Nobel Prize Winners

Widely recognized as one of the highest honors an individual can receive, the Nobel Prize is awarded annually in the areas of Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Economic Sciences, Physiology or Medicine, and Peace. Carnegie Mellon has been home to 16 Nobel Laureates in five of the six categories.

Ed Rubin
Peace, 2007
(Awarded as a member of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)

As a member of IPCC, Dr. Rubin shares in the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the organization and Al Gore "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

According to The Norwegian Nobel Committee, "Through the scientific reports it has issued over the past two decades, the IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. Thousands of scientists and officials from over one hundred countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming."

Rubin's research deals with technical, economic and policy issues related to energy and the environment. One major focus is on design and analysis of environmental control options for electrical power systems. He is also actively involved in national and international assessments of technologies and policies related to energy R&D planning, coal utilization, and climate change mitigation.
 

John L. Hall
Physics, 2005
(Awarded jointly with one half to Roy J. Glauber and one half to Hall and Theodor W. Hänsch)

John Hall and Theodor Hänsch were awarded the Nobel Prize "for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique," or the determination of the color of the light of atoms and molecules with extreme precision.

Hall and Hänsch have made it possible to measure frequencies with an accuracy of fifteen digits. Lasers with extremely sharp colors can now be constructed and with the frequency comb technique precise readings can be made of light of all colors. This technique makes it possible to carry out studies of, for example, the stability of the constants of nature over time and to develop extremely accurate clocks and improved GPS technology.

Finn E. Kydland and Edward C. Prescott
Economic Sciences, 2004

Finn Kydland and Edward Prescott were awarded the prize "for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles."

Kydland and Prescott have made fundamental contributions to key areas of macroeconomic analysis as well as for the practice of monetary and fiscal policy in many countries.

They showed how the effects of expectations about future economic policy can give rise to a "time consistency problem" in work that has shifted economic policy discussions from isolated policy measures to the institutions of policy making, which has influenced central bank and monetary policy reform in several countries.  

Kydland and Prescott also joined the theory of business cycles with the theory of economic growth, leading to better business cycle models that have been widely used in modern macroeconomics.

Paul Lauterber
Physiology or Medicine, 2003
(shared with Sir Peter Mansfield)

Lauterber and Mansfield were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize "for their discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging."

As a research associate at the Mellon Institute, Lauterber conducted fundamental studies on high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which defines the chemical structure of compounds by observing the behavior of the nuclei in atoms when they are exposed to a magnetic field and pulses of radio waves. This ultimately led to the discovery of a mathematical method to analyze radio waves, foreshadowing the MRI.

John A. Pople
Chemistry, 1998
(Awarded jointly with Walter Kohn)

John Pople won the Nobel Prize "for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry." Quantum chemistry applies quantum mechanics to chemical problems, and Pople developed the quantum-chemical methodology used in several branches of chemistry.

His computational methods, including the GAUSSIAN computer program, made it possible to theoretically study molecules, their properties, and their behavior. The program has been used to study a range of interactions from interstellar matter to pollutant effects on the environment to the effectiveness of new drugs.  
 

Walter Kohn
Chemistry, 1998
(Awarded jointly with John A. Pople)

Walter Kohn was awarded the prize "for his development of the density-functional theory."

Kohn made pioneering contributions to the development of methods for theoretical studies of the properties of molecules and chemical processes. Conventional calculation of the properties of molecules is based on a description of the motion of individual electrons; Kohn proved that it suffices to know the average number of electrons located at any one point in space, thus making calculations mathematically practical. The Nobel citation described Kohn and Pople as the most prominent figures in the revolution of chemistry.

Kohn's work has led to the density-functional theory, enabling the study very large molecules. The method is now one of the most widely used in quantum chemistry.

Robert E. Lucas, Jr.
Economic Sciences, 1995

Robert Lucas won the Nobel Prize "for having developed and applied the hypothesis of rational expectations, and thereby having transformed macroeconomic analysis and deepened our understanding of economic policy."

He challenged the prevailing Keynesian economic theory by developing the rational-expectations theory. The debate surrounding his theory—that decision-makers were able to predict the result of governmental policies and therefore potentially affect them—became known as "the Lucas critique." Rational-expectations theory is now part of macroeconomics.

When Lucas received the Nobel Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences described him as "the economist who has had the greatest influence on macroeconomics research since 1970. His work has brought about a rapid and revolutionary development."
 

Clifford G. Shull
Physics, 1994
(Awarded jointly with Bertram N. Brockhouse)

Bertram Brockhouse and Clifford Shull won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter," with Shull earning distinction "for the development of the neutron diffraction technique."

Shull's pioneering work in neutron scattering involves neutrons flowing out of a nuclear reactor and being scattered by atoms. The neutrons change directions depending on the relative positions of the atoms, showing how atoms are arranged in relation to one another. "In simple terms, Clifford G. Shull has helped answer the question of where atoms 'are,'" explained the prize announcement.

By understanding where atoms are and how they interact, "we can think of how we can make better window glass, better semiconductors, better microphones. All of these things go back to understanding the basic science behind their operation," Professor Shull said on the day of the Nobel announcement.

Shull's technique is now central to the thriving field of neutron scattering.
 

John F. Nash Jr.
Economic Sciences, 1994
(Awarded jointly with John C. Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten)

John Nash and his colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize "for their pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games."

Nash's work in  game theory, a branch of mathematics, led to his theory known as the Nash solution or the Nash equilibrium. The theory, which tries to explain the interaction between threat and action between opponents,  has been applied to business strategy as well as to evolutionary biology and social science. Nash also distinguished between cooperative and non-cooperative games; binding agreements are possible in cooperative games but not in non-cooperative ones.
 

Merton H. Miller
Economic Sciences, 1990
(Awarded jointly with Harry M. Markowitz and William F. Sharpe)

Merton Miller and his colleagues received the Nobel Prize "for their pioneering work in the theory of financial economics." Miller specifically was awarded "for his fundamental contributions to the theory of corporate finance."

Miller collaborated with Franco Modigliani to develop the theory that stockholders do not benefit when firms reduce risk by diversifying because individual investors can do so though their own portfolio choices.


Franco Modigliani
Economic Sciences, 1985

Franco Modigliani won the Nobel Prize "for his pioneering analyses of saving and of financial markets." These analyses came in the form of two practical applications, his life-cycle theory and two theorems developed with Merton Miller.

His life-cycle theory countered Keynesian economic theory by saying that how people save money throughout their lives has more to do with their stages of life than with how much income they earn. The Modigliani-Miller theorems, which concern corporate finance, analyze decisions about the aspects of the consumption of the accumulated savings stock.


Herbert Simon
Economic Sciences, 1978

Herbert Simon received the Nobel Prize "for his pioneering research into the decision-making process within economic organizations." Simon rejected the classic theory assumption that an organization has one rational entