Who Will Win the Nobel Prize This Year? ... No Koreans Among the Predicted Candidates [Reading Science]

International Academic Information Agency Announced Expected Candidates on the 22nd
Based on Criteria Such as Publication Performance, Originality, and Awards
Includes Three Japanese Candidates but No Korean Candidates

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The Nobel Prize award season will begin next week. Interest is rising as international academic institutions announce lists of expected laureates. Unfortunately, no Koreans are included.

The international academic information organization 'Clarivate Analytics' announced on the 22nd a list of expected laureates for the 2022 Nobel Prizes in the scientific fields and economics, based on citation counts, originality, and other major awards. Korea, which has yet to have a laureate in the scientific fields, unfortunately did not make it onto this list of expected candidates this year.

For the Physiology or Medicine Prize, Masato Hasegawa, head of the Department of Neurology at Tokyo Metropolitan Medical University in Japan, who researched the causative substances of Alzheimer's dementia, and Virginia Man-Yee Lee, professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in the U.S., were named. Mary-Claire King, professor at the University of Washington (Medicine and Genomics), who discovered genes causing breast and ovarian cancer, and Stuart H. Orkin, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, who developed gene therapy for sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia, were also candidates.

Emmanuel Bloch, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Germany and professor of experimental physics at Ludwig-Maximilians University, was the first named expected laureate for the Physics Prize. He has studied quantum many-body systems using ultracold atomic and molecular gases. Steven Quake, scientific director of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, who contributed to elucidating fluid dynamics phenomena at the nanoliter scale, and Takashi Taniguchi and Kenji Watanabe, researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, who succeeded in producing high-quality hexagonal boron nitride, were also named as expected laureates.

For the Chemistry Prize, Jenan Bao, professor at Stanford University's Wearable Electronics Initiative, was the first mentioned. He has researched new biomimetic applications using organic and polymer materials, including developing flexible electronic skin. Bonnie Bassler, professor at Princeton University, and Peter Greenberg, professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who elucidated chemical signaling systems between bacteria, as well as Daniel Nocera, professor at Harvard University, who established theories on proton-coupled electron transfer, were also considered expected laureates.

For the Economics Prize, the joint award possibility was predicted for Daron Acemoglu, research professor in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), James Robinson, professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and Simon Johnson, professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, for their analysis of the roles of political and economic public institutions in national development. Also mentioned were Richard Easterlin, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Southern California, who studied economic concepts of human happiness and well-being; Lord Richard Layard, professor at the London School of Economics; and Andrew Oswald, professor of behavioral economics at the University of Warwick. Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, professors emeriti in the Department of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, who established behavioral economics theories that altruism, reciprocity, and social cooperation influence decision-making beyond selfishness, were also named as expected laureates.

Since 2003, this organization has announced lists of expected laureates before the Nobel scientific awards are announced and has accurately predicted 64 laureates, earning a reputation as the most credible Nobel science award forecasting institution. For Koreans, last year, Ho Wang Lee, professor emeritus at Korea University who eradicated hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (passed away in July this year), and Hyun Taek Hwan, distinguished professor at Seoul National University in 2020, were named as expected laureates for the Physiology or Medicine and Chemistry Prizes respectively, but unfortunately did not win.

For the Peace Prize, climate and environmental activists such as David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg are mentioned as candidates. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a nonviolent democracy activist from Belarus, and Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition politician, are also possibilities. In March, members of the European Union (EU) Parliament advocated awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the people of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, according to the Nobel Foundation, laureates for six categories will be announced starting with the Physiology or Medicine Prize on the afternoon of the 3rd next month (Korean time), followed by the Physics Prize on the 4th, Chemistry Prize on the 5th, Literature Prize on the 6th, Peace Prize on the 7th, and Economics Prize on the 10th. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Economics), the Swedish Academy (Literature), the Karolinska Institute (Medicine), and the Norwegian Nobel Committee (Peace) each review and decide by vote. The award ceremony will be held on December 10th, with the Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway, and the others in Stockholm, Sweden. The prize money for each award is approximately 1.15 million USD.