Meet our Nobel Laureates
Harvard’s Nobel Laureates
Established in 1895 by the Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Bernhard Nobel, the Nobel Prize is an annual award acknowledging outstanding contributions to physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.
Medicine
Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, is a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for the discovery of microRNAs, a class of tiny RNA molecules that regulate the activities of thousands of genes in plants and animals, including humans.
Physics
A pioneering theoretical physicist from the dawn of the atomic age, Roy Glauber updated the theory of the nature of light from its origins in the 19th century to include modern quantum principles. He helped explain how light can travel in the form of quanta (particles) as well as rays or waves.
Chemistry
A die-hard Red Sox fan, Dudley Herschbach describes his research by pitching baseball metaphors. “Think of a crowd at a baseball game. In ordinary chemistry, you have to deal with the whole crowd at once. … In effect, what we’ve done is eavesdrop on conversations between molecules, as if listening to a pair of people in that crowd.”
Literature
Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize in Literature for “poetic works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.”
Peace
Upon hearing that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the Middle East, Ralph Bunche respectfully declined the honor, noting “peacemaking at the UN was not done for prizes.” He later relented, realizing that the recognition would be good for the still-young United Nations.
Economic Sciences
Much of Amartya Sen’s work deals with development economics, which is often devoted to the welfare of the poor. He has developed new ways to predict and fight famine as well as ways to measure poverty, so that more effective social programs can be designed.
In the room where it happened
What’s it like to receive the call from the Nobel Prize committee? These Harvard faculty members know firsthand.