From literature to peace, from chemistry to physics, through economics and medicine. The list of minds and the reasons that led them to receive the 2019 Nobel Prize.
William J. Kaelin, Gregg L. Semenza and Peter J. Ratcliffe received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine for "their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability". "This is one of the essential mechanisms of life that is put to the test during physical activity or in the case of traumatic events such as wounds, heart attacks or strokes. Furthermore, cells that grow in tumours consume large quantities of oxygen," the jury continued, arguing that the three had "laid the foundations for new and promising strategies to combat anaemia, cancer and many other diseases". In 2018, the prize went to James Allison and Tasuku Honjo for their contribution to the fight against cancer.
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded one half to James Peebles for his "theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology" and the other half was split between Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their "discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star". The three were honoured with this recognition for "their contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the Universe and Earth's place in the cosmos".
"Peebles has investigated the cosmos and its galaxies, developing, over more than two decades, a theoretical approach that has become the foundation of our modern understanding of the history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the present day," the committee explained. "Mayor and Queloz explored our galaxy, the Milky Way, in search of unknown worlds. In 1995, they discovered 51 Pegasi, a planet outside our solar system, an exoplanet, orbiting a star similar to the Sun. They set off a true revolution in astronomy which, from that day, has led to the discovery of more than 4,000 planets in the Milky Way."
Last year, it went to Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland for their innovation of laser techniques.
John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "creating a rechargeable world through the development of lithium-ion batteries. The discovery by the three Nobel laureates has given us access to a technological revolution: their work has laid the foundations for a future wireless society free of fossil fuels, given that batteries can store large quantities of energy from renewable sources". These batteries, commonly known as cells, have changed our lives and today we can find them in mobile phones, computers and electric vehicles.
In the early 1970s, Whittingham developed the first functional battery by exploiting lithium's enormous drive to release its outer electron. Goodenough then doubled the batteries' potential, making them more powerful and more versatile, and Yoshino eliminated pure lithium from batteries, using only its ions, which are safer than pure lithium. His contribution made the batteries work.
Last year it went to Frances Arnold, George Smith and Sir Gregory Winter for applying the principles of evolution for the benefit of human beings.
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Austrian author Peter Handke for his "influential work which with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience".
In 1966 he made his debut with Die Hornissen, and together with the 1966 play Publikumsbeschimpfung, he established his place in the literary scene. After more than fifty years, having produced an exceptional number of works across different genres, he has consolidated his position as one of the most influential European writers of the post-war period. The hallmark of Handke's art is the extraordinary attention he devotes to landscapes and the material presence of the world, which has made cinema and painting two of his greatest sources of inspiration.
Last year the prize was suspended following the scandal involving photographer Jean-Claude Arnault: the man, who ran a cultural project with Academy funds and was married to one of its members, was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for rape.
The 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded this year to Polish author Olga Tokarczuk for her "narrative imagination that, with encyclopaedic passion, is able to represent the crossing of boundaries as a form of life".
Tokarczuk began her career in 1993 as a novelist with Podróz ludzi Księgi, and her real breakthrough came in 1996 with Prawiek i inne czasy. The book is an outstanding example of post-1989 Polish literature. The author never regards reality as something stable and infinite, but builds her works around cultural opposites: nature versus culture, rationality versus madness, man versus woman, a sense of belonging versus alienation. Her greatest masterpiece to date is the 2014 historical novel Księgi Jakubowe, in which she demonstrated her extraordinary ability to portray a case beyond human knowledge.
The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Abiy Ahmed Ali, prime minister of Ethiopia, for "his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation and, in particular, for his initiative that was decisive in resolving the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea".
This Nobel Prize also seeks to recognise the work of the stakeholders involved in peace and reconciliation activities in Ethiopia. Through close cooperation with Isaias Afwerki, president of Eritrea, Abiy Ahmed Ali developed the principles for a peace agreement that would end the deadlock between the two countries.
In Ethiopia, even though much work remains to be done, Abiy Ahmed has brought about important reforms that have given hope for a better life and a brighter future. As prime minister, he has sought to promote reconciliation, solidarity and social justice.
The committee believes this is the right moment to recognise his efforts and to encourage them, and the hope is that this Nobel Prize will represent a further incentive for the prime minister to continue his work for peace and reconciliation.
Last year the prize went to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their fight against sexual violence as a weapon of war.
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics in memory of Alfred Nobel was awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their "experimental approach to alleviating poverty, which has considerably improved our ability to fight it".
In just two decades, their new experimental approach has completely transformed development economics, which today represents a rich field of research. More than 700 million people still live on very low wages. Every year, five million children still die before the age of five, often from diseases that could have been prevented or treated with relatively inexpensive and straightforward treatments.
The 2019 Nobel Prize winners in Economics broke down the problem of poverty into smaller, more manageable questions, examining, for example, the most effective ways to improve children's health. In the mid-1990s, Michael Kremer and his colleagues demonstrated the power of approaches based on experiments conducted directly in the field to test a wide range of interventions that could improve educational outcomes in western Kenya. Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo carried out similar studies on the problems of other countries, including India. Their experimental research method now dominates development economics and has exponentially increased our ability to fight poverty. Indeed, as a result of one of their studies, more than 5 million Indian children have benefited from support programmes in schools.
Last year the prize went to William Nordhaus and Paul Romer for their contribution to sustainable development.
