In one category the winners have already been announced this year, now the Nobel Prize in Physics will follow. As in the previous year, will there be another German among the winners?
Stockholm – Last year, the German astrophysicist Reinhard Genzel received the Nobel Prize in Physics. Now his successors will be announced.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will announce at 11:45 a.m. at the earliest who will receive the prestigious award in the physics category this year. As in every year, the responsible Nobel Committee keeps who is eligible for this top secret in advance. As in the previous year, the Nobel Prizes are endowed with ten million Swedish kronor (around 980,000 euros) per category.
Genzel and the US researcher Andrea Ghez received half of the award in 2020, while the other half went to the British Roger Penrose. The three had been honored for their exploration of black holes.
A total of 215 winners have received the award in the physics category so far, US researcher John Bardeen twice. The first of them was the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who received the 1901 award for the discovery of the X-rays named after him.
The physics award and other scientific awards often go to two or three scientists who have either done research together or in the same subject. David Julius (USA) and Lebanon-born Ardem Patapoutian had already been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine yesterday. The two of them discovered cell receptors through which people perceive temperature and touch.
The prestigious Nobel medals and diplomas are traditionally awarded on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the prize donor and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). Who will be honored together with the awardees in medicine and physics will be decided in the next few days: on Wednesday the winners in chemistry will also be announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, on Thursday the Nobel Prize for Literature will be announced in the Swedish Academy . On Friday the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in Oslo, the next Monday again in Stockholm the Prize for Economics, which is the only one that does not go back to Nobel’s will. dpa
