Posts in category: Science

Peter Shor received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena in 1981, a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1985, followed by post-doctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1986, he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and moved, in 1996, to AT&T laboratories in Florham Park, New Jersey.

Professor Shor is most famous for his work on quantum computation, particularly for devising a quantum algorithm, now known as Shor’s Algorithm, for factoring faster than the fastest known algorithm running on a digital computer. Shor’s algorithm uses a number of steps that grow only polynomially in the size of the instance, for example, the number of digits in the number to be factored. He thus made the physical development of quantum computers (hypothetical machines of which only small prototypes have so far been built) more feasible by showing that errors in the computation need not inevitably disrupt the operations of a quantum computer – he exhibited quantum correcting codes, which could be used to build a quantum computer out of slightly noisy components.

Professor Shor was awarded the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize from the International Congress of Mathematicians, the Dickson Prize in Science, the International Quantum Communication Award and the Gödel Prize for best paper in theoretical computer science. In 1999, he was awarded the MacArthur fellowship (nicknamed “Genius Fellowship”), which is awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to US citizens and residents of any age and field of research “who show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work.”

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Yuri Manin received his M.Sc. in mathematics from Moscow University and a Ph.D. and Habilitation from the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He served as a professor of Mathematics at Moscow University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and as a Visiting Professor at Columbia University. In 1993, he was appointed Director of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn.

Professor Manin is one of the most influential mathematicians, with broad research interests covering algebra, geometry, number theory, theoretical computer science and mathematical physics. He published his first paper during his undergraduate years. His earlier achievements also include proof of the Model conjecture, introduction of the Gauss-Manin Connection, a vital tool in modern algebraic geometry, and disproof of the Luroth problem (jointly with Iskoviskih). In the theory of number, he discovered certain constraints known as Brauer-Manin Obstruction to the existence of rational solutions to Diophantine equations. He also launched a program to study algebraic manifolds and carried out – with his students – widely recognized work on error-correcting codes algorithms. From the late 1970s, he turned his attention to the application of algebraic geometry to mathematical physics, and made significant advances in quantum field theory and quantum string theory. More recently, he contributed to the development of a mathematical theory of quantum homology. He authored 14 books and more than 200 scientific papers in prestigious journals, and mentored numerous students from around the world. Professor Manin’s intellectual pursuit extends beyond mathematics; he published research and expository papers in literature, mythology, semiotics, physics, linguistics, glotto-genesis, history of culture, and philosophy of science.

Professor Manin’s outstanding contributions to both mathematics and physics were recognized by numerous prestigious prizes, medals, honorary doctorate degrees, fellowships of major scientific academies and Institutes, honorary lectureships and editorships of major mathematical journals.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Chen Nin Yang obtained his B.Sc. at the National Southwest Associated University in Kunming, and an M.Sc. in Physics at Tsinghua University, China, and a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, where he also served as instructor in 1948. The following year, Yang joined the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University in New Jersey, becoming a full professor six years later. In 1965, he took the position of Albert Einstein Professor and Director of the newly founded Institute of Theoretical Physics at the State University of New York in Stoneybrook (SUNY). Following his retirement in 1999, he was appointed an Albert Einstein Professor Emeritus and an Honorary Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at SUNY, and a Distinguished Professor At-Large at the Chinese University in Hong Kong. He is currently an honorary director of Tsinghua University, Beijing, where he is the Huang Jibei-Lu Kaiqun professor at the Center for Advanced Studies.

Professor Yang is a renowned theoretical physicist whose research with Tsung-Dao Lee showed that the law of parity symmetry between physical phenomena occurring in right-handed and left-handed coordinate systems is violated during the decay of certain elementary particles. Prior to that, it was assumed that parity symmetry was a universal law in physics. This and other studies in particle physics earned Yang and Lee the Nobel Prize in 1957. Yang’s subsequent work with Robert Mills on the non-Abelian gauge theory (also known as Quantum Yang-Mills theory) laid the foundation for the unification of all interactions in nature. It is this latter work that was recognized by the King Faisal International Prize for Science. Yang also made fundamental contributions to statistical mechanics and the theory of quantum fluids.

Professor Yang’s profoundly deep contributions to the principles of theoretical physics were recognized by numerous other prestigious awards and honors, 18 honorary degrees, and honorary fellowships of leading international scientific academies and societies worldwide. In 1986, he received the National Science Medal, the highest American distinction in science, from the President of the USA. He was also elected Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society in London.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Sajeev John obtained his B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University. He then received post-doctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania. During his stay in the United States, he served at Exxon Research and Engineering Laboratories, Princeton University and Bell Communications Research Laboratories. In 1989, he joined the University of Toronto, where he became a Professor of Physics in 1992 and a Principal Investigator for Photonics Research Ontario.

