Laureates 2019
Chemistry
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to John B. Goodenough of the University of Texas at Austin, M. Stanley Whittingham of the State University of New York at Binghamton, and Akira Yoshino of Asahi Kasei Corporation, Japan for the development of lithium-ion batteries. The award committee remarked that the work "created the right conditions for a wireless and fossil-fuel free society, and so brought the greatest benefit to humankind." NSF has supported Goodenough and Whittingham's work over a span of 30 years, Goodenough with 21 research awards and Whittingham with 30 awards for research or teaching. Most of Goodenoughs NSF-supported work focuses on magnets and superconductors. Whittingham discovered that it is possible to slide lithium ions in and out between the layers of an electrode, an instrumental finding in the development of lithium batteries.
Physics
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly "for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth's place in the cosmos," with one half to James Peebles "for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology" and the other half jointly to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz "for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star." NSF supported Peebles' work on gravitation, relativity, and cosmology with 17 awards over a 20-year span. Peebles' long career has included much theoretical work on the early universe. Some of his most cited research was conducted with the support of NSF funding.
Economics
The 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has been awarded to Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Michael Kremer of Harvard University for their research in alleviating global poverty. The award committee remarked that the research "has considerably improved our ability to fight global poverty." NSF has supported the work of all three Laureates -- Banerjee with six awards over 20 years, Kremer with six awards over 15 years, and Duflo with four awards over 15 years. Duflo is the youngest person ever to win the economics prize, and the second woman to win.
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