2002 Nobel Prizes

The 2002 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. ^[1]

Nobel Week took place from December 6 to 12, including programming such as lectures, dialogues, and discussions. The award ceremony and banquet for the Peace Prize were scheduled in Oslo on December 10, while the award ceremony and banquet for all other categories were scheduled for the same day in Stockholm. ^{[2] [3]}

Prizes

Physics

Awardee(s)
	Raymond Davis Jr. (1914–2006)	American	"for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos"	[4]
	Masatoshi Koshiba (1926–2020)	Japanese
	Riccardo Giacconi (1931–2018)	Italian American	"for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources"

Chemistry

Awardee(s)
	John B. Fenn (1917–2010)	American	"for the development of methods for identification and structure analyses of biological macromolecules [...] for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules"	[5]
	Koichi Tanaka (b. 1959)	Japanese
	Kurt Wüthrich (b. 1938)	Swiss	"for the development of methods for identification and structure analyses of biological macromolecules [...] for his development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution"	[5]

Physiology or Medicine

Awardee(s)
	Sydney Brenner (1927–2019)	South Africa	"for their discoveries concerning 'genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death'"	[6]
	H. Robert Horvitz (b. 1947)	United States
	Sir John E. Sulston (1942–2018)	United Kingdom

Literature

Main article: 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature

Awardee(s)
	Imre Kertész (1929–2016)	Hungary	"for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"	[7]

Peace

Main article: 2002 Nobel Peace Prize

Awardee(s)
	Jimmy Carter (born 1924)	United States	"for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."	[8]

Economic Sciences

Awardee(s)
	Daniel Kahneman (1934–2024)	Israel   United States	"for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty"	[9]
	Vernon L. Smith (b. 1927)	United States	"for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms"

Controversies

Peace

Carter's awarding for the Peace Prize occurred shortly before George W. Bush authorization of military force in Iraq. When asked, Nobel Prize committee head Gunnar Berge stated that "With the position Carter has taken on this, it can and must also be seen as criticism of the line the current US administration has taken on Iraq." Carter declined to comment on the remark in interviews, saying that he preferred to focus on the work of the Carter Center. ^[10]

References

1. Ulaby, Neda (October 6, 2005). "Nobel Academy Silent on Literature Prize". NPR .
2. "The Nobel Peace Prize 2002". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2024-12-10.
3. "The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony 2002". NobelPrize.org. 2013-06-01. Retrieved 2024-12-10.
4. "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2002". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 24 March 2009. Retrieved 9 October 2008.
5. "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2002". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 2 November 2008. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
6. "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2002". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 18 July 2007. Retrieved 28 July 2007.
7. "Nobel Prize in Literature 2002". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 2008-10-21. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
8. "The Nobel Peace Prize 2002". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 2008-10-17. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
9. "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2002". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 2008-10-17. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
10. "Jimmy Carter wins Nobel Peace Prize". CNN. 11 October 2002. Archived from the original on 21 November 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2010.