American physicist John J. Hopfield and British-Canadian Computer scientist Geoffrey E. Hinton were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden on 8th October 2024.
- They were awarded “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks”.
- Prize amount: 11 million Swedish kronor will be shared equally between the laureates.
Medal of Nobel Prize in Physics:
i.The medal was designed by Swedish sculptor and engraver Erik Lindberg.
ii.The medal depicts the Goddess of Nature, Isis, emerging from clouds and holding a cornucopia. The Genius of Science holds the veil that covers Isis’s face.
iii.The inscription on the medal is “Inventas vitam iuvat excoluisse per artes”, which means “It is beneficial to have improved (human) life through discovered arts
Winners of Nobel Prize in Physics 2024:
| Nobel Laureate | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| John J. Hopfield | for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks. |
| Geoffrey E. Hinton |
About John J. Hopfield:
John J. Hopfield is a Howard A. Prior Professor in the Life Sciences, Emeritus, and professor of neuroscience, physics, and molecular biology, emeritus, Princeton Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, the United States of America (USA). He was born in 1933 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
About Geoffrey E. Hinton:
Geoffrey E. Hinton is a Professor Emeritus, the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. He was born in 1947 in London, the United Kingdom(UK).
About the discovery:
i.They used tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of powerful machine learning.
ii.John J. Hopfield created a structure that can store and reconstruct information.
- The Hopfield network utilises physics that describes a material’s characteristics due to its atomic spin – a property that makes each atom a tiny magnet.
iii.Geoffrey E. Hinton invented a method that can independently discover properties in data which has become important for the large neural networks now in use.
- He used the Hopfield network as the foundation for a new network that uses a different method: the Boltzmann machine.
Facts on Nobel Prize in Physics:
i.A total of 118 Nobel Prizes in Physics have been awarded to 227 laureates between 1901 and 2024.
ii.47 physics prizes were presented to a single laureate while 33 were shared by 2 laureates and 38 were shared between 3 laureates.
iii.The 226 individual laureates include 5 women.
iv.The Nobel Prize in Physics was not awarded on 6 occasions in 1916, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1941, and 1942.
Points to Note:
i.Youngest Laureate– Lawrence Bragg, received the award in 1915 at the age of 25 “for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays”.
ii.Oldest Laureate– Arthur Ashkin received the award in 2018 at the age of 96 “for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems”.
iii.First Woman– In 1903, Marie Curie became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics. She received the award along with her husband Pierre Curie in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel.
- She was also the 1st woman to receive any Nobel Prize and the only woman to receive 2 Nobel prizes (1903 in Physics and 1911 in Chemistry)
iv.Multiple Nobel Prize in Physics– John Bardeen is the only person who has received the Nobel Prize in Physics twice (1956 and 1972).
Laureate from India:
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman hailing from Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu) won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 “for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him(Raman Effect)”
- He was the 1st Indian to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.
About the Nobel Prize:
i.The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, that recognises discoveries and achievements that benefit humanity.
ii.The award is based on the fortune of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor and entrepreneur.
iii.Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.
- Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1968.
Prize Money: Winners of the Nobel Prize will receive a medal, a personal diploma, and a cash award.
- The cash award of Nobel Prize 2024 is set at Swedish kronor (SEK) 11 million per full Nobel Prize.
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