An interim summary and a reminder of the event that will take place tonight. Among the recipients of the prize in chemistry - former Israelis Aryeh Warshel and Michael Levit
11 scientists will take the stage of the Stockholm concert hall tonight, and one by one they will receive from the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, the highest honor of all - the Nobel Prize. The prize in chemistry will be received by the Austrian-American researcher Martin Karpelos, with his two Israeli-American colleagues - Prof. Michael Levitt from Stanford University, and Prof. Aryeh Warshel from the University of Southern California, who was introduced yesterday as a kibbutz native and a graduate of the Weizmann Institute in the celebratory Nobel lecture.
Warshel, Levitt and Karpelos will receive the award for developing advanced computer tools for deciphering the structure of various materials, as well as for analyzing chemical processes and predicting how such reactions will occur. Another scientist with a strong connection to Israel is Nobel laureate in physics, François Engler from Belgium, who also holds a position at Tel Aviv University, and stays there for a few weeks every year. He shares the prize with Professor Peter Higgs, for predicting the existence of the Higgs particle, which was discovered only a few months ago. The prize in medicine will be awarded this year to three American researchers, James Rothman, Randy Schackman and Thomas Sidhoff, for deciphering mechanisms for the transport of substances inside the cell and their secretion. The prize in economics is also shared by three Americans, Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller, for developing tools for analyzing asset prices. The bride of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Alice Munro from Canada, did not come to Stockholm due to her medical condition, and her daughter, Jenny, will receive the prize in her place. Even earlier, in the afternoon, the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in Oslo to the representatives of the OPCW - the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is currently working hard to dismantle the chemical weapons of the Assad regime in Syria. After the awards ceremony, the participants will travel to Stockholm City Hall, to participate in the traditional Nobel Ball. The Nobel Prizes are awarded annually on December 10.12, the day of the death of Alfred Nobel, the founder of the prize fund. The amount of prizes in each field this year is eight million Swedish kroner - approximately 1.2 million US dollars.
