On Monday, the Royal Swedish Academy began announcing the laureates of this year’s Nobel Prize. So far, only the winners of the medicine and physics categories have been revealed, honored for their work on Covid-19 vaccines and the study of “atto-second light pulses” on electrons.
Today, the Nobel Prize in Physics was announced, with Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier being awarded for their work in creating and developing “experimental methods capable of generating attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter.” The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explained that the three researchers discovered new tools to explore electrons within atoms and molecules, specifically by creating extremely short light pulses that can be used to measure previously unobservable rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy.
Throughout the rest of the week, the winners in the fields of Chemistry (October 4), Literature (October 5), and Peace (October 6) will be announced. Only the award for Economic Sciences will be announced on Monday, October 9. All the laureates will receive a monetary prize of 11 million Swedish crowns, approximately 925,000 euros.