2009 Nobel Prize winners

The list of 2009 Nobel Prize winners is now complete with Monday’s announcement of Nobel Prize for Economics.Two ceremonies will be conducted in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10 to award the Prizes to the winners of this years Nobel.

Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine
The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine will be awarded to Americans Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak for discovering how chromosomes protect themselves as cells divide, work that has inspired experimental cancer therapies and may offer insights into aging.

Nobel Prize in physics
The Nobel Prize in physics will be awarded to Americans Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith. Kao was honored for discovering how to transmit light signals long distance through hair-thin glass fibers. Boyle and Smith received the prize for opening the door to digital cameras by inventing a sensor that turns light into electrical signals.
Nobel Prize in chemistry
The Nobel Prize in chemistry will be awarded to to Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz and Israel’s Ada Yonath — the first woman to receive it since 1964 — for creating detailed blueprints of ribosomes, the protein-making machinery within cells, research that’s being used to develop new antibiotics.

Nobel Prize in literature
The Nobel Prize in literature will be awarded to Germany’s Herta Mueller, a Romanian-born writer honored for work that “with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.”

Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to President Barack Obama for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision drew praise, derision and plenty of puzzlement.

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be awarded to Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson for their work in economic governance. Ostrom was the first woman to win the prize since it was founded in 1968, and the fifth woman to win a Nobel award this year — a Nobel record.