Professor John’s main research involves three areas: light localization and photonic bands, high temperature superconductivity, and multiple light scattering spectroscopy. He played a major role in the discovery and elucidation of the fundamental principles of photonic band gap materials and was the driving force behind research which involves the processing of information by optical means. Photonic gap materials are dielectric materials capable of trapping light, thus providing photonic analogs of semiconductors. This new technology could lead to the development of optical microchips where light instead of electricity moves through tiny circuits. If this technology can be mass produced, it will be a major technological advance since information will be processed at the speed of light, allowing smaller and faster communication devices to be built. John’s other research interests include medical imaging and high-temperature superconductivity. He is also developing a microscopic theory of the superconducting phase of high temperature cuprate superconductors. If successful, it could lead to the fabrication of superconducting materials that operate at room temperature.

Professor John received several awards and honors including the Herzberg Medal for Physics, Steacie Prize, and the Humboldt Senior Scientist Award. He is also the recipient of the McLean Fellowship from the University of Toronto, the Killman Research Fellowship from the Canada Council, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

John Venter began his formal education at a community college in California, where he proceeded to obtain a B.A. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of California, San Diego. In 1976, he started teaching at the Colleges of Medicine and Dentistry at the State University of New York (SUNY), where he rose to the rank of research professor in 1984. Between 1984-1992, he joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in Bethesda, Maryland, where he directed the Receptor Biochemistry and Molecular Biology laboratories. In 1992, he founded the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), a non-profit research institute. 

Professor Venter is a world authority on genomic sequencing. He was the first to put high throughput automated DNA sequencing into practice, and the first to develop the highly efficient expressed sequence tags (EST) method for developing whole genome random sequencing strategy for rapidly decoding entire organismal genomes. The EST has fundamentally altered the process of gene discovery worldwide and greatly accelerated the discovery of human genes. Using the whole genome shotgun, Venter sequenced the first genome of a free-living organism, the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae. This landmark achievement was soon followed by the sequencing of entire genomes of other organisms, and was key to the subsequent success in sequencing the human genome. Using DNA from 5 human volunteers, including himself, Venter generated the human genome sequence. In 2000, he and rival scientist Francis Collins of the NIH, along with the U.S. President Bill Clinton made the stunning announcement of the mapping of the human genome; Venter and Collins then shared the Biography of the Year award.

Professor Venter published hundreds of scientific papers in prestigious journals. He also received several awards and honors from academic, industrial, and biotechnology groups, as well honorary doctorate degrees and invited lectureships. He was also the subject of articles in several magazines as well as documentary television series.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Edward Wilson earned his B.S. in 1949, M.S. in 1950 from the University of Alabama, and his Ph.D. in 1955 from Harvard University. He served as a Professor at Harvard University from 1956, where he took on several distinguished positions. He was a Research Professor of Entomology at Pellegrino University, an Honorary Curator in Entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, and a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Enquiry.

Often known as Dr. Ant, Professor Wilson developed his profound interest in nature as a child. At the age of 13, he discovered the first ever colony of fire ants in the United States, invaders from South America. Drawing from his profound knowledge of these earth’s “little creatures,” he wrote what is probably his most important book, The Diversity of Life, in which he describes how an intricately interconnected natural system is threatened by a man-made biodiversity crisis he calls the “sixth extinction.” His most recent work focuses on the impact of human activity on life on earth.

Professor Wilson’s unequaled contributions extend to the fields of ecology, systematic, conservational, and behavioral biology, biogeography and ethical philosophy. He was the founder of the modern biodiversity movement and the father of sociobiology, a field that seeks to uncover the biological basis of human and animal behavior. The two most widely accepted concepts in ecology on which much basic and applied research rests are those of the r-K selection and island biodiversity. Both concepts were proposed by Wilson with the late Robert McArthur of Princeton University. The first concept is pivotal in evolutionary biology, while the second is the basis for all work on conservation and biodiversity.

Professor Wilson’s overall contribution represents an ambitious attempt to bring together, within a single conceptual framework, the various fields of knowledge from the natural sciences through the social sciences, to the humanities and arts. He authored and co-authored over 400 scientific articles, 20 books, and edited 6 other books. Five of his articles and books were identified as classic citations.

Professor Wilson was one of the most accomplished biologists and the most celebrated intellectuals of the 20th century. He received over 100 prestigious awards including the Crafood Medal of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society, and the US National Medal of Science. He has also been awarded several honorary doctoral degrees and Honorary Fellowships of nearly all prestigious science academies and societies worldwide. Two of his books won the renowned Pulitzer prize for nonfiction.

In 1995, Time magazine named Professor Wilson as one of the 25 most influential Americans, in 2000 both Time and Audubon magazines named him one of the century’s 100 leading environmentalists.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Dieter Seebach received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in chemistry at Karlsruhe University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, and a Habilitation at Karlsruhe University. He served as a lecturer at Harvard during his postdoctoral research. After his habilitation, he became a professor of organic chemistry at the Justus Liebig Giessen University. In 1977, he was appointed as a professor at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH or Swiss Federal Institute) in Zurich, Switzerland.

