On October 6, 2020 Goran K. Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announced the Nobel Prize in Physics 2020. One half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was given to Roger Penrose(United Kingdom-UK)Â for his discovery that black hole formation is resilient prediction of the general theory of relativity and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel(German) and Andrea Ghez(America) for their discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy(Milky Way).
Points to be Noted
Andrea Ghez becomes the 4th woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics after Donna Strickland, Maria Goeppert Mayer and Marie Curie.
About their Discoveries
i.Roger Penrose used ingenious mathematical methods, in his proof that black holes are a direct consequence of general theory of relativity of Albert Einstein.
ii.Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez discovered that an invisible and very heavy object governs the orbits of stars at the centre of the milky way. The only currently known explanation is a supermassive black hole.
About the Awardees
i.Roger Penrose– He is an Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor(one of the senior chair of the oxford university) of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, an emeritus fellow of Wadham College, Oxford and an honorary fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge.
ii.Reinhard Genzel– He is a director at Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany and Professor at University of California, Berkeley, USA.
iii.Andrea Ghez– She is a Professor at University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Gold Medal & Prize Amount
The award comprises a gold medal and prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor (more than $1.1 million).
Key facts about Nobel Prize
i.John Bardeen is the only Nobel Laureate who has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice, in 1956 and 1972.
ii.List of Indians who won Nobel Prize in Physics
- Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman from Tiruchirappalli, TamilNadu won the prize in 1930
- Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, born in Lahore, undivided India won the prize in 1983.
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