Laureates 2021
Physics
SYUKURO MANABE | KLAUS HASSELMANN | GIORGIO PARISI
“For the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming” and “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales.”
Making sense of systems that function from randomness and disorder is not only a challenge, but also essential for understanding some of the most important phenomena of the world. Manabe developed the first-of-its-kind general circulation climate model that combined both oceanic and atmospheric processes that paved the way for the critical work of limiting the impact of human-caused climate change. NSF is proud to have supported Manabe's research on large-scale atmospheric circulation in the early 1980s through awards at Princeton University.
Physiology or Medicine
DAVID JULIUS | ARDEM PATAPOUTIAN
“For their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.”
Understanding how organisms sense and respond to stimuli – specifically heat – is critical in harnessing these responses and mitigating them when needed, such as in the case of chronic pain. Gaining this knowledge requires fundamental research across different organisms that can lead to translational impacts in biotechnology and biomedicine. NSF is proud to have recognized the importance and potential power of David Julius' research with a Presidential Young Investigators award in 1990.
Economics
DAVID CARD | JOSHUA D. ANGRIST | GUIDO W. IMBENS
“For empirical contributions to labor economics;” and “for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships.”
Understanding the complex – and oftentimes counterintuitive – cause and effect relationships between changing aspects of our society and economy is a critical need for policy makers and other leaders. The collective discoveries of Card, Angrist and Imbens, along with contributions by Card's colleague Alan Krueger who died in 2019, showed how cause and effect can be accurately determined when it is not feasible or ethical to conduct a controlled experiment. They used "natural experiments" – large-scale situations arising in real life – to precisely understand how one thing causes another, such as how income affects health, how wages affect unemployment and how investments in schools affect the future earnings of students. Their methods have been widely adopted and applied by researchers studying a range of important social and economic issues. NSF is proud to have supported all three winners and their groundbreaking work.
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