2020 Nobel Season
The 2020 Nobel Laureates were announced last week, and here's what some of our faculty have to say about the incredible work being done in their fields:
Dr. Peter Ramirez
Virologist and Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Commenting on the Nobel Prize Awarded in Physiology or Medicine
I am excited to see the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Drs. Harvey Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles Rice for their work in discovering the Hepatitis C virus (HCV). HCV primarily spreads via blood-blood contact and has infected roughly 1% of people worldwide. HCV infection often leads to long-term complications, including inflammation of the liver (hepatitis) and the development of cancer. Many cases involve patients undergoing liver transplants. In the 1970s, Dr. Alter observed that individuals who received blood transfusions and developed hepatitis were not linked to infection with Hepatitis A or B viruses. Dr. Houghton and colleagues later identified and formally named HCV as the causative agent. Dr. Rice added important scientific details about HCV, including the development of an animal model to further study the disease. Collectively, these observations were instrumental in developing effective diagnostic tests to screen blood for the presence of HCV. This led to significant breakthroughs in HCV prevention and treatment, including effective HCV antivirals and vaccine efforts. Moreover, failed HCV drugs such as Remdesivir have found new life as treatments for patients suffering from severe COVID-19. This story shows that if we continue to maintain and build a community of trust, collaboration and investment in science, great things can happen.
Dr. Chuhee Kwon, Dr. Claudia Ojeda-Aristizabal, & Dr. Jiyeong Gu
Professors of Physics
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Commenting on the Nobel Prize Awarded in Physics
We are excited about the Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to the brilliant female physicist Dr. Ghez at UCLA. Her research provided the most convincing evidence of the existence of a supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way in the 1990s. It is now believed that a supermassive black hole exists at the center of the majority of galaxies. Her research group continues to test the iconic Einstein's general theory of relativity to extend our understanding of the universe.This year's Nobel Prize in Physics is special as it is the fourth prize awarded to a woman between 1901 and 2020. Dr. Ghez is of course a science super-star but in addition to that she a physics professor and a mom. She has been described by the Keck Observatory Director as one of the most passionate and tenacious Keck users, and her groundbreaking research as the result of a commitment over the past two decades to unveil the mysteries of supermassive black holes. Listening to Dr. Ghez's interviews after the announcement of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics is thrilling and inspiring. Her recognized achievement is without doubt an incentive for women scientists around the world.
Dr. Margaret Merryfield
Professor of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Commenting on the Nobel Prize Awarded in Chemistry
I am thrilled to see the Nobel Prize awarded to two women scientists for the first time. The work for which they are being recognized, the discovery of the CRISPR/Cas9 system, has produced a genuine revolution in molecular biology. Use of this powerful tool for genome editing has exploded in the 8 years since Charpentier and Doudna published their ground-breaking work, and it holds the promise of significant breakthroughs in the future, even as the scientific community has come together to work through the ethical, scientific, legal, and societal issues associated with the ability to modify the human genome.
Dr. Prashanth Jaikumar & Dr. Thomas Klaehn
Professors of Physics
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Commenting on the Nobel Prize Awarded in Physics
On Oct 6th, the Nobel Committee awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics to Roger Penrose (U. of Oxford, England), Reinhard Genzel (Max Planck Institute, Garching, Germany and UC Berkeley) and Andrea Ghez (UCLA) for their contributions to the discovery of Black Holes. The prize is a testament to the essential role of human imagination and mathematics in Physics. It highlights how bold theoretical ideas about that most mysterious of forces, Gravity, combined with powerful space telescopes that probe deep into and beyond our Galaxy to confirm the existence of Black Holes. Penrose, who was awarded half the prize, wrestled with the equations of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity to show that Black Holes can form from the collapse of massive stars and remain stable as physical entities, not merely mathematical curiosities. Genzel and Ghez, who split the other half equally, led independent efforts to track the motion of stars near the center of the Milky Way to map out the pull of gravity and showed that it matched the expected result from a central supermassive Black Hole. The question of what happens inside these regions represents the next frontier of Gravitational Physics and some have conjectured that the answer may help understand profound questions such as how our Universe originated, the arrow of time and the existence of a multiverse.
