Nobel Prize for Physics Matters
I’ve been a bit tied up writing lecture notes and participating in telecons today, so I’ve just got time for a little post to mention that tomorrow morning (October 2nd 2018) will see the announcement of this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics.
I do, of course, already have a Nobel Prize of my own, dating from 2006, when I was lucky enough to attend the prize-giving ceremony and banquet.
I was, however, a guest of the Nobel Foundation rather than a prizewinner, so my medal is made of chocolate rather than gold. Still, it was a very nice weekend!
I have no idea who will win the Physics Nobel Prize tomorrow. If you have any suggestions please put then forward through the comments box.
I’d say there’s an outside chance that there might be an award for the discovery of exoplanets, as that has certainly altered humanity’s perception of its place in the Universe. It’s by no means obvious to me who should win it, however. Possibilities are Possible winners include Didier Queloz, Aleksander Wolszczan, Dale Frail, and Michel Mayor, but which? It may also be too soon after the gravitational waves prize last year. Perhaps it’s time for something less exotic this year? To find out you’ll have to wait for the announcement, around about 10.45 (UK/Irish time) tomorrow morning.
Anyway, for the record, I’ll reiterate my opinion that while the Nobel Prize is flawed in many ways, particularly because it no longer really reflects how physics research is done, it does at least have the effect of getting people talking about physics. Surely that at least is a good thing?
UPDATE: And the winner is…
One half to Arthur Askey Ashkin, and the other half jointly to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland, for “groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics.”
So there are you are. The rumours were, as usual, completely wrong.
Oh, and Donna Strickland is the first woman to win the physics Nobel since Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963. Congratulations to her, and indeed to all this year’s winners!
Follow @telescoper
In the Dark 
October 1, 2018 at 6:32 pm
Berry and Aharanov?
October 1, 2018 at 11:27 pm
Sajeev John and Eli Yablonovitch for their invention and development of photonic band gap materials?
October 2, 2018 at 9:06 am
2018 Physics Nobel Prize could celebrate progress made since 1948 (cf Shannon Entropy) to deepen our understanding of the physical nature of information thanks to quantum physics rewarding leading contributors like Wojciech Zurek, Anton Zeilinger, William Wootters, Charles Henry Bennett, Alain Aspect…
Of course, Berry and Aharanov deserve it too and they would fit to the motivated list above I think.
But I am afraid Berry as a remarkable mathematical physicist is probably tainted with too much mathematics and Aharanov may have been too much involved in the un[finished,settled] issue of quantum interpretations to recieve this particular prize.
October 2, 2018 at 9:27 am
There’s a lot of rumours about Aspect & Zeilinger, for work on quantum entanglement…
October 2, 2018 at 10:57 am
They’re false. It has just been awarded “for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics” with one half to Arthur Ashkin and the other half jointly to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland.
October 2, 2018 at 11:31 am
I know, I have updated the post appropriately…
October 2, 2018 at 11:59 am
Askin is 96. Is he the oldest person ever to receive a Nobel, in physics or in anything?
October 2, 2018 at 6:05 pm
I hadn’t realized that Donna Strickland isn’t yet a full Professor. Something tells me she might get fast-tracked now…
October 2, 2018 at 7:03 pm
Ashkin is by some margin the oldest ever Nobel recipient. At 17, Malala Yousafzei is by some margin the youngest.
October 2, 2018 at 10:17 pm
Yes I think he is the second youngest overall. Quite a lot of the recipients for physics in the early part of the 20th century were youngish, in their 30s (W.L. Bragg, Heisenberg, Dirac, Anderson, Mössbauer).
October 2, 2018 at 10:18 pm
The second youngest in Physics is TD Lee of Lee & Yang.
October 3, 2018 at 10:50 am
Chemistry today. Will it be a biology-oriented or a physics-oriented year?
October 3, 2018 at 10:54 am
The former, it seems…
https://www.theguardian.com/science/live/2018/oct/03/nobel-prize-in-chemistry-2018-live
October 3, 2018 at 11:47 am
Yet another for Cambridge molecular biology!
October 3, 2018 at 1:15 pm
No doubt it’s well-deserved, but it’s very strange that there’s still no chemistry Nobel for lithium-ion batteries. It’s almost like the committee is trying make a point by not giving Goodenough (et al.) the award. I have no idea why.
October 3, 2018 at 2:12 pm
Not Goodenough?