Photo by Alexander Mahmoud, 2018. Art design: Olena Burdeina (FA_Photo) via Photoshop
We continue to share the stories of those who became Nobel laureates in 2023. You will learn about the role a Jewish Trotskyist, persecuted by the Nazis, played in the life of one of them. How the Nobel Committee’s «false start» ruined bookmakers’ odds. And why a female laureate mistook the Committee representatives for prank callers.
#4 PHYSICS: INSIDE THE ATOM AND THE «HOLY GRAIL»
In this category, women continue to surprise us, as female physicists remain exceptionally rare. In 2023, Swedish professor Anne L’Huillier from Lund University became the fifth woman ever to win the Nobel Prize in Physics and the third female laureate in the last five years.
The nuclear physics professor reacted to the award with near indifference, displaying a genuinely Nordic composure. Representatives from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences spent almost a full day trying to reach her to share the exciting news but without success!
Firstly, Anne is an incredibly busy woman who, on principle, does not answer calls from unfamiliar numbers. Secondly, the calls happened to come during her lectures. Answering would mean disrupting the class and interrupting her students’ physics lessons!
However, during a break between lectures, L’Huillier finally decided to investigate the identity of the persistent «phone stalker». She politely listened to the information from the Nobel Committee, said, «Thank you!» and calmly, without much emotion, returned to her lecture until the workday was over.
So what? On the one hand, there were her beloved students and her passion for physics, and on the other — just some Nobel Prizes. Moreover, Anne L’Huillier didn’t win the prize alone; she shared it with two men — Pierre Agostini (Ohio State University, USA) and Ferenc Krausz (Max Planck Institute, Germany). Incidentally, Krausz donated his portion of the prize to support Ukraine against Russian aggression.
In 2001, all three laureates independently conducted successful experiments that laid the foundation for a whole new scientific field: attosecond physics. The technology they developed for ultrashort laser pulses allowed scientists to create a kind of camera capable of recording what happens inside an atom.
Anne L’Huillier referred to the electronic transition as the «Holy Grail» of physics. If scientists can control the initial timing of molecular reactions, they may eventually gain control over the reactions themselves.
#5 CHEMISTRY: LOST IN «THREE NOBELS» LIKE IN A FOREST
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Americans Moungi Bawendi and Louis Brus, along with Russian scientist Alexei Ekimov, for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots, which can accelerate chemical reactions. This discovery has medical applications, such as in the removal of tumor tissue.
However, the awarding of this prize did not go without a curious incident… The inner workings of the Nobel Prize, including the motives and logic behind selecting nominees, are strictly confidential. No one is allowed to reveal the list of nominees or their rationale for at least 50 years after the prize is awarded.
This secrecy often creates intrigue and has even fostered a betting industry around the Nobel Prize. But this year, betting on the names of the Chemistry nominees was pointless — a leak occurred, and the names Bawendi, Brus, and Ekimov became public long before the official announcement by the Nobel Committee.
Soon after, representatives of the Academy of Sciences stated that the decision on the Chemistry Prize had not yet been finalized. Nevertheless, there was no real «surprise» — at the ceremony, everyone heard the three familiar names.
So, who are these «Nobles» in whom the Nobel Committee got lost, like in a dense forest? Alexei Ekimov’s name has been on Russian media and news feeds for days. After all, this is proof that Russian science still counts for something.
Despite sanctions and Western anti-Russian policies, the Russian chemist won the Nobel Prize — proof of victory over the «decaying Western democracy!» But there’s a small yet crucial detail: since 1999, Ekimov has lived and worked in the United States, where he made his groundbreaking discoveries.
The second laureate, Louis Eugene Brus, also has an interesting fact in his biography: he’s a genuine midshipman! After graduating from Rice University, he served in the Navy. Then, after earning his PhD from Columbia University, he returned as a lieutenant and continued his scientific career at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.
However, Brus only discovered quantum dots after leaving the ranks of the U.S. Navy. Apparently, military drills and scientific experiments may be compatible, but only to a certain extent.
Perhaps the most colorful of the three laureates is Moungi Bawendi, or rather, his family history. He is the son of Tunisian mathematician Mohamed Salah Bawendi. He earned his undergraduate degree at the Sorbonne on a government scholarship that required him to return to Tunisia after graduation to become a schoolteacher.
It was only after much effort and the personal intervention of one of the greatest mathematicians of the time, Frenchman Laurent-Moïse Schwartz, that Mohamed was allowed to return to France. Schwartz greatly valued Mohamed’s talent.
At Paris-Sud University, Bawendi Sr. completed his PhD and earned his doctorate. As an honest man, he returned to Tunisia a second time to become an associate professor at the University of Tunis. However, due to jealousy, his colleagues created so many administrative obstacles that Mohamed ultimately had to flee to the United States, far from his inhospitable homeland.
If Laurent-Moïse Schwartz hadn’t played a decisive role in the Bawendi family’s fate, the world might never have seen Nobel laureate Moungi Bawendi or his quantum dots. Perhaps Mohamed’s situation reminded Schwartz of his own life.
As a Jew who held Trotskyist beliefs throughout his life, Schwartz had to hide and change his identity when Nazi Germany occupied France.
- NOBEL PRIZES 2023: The Literature Prize for «Mystical Realism»
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