It's that time of year again, when the Nobel Prizes are announced-- the official announcements will be made starting next Monday. And, as usual, people are speculating about who will win, on both an amateur and professional basis.
Meanwhile, as we've done in the past, I will offer a valuable prize to anyone who predicts the winners of any of this year's Nobel prizes:
Leave a comment on this post predicting the winner(s) of one of this year's Nobel Prizes. Anyone who correctly picks both the field and the laureate will win a guest-post spot on this blog.
Rules and conditions are the same as last year. Comments must be posted by 11:59 pm Sunday, October 4 to be eligible. One entry per commenter per field, please.
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I understand that Pete Seeger has been nominated for the Peace Prize. I have no idea what his chances are, but a win would be wonderful -- both for the environment and for recognition of the rights of everyone worldwide.
I tip Emmy the Queen of Niskayuna for the Literature Prize ;)
Physics: Vera Rubin.
Chemistry: Harry Noller.
I've got a list somewhere of people I think should definitely win Nobel prizes, mostly in physics. Last year, the top pair on my list, Kobayashi and Maskawa finally won. Since somebody has suggested Vera Rubin, I'll suggest that she wins half the physics prize and the other half is split between the Toomre brothers, for their work on colliding galaxies and galactic evolution. Alas, Fritz Zwicky, the other pioneer in that area is long, long deceased.
Stefan Hell for physics.
Eric Betzig for physics.
John Pendry for physics.
All of these guys have done important work on overcoming the diffraction limit.
Stephen Hawking - in physics,
F. Ulrich Hartl and Arthur Horwich - in chemistry
As much as I'm a big fan of Stephen hawking, I don't really see how he'd the prize. His contributions to mathematical physics have been enormous but Hawking radiation has yet to be observed.
Thomson Reuters 2009 Predictions:
http://scientific.thomson.com/nobel/
For Physics I'll predict it will be A. Geim and K. Novoselov
I will be PC and suggest a woman. Either Very Rubin for dark stuff, or Mildred Dresselhaus for nanotubes.
Kimble, Wineland, and Zeilinger. Quantum info.
Chemistry: George Whitesides
Only because he's the only person I've collaborated with who is realistically in the running.
Physics: Aharonov and Berry
Chemistry: Richard Zare
For the last few years I've taken the long odds and guessed Stephen Hawking. Since we haven't yet seen any strong evidence for Hawking radiation, I'll go ahead and guess Guth and Linde for inflation.
Physics: Aharonov and Berry (same pick as last year).
No Hawking until experimental observation of Hawking radiation. No Higgs until experimental observation of Higgs boson. No graphene b/c it's too soon.
Chemistry: Possibly Ijima, though Zare is a good one. Perhaps Whitesides?
Chemistry: Michael Gratzel or Richard Heck
Same predictions as last year, except for the Physics Prize.
Physiology or Medicine: Elizabeth Blackburn & Carol Greider
(Shinya Yamanaka will win eventually, but perhaps it is too soon.)
Chemistry: Harry Noller, Peter Moore & Thomas Steitz
Physics: Alain Aspect? & Anton Zeilinger?
(I'm ignorant about the field, but a prize for quantum measurement and quantum information seems possible.)
Chemistry: Ada Yonath (ribosome)
Medicine: Akiro Endo (statins)
Chemistry: Zare and Moerner
Physiology or Medicine: Weinberg
Physics: Kleppner
it's gonna be Genzel in physics. They completed a full orbit around the black hole in the galactic center!
Either Physics or Chemistry: Geim & Novoselov
Economics: Nordhaus
Medicine: Burgdorfer
Just in:
Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak
have won the Nobel Prize for Medicine! Congratulations!
Physics: Vera Rubin
Physics: Wineland/Aspect/Zeilinger
Chemistry- Professor Robert S. Langer MIT
Economics: Paul Romer