Chemistry
Thomas Steitz shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of Cambridge University and Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome," one of life's core processes, the ribosome's translation of DNA information into life. They showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the atomic level using a technique called X-ray crystallography to map out the positions of hundreds of thousands of atoms. Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and professor of chemistry at Yale University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, received NSF support in the late 1970s and 1980s for research on the structural basis of the molecular mechanism of cellular control and instrument acquisition. He is the 48th researcher funded by NSF to earn a Nobel prize in Chemistry.
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Economics
Elinor Ostrom shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics with Oliver Williamson. Ostrom has demonstrated how common property can be successfully managed by user associations. Williamson has developed a theory where business firms serve as structures for conflict resolution. Economic theory tends to focus on the virtues and limitations of markets and paid less attention to other institutional arrangements. The research conducted by this year's awardees showed that economic analysis can shed light on most forms of social organization. Ostrom, the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, has received thirty NSF awards from the 1970s to 2009. Williamson, the Edgar F. Kaiser Professor Emeritus of Business, Economics, and Law at University of California Berkeley, received NSF support in 1977 and 1980. Their selection marks thirteen consecutive years in which NSF grantees have received this prestigious distinction in economics.
>> NSF-Supported Economics Laureates
Physiology or Medicine
Jack Szostak shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Elizabeth H. Blackburn of the University of California San Francisco "for the study of the structure and function of the ribosome." The three investigators solved a major biological problem: how chromosomes make complete copies during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation. Szostak, who is a professor in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, the Alex. A. Rich Distinguished Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has received NSF support from 1983 to 2008. He is the 42nd researcher funded by NSF to earn a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
