in Kingston, proved otherwise, showing that neutrinos indeed have mass.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015

Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar | Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 “for mechanistic studies of DNA repair”.

These three pioneers discovered how cells repair their DNA and protect it from assaults that the body and the environment put them through.

Dr. Lindahl from Sweden was honored for discovering ‘how cells generally fix DNA damage’, while Dr. Modrich, the James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University, was recognized ‘for showing how cells correct mistakes in DNA replication during cell division’, and Turkish Biochemist Dr. Sancar ‘for mapping how cells repair DNA damage from ultraviolet light’.

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 

This year, three scientists have won the Nobel prize in medicine for their discoveries concerning malaria and infections caused by roundworm parasites.

William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura | Irish-born American biologist Dr. William C. Campbell and Japanese biochemist Satoshi Omura have jointly been awarded “for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites” The two researchers have discovered avermectin, a treatment for roundworm parasites.

Tu Youyou | The other half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015 has been given to Tu Youyou “for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria”. The 84-year old Chinese pharmacologist has been recognized for her discovery of artemisinin, a drug that has the most rapid action against Plasmodium falciparum malaria.