Professor Seebach is a giant of contemporary organic chemistry. His work dramatically influenced the progress of organic synthesis, and resulted in over 800 publications, over 20 patents, over 950 invited lectures, and numerous scientific awards. Seebach’s milestone contributions to the progress of organic chemistry include the development of novel synthetic methods, elucidation of the structure and function of biomolecular β-hydroxyalkanoates, and the discovery of unusual β-peptides capable of undergoing diverse and stable secondary structures, which may have valuable applications in bioavailable drug candidates. Seebach supervised around 150 Ph.D. students and more than 100 postdoctoral fellows and was an invited professor at several prestigious universities.

Professor Seebach received many awards and honors, including an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Montpellier in France; he was also a recipient of fellowships and memberships from major scientific academies and societies. He is also a member of the editorial boards of several prestigious chemistry journals.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Ryoji Noyori obtained his B.A. in Chemistry, as well as an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Industrial Chemistry from the College of Engineering at Kyoto University in Japan, followed by a postdoctoral training at Harvard University. Noyori’s academic career spans more than 40 years. He served as a Professor of Chemistry at Nagoya University from 1972, and as Dean of the Graduate School of Science from 1997. He also served as a Professor at Kyushu University between 1993-1996. He is also a Member of the Scientific Council of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology; Scientific Advisor of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; former President of the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry; and former Director of the ERATO Molecular Catalysis Project of the Research Development Corporation of Japan.

Professor Noyori received many awards and honors, including the Chemical Society of Japan Award, the Japan Academy Prize, the Roger Adams Award, and an honorary doctorate degree from Technische Universität München in Germany. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an Honorary Member of the Chemical Society of Japan, and a Member of the American Chemical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Andrew J. Wiles received his B.A. in Mathematics from Merton College at Oxford in 1974 and his Ph.D. from Clare College at Cambridge in 1980. During his doctoral studies, he was a Junior Research fellow at Clare College, Cambridge University, and a Benjamin Peirce Assistant Professor at Harvard University. After completing his degree, he spent some time as a scholar at the Institute of Theoretical Mathematics (Sonderforschungsbereich Theoretische Mathematik) in Bonn, Germany, then joined the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1981, where he became a professor in 1982. In 1988, he was named the Royal Society Research Professor at Oxford University. In 1994, he was appointed as a Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University.

Professor Wiles is an outstanding mathematician with distinguished contributions to number theory, algebraic geometry and modular forms. He earned international recognition following his proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem in 1995. This theorem is one of the most famous problems in mathematics. It remained unresolved for more than 350 years, despite numerous previous attempts to solve it. Although falling into an obscure branch of mathematics, the solving of this problem is a stunning tour de force that revolutionized the study of elliptic curves in number theory. Its solution resulted in outstanding practical applications, such as the development of public key cryptology, allowing communication on public computer networks, such as the Internet, without compromising privacy.

Professor Wiles’ proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem earned him many prestigious honors, including the Schock Prize, the US National Academy of Sciences Mathematics Award, the Prix Fermat, the Ostrowski Prize, the Wolf Prize, the Commonwealth Award, and the Cole Prize in Number Theory. He was also awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship during 1985-1986, which enabled him to visit the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifique in Paris and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Eric Cornell received his B.S. in Physics with distinction from Stanford University in 1985 and a Ph.D. in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Rowland Institute at Harvard University. He is currently a Professor at the University of Colorado and a Senior Physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder.

Professor Cornell, jointly with Carl E. Wieman succeeded in achieving a new state of matter known as Bose Einstein Condensate. This is an extreme state of matter that no one else has been able to accomplish, although the quest to achieve it was started more than 70 years ago by Satyendra Bose and Albert Einstein. In 1995, Cornell and Wieman (and independently Wolfgang Kettrle at MIT) were able to achieve the condensate, using very advanced methods of magnetically trapping and cooling dilute gasses of alkali atoms, such as rubidium-87 gas, to a temperature of less than 170 billionths of a degree above the absolute zero (a hypothetical temperature at which matter neither emits or absorbs energy). This discovery, which was preceded by clever innovations of magnetic trapping, not only deepens our understanding of matter in a new state at the lowest temperature ever achieved, but also opens an exciting new field of research into the possible applications of that state. For his work, Cornell received numerous other awards including the Rabi Prize, the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal, the Fritz London Prize in Low Temperature Physics, the Newcomb-Cleveland Prize, the Samuel Wesley Stratton Award, the Carl Zeiss Award, and the Presidential Early Career Award.

Professor Cornell’s scientific contributions appeared in a large number of scientific papers, presentations and invited lectures.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.