Nobel Prize for Physics awarded
October 4, 2016
British-born scientists David J. Thouless, F. Duncan Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz have won the Nobel Physics Prize for revealing the secrets of exotic matter, the Nobel jury said.
"This year's laureates opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states. They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films."
Eighty-two-year-old Thouless is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington, Haldane, 65, is a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey, while Kosterlitz, 73, is a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Thouless was awarded half the prize with the other half divided between Haldane and Kosterlitz.
The trio's research was conducted in the 1970s and 80s. The Nobel Foundation often awards discoveries made decades ago, to make sure they withstand the test of time.
On Monday, the Nobel Foundation, which administers the medals, awarded Japanese scientist, Yoshinori Ohsumi. the prize in the category of medicine for creating treatments for discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy, a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components.
On Wednesday, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry will be awarded.
There is speculation the chemistry honors could go to classic research in the field, tipping researchers who added new elements to the periodic table, such as nihonium or moscovium.
The main event will take place in Oslo on Friday, when the successor to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet as Nobel Peace Prize laureate will be named.
The Nobel Foundation will award the prize for literature on October 13, a week later than usual.
Prizes in all categories carry a purse of 8 million kroner ($930,000 dollars, 828,000 euros).
All awards will be conferred on December 10, the 120th anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.