From brains to human rights: Nobel Prizes awarded

The recipients of the Nobel Prizes for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economic sciences have been announced this month, including one Stanford professor.

The Nobel Foundation, established in 1901 by Alfred Nobel, awards each laureate a gold medal, a diploma, and a cash award depending on the income of the foundation.

William E. Moerner, a professor of chemistry at Stanford University, was one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Along with Eric Betzig and Stefan W. Hell, he won the prize for bringing “optical microscopy into the nanodimension,” according to the official Nobel Prize press release.

Science department chair Anita Chetty commented on the concept behind the Nobel Prizes.

“What they’re looking for is either research that has completely changed the direction of other research or that has applications in multiple areas,” she said.

Biology teacher Mike Pistacchi expressed appreciation for the awards.

“I do like that there is a major prize, with monetary value, for research scientists, especially those involved in pure research rather than product development,” he said.

Other teachers were more skeptical about the awards’ value.

“So many fields of science have become more collaborative. I believe each award can only be shared by up to three individuals, yet many discoveries are the combined efforts of a much larger team,” Physics and Research Methods teacher Chris Spenner said.

Computer Science Department Chair Dr. Eric Nelson said that recently the prizes have become suspect to politics.

“I think the prizes in science, medicine and economics tend to accurately reflect the recognition of lasting achievements. There is some politics in the selection process, but truly great achievements cannot be ignored,” Nelson said.

1975 physiology or medicine Nobel Prize recipient David Baltimore spoke about his work to develop a treatment for HIV at the Harker Research Symposium in the spring of 2013.

“His presence at the Symposium […] elevated [it] to another level,” Chetty said. “In other words, this was more than just a high school science fair.”

The award ceremony for these prizes will take place on Dec. 10. Visit Harker Aquila (www.harkeraquila.com) for live coverage of the prizes.

This article was published in the pages of The Winged Post on Oct. 17, 2014.