Here is the list and photographs of the 2018 Nobel Prize winners, who distinguished themselves for having made a fundamental contribution to their respective fields.
James Allison, American, and Tasuku Honjo, Japanese, discovered the existence of proteins that act as a brake on the immune system: by neutralising them, the immune system is activated to fight tumours. They thus introduced a new anti-cancer therapy that is producing promising results.
Strickland is the third woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics. Together with Mourou, she devised the so-called Chirped pulse amplification, a process that amplifies electromagnetic pulses to produce more powerful lasers. Ashkin, aged 96, is the oldest winner in the history of the prize and invented optical tweezers, which allow microscopic structures such as atoms to be manipulated and thus, for example, viruses to be analysed.
Frances Arnold, the fifth woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, succeeded through directed evolution — that is, the transformation of proteins and nucleic acids to perform specific functions — in producing enzymes that are used in the pharmaceutical industry and in the renewable fuels sector. George Smith and Sir Gregory Winter developed Phage display, a technique that has enabled the production of antibodies capable of neutralising toxins, combating autoimmune diseases and metastatic tumours.
Denis Mukwege is a doctor who has dedicated his life to helping victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, torn apart by civil war. Nadia Murad, a member of the Yazidi ethnic minority persecuted by the Islamic State, had the courage to speak out about the abuses she suffered at the hands of its fighters. For this, they were awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize.
William D. Nordhaus developed the first model describing the interaction between the economy and the climate, used to understand how effective economic decisions are in tackling global warming. Paul M. Romer demonstrated that technological innovation depends on economic choices, which in turn leads to prosperity and long-term growth.
Read also: With Bill Nordhaus, climate research wins the Nobel Prize in Economics
This year no one will receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Next year, two will be awarded. The decision was made by the Swedish Academy, which is responsible for choosing the winner, following the scandal involving photographer Jean-Claude Arnault. The man, who ran a cultural project funded by the Academy and is married to one of its members, was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for rape.