2020 Nobel Prizes
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The 2020 Nobel Prizes were awarded by the Nobel Foundation, based in Sweden. Six categories were awarded: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences.{{Cite web |title=All Nobel Prizes 2020 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/all-nobel-prizes-2020/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, programming for Nobel Week was limited, with some ceremonies and events taking place virtually.{{Cite news |title=2020 Nobel Prize Winners: Full List |url=https://www.nytimes.com/article/2020-nobel-prize-winners.html |work=The New York Times}}
Prizes
= Physics =
| class="wikitable"
|+ ! colspan="5" |Awardee(s) |
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(b. 1931) |{{flagdeco|United Kingdom}} British |"for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity" | rowspan="3" |{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2020/summary/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240504103334/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2020/summary/ |archive-date=4 May 2024 |access-date=6 October 2020 |publisher=Nobel Foundation}} |
| 115x115px
(b. 1952) |{{flagdeco|Germany}} German | rowspan="2" |"for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy" |
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(b. 1965) |{{flagdeco|United States}} American |
= Chemistry =
| class="wikitable"
! colspan="5" |Awardee(s) |
| 75x75px
(b. 1968) |{{flagdeco|France}} French | rowspan="2" |"for the development of a method for genome editing" |
| 100x100px
(b. 1964) |{{flagdeco|United States}} American |
= Physiology or Medicine =
{{Main page|2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine}}
| class="wikitable"
! colspan="5" |Awardee(s) |
| 100x100px
(b. 1935) |{{flag|United States}} | rowspan="3" |"for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus" |
| 94x94px
(b. 1949) |{{flag|United Kingdom}} |
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(b. 1952) |{{flag|United States}} |
= Literature =
{{Main page|2020 Nobel Prize in Literature}}
| class="wikitable"
! colspan="4" |Awardee(s) ! |
| 105x105px
(1943–2023) |{{flag|United States}} |"for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal" |
= Peace =
{{Main page|2020 Nobel Peace Prize}}
| class="wikitable"
! colspan="5" |Awardee(s) |
| 76x76px
(founded 1961) |"for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict." |
= Economic Sciences =
{{Main page|2020 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences}}
| class="wikitable"
! colspan="5" |Awardee(s) |
| 100x100px
(b. 1948) | rowspan="2" |{{flag|United States}} | rowspan="2" |"for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats"{{cite web |title=The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2020 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2020/summary/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201012144107/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2020/summary// |archive-date=2020-10-12 |access-date=2020-10-14 |publisher=Nobel Foundation}} |
| |Robert B. Wilson
(b. 1937) |
Controversies
= Chemistry =
The Chemistry Prize's awarding to Charpentier and Doudna provoked debates about who "discovered" CRISPR, with some arguing that scientists like Feng Zhang or Virginijus Šikšnys should have been properly credited.{{Cite web |last=Chamary |first=J. V. |title=These Scientists Deserved A Nobel Prize, But Didn't Discover Crispr |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2020/10/07/crispr-genome-editing-nobel-prize/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=Forbes |language=en}}
Changes
Each prize's awarding amount increased from 9 million Swedish krona to 10 million.