Every year the first Monday of October is an exciting time to celebrate those who are recognized to have contributed the most "to the benefit of mankind". Nobel prizes matter because they recognize the best of the best, and those who subjectively made incredible contributions to society along with $1M cash prizes. The most famous Nobel Prize winners you might recognize are listed here. Let them always inspire you to be your very best as a global citizen. Take a moment to review last year’s winners as we eagerly await the new winners and the rationale behind this prestigious award. Nobel Prize website also included helpful resources for all learners!
Why do Nobel Prizes matter? Watch below -
2025 Nobel Prizes Schedule: [Source] October 6th-October 13th:
Monday 10.6.25 - Medicine: [Watch] [Read]
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded jointly to Mary E. Brunkow (Princeton University ‘91), Fred Ramsdell (University of California San Diego ‘87), and Shimon Sakaguchi (Kyoto University ‘82) for their groundbreaking discoveries concerning "peripheral immune tolerance." Their research identified regulatory T cells, immune system "security guards" that prevent immune cells from attacking the body's own tissues. This discovery has opened a new field of research and is crucial for developing treatments for autoimmune diseases, cancer, and improving organ transplant success.
Highlights of their work include explaining how the immune system can distinguish between harmful microbes and the body's own cells, preventing autoimmune conditions by keeping immune responses in check. Their findings have led to clinical trials for therapies that modulate immune responses and hold promise for treating autoimmune disorders and cancer.
Tuesday 10.7.25- Physics:
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John Clarke (UC Berkley), Michel H. Devoret (Yale University), and John M. Martinis (University of California) for their groundbreaking discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in electric circuits—a finding that bridges the quantum world and real-world technologies. The laureates’ discoveries paved the way for technologies like the cellphone, cameras and fiber optic cables. It also helped lay the groundwork for current attempts to build a quantum computer, a device that could compute and process information at speeds that would not be possible with classical computer. (Source)
Wednesday 10.8.25- Chemistry:
The Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa (Kyoto University, Japan) , Richard Robson (Oxford '62), and Omar M Yaghi (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign '90) for their work on metal-organic frameworks. The three scientists' work could tackle some of the biggest problems on our planet, including capturing carbon dioxide to help tackle climate change and forever chemicals (PFAs) reducing plastic pollution using chemistry.
Thursday 10.9.25- Literature:
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Hungarian author and screenwriter László Krasznahorkai for "his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art." He is most famous for his dark, intense, and often surreal novels, which employ exceptionally long, complex sentences and explore themes of societal collapse and the relentless human experience. His key works include Sátántangó and The Melancholy of Resistance, with the latter leading to him being described as a "master of the apocalypse."
Friday 10.10.25- Peace:
Monday 10.13.25- Economic Sciences:
Past Nobel Winners
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2024 Nobel Prize Winners:
The 2024 Nobel Prizes will be announced 7–14 October.
Announcements coming right up (to be updated as we find out)
Day 1 - Medicine/Physiology - Monday: “Victor Ambros (UMass) and Gary Ruvkun (Harvard) won this year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine on Monday for their discovery of microRNA. Not to be confused with messenger RNA, microRNA is a tiny molecule that tells our cells how to behave. This year’s laureates figured out that microRNA plays a key role in gene regulation, which ensures that our cells perform their necessary functions. Understanding microRNA’s role is crucial for addressing the challenges that arise when it doesn’t work properly, including cancer and congenital hearing loss.” (Read NY Times Article)
Day 2 - Physics -Tuesday: "John J. Hopfield (Cornell University) and Geoffrey E. Hinton (University of Edinburgh) were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for discoveries that helped computers learn more in the way the human brain does, providing the building blocks for developments in artificial intelligence." Source
Day 5 - Nobel Peace Prize - Friday:
Day 6 - Economic Science - Monday:
The Nobel memorial prize in economics was awarded Monday to three economists who have studied why some countries are rich and others poor and have documented that freer, open societies are more likely to prosper. The winners are Daron Acemoglu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Simon Johnson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and James A. Robinson, University of Chicago. (Read more)
Who were the Nobel Prize winners for 2023?
Medicine/Physiology - Day 1 - Monday Katalin Karikó (UPenn) and Drew Weissman (UPenn) “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19” Source
Physics - Day 2 - Tuesday Pierre Agostini (Ohio State University), Ferenc Krausz (Max Plank, Germany) and Anne L’Huillier (Lund University, Sweden) “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/science/nobel-prize-physics.html
Chemistry Day 3 - Wednesday - Chemistry Nobel Prize today for Moungi G. Bawendi (MIT), Louis E. Brus (Columbia University) and Alexei Ekimov (Nanotech Technology, NY) “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots”
Literature - Day 4 (Thursday) - Jon Fosse (Norwish) “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”
Nobel Peace Prize - Day 5 (Friday) - Narges Mohammadi (Iran) “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”
Economic Sciences - Day 6 (Monday)
Claudia Goldin (Harvard) “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes”
Year 2022
My favorites are the STEM-oriented winners - topics to celebrate this year - Neanderthal DNA (Medicine/Biology), Click Chemistry or Snapping molecules (Chemistry), Quantum Computing (Physics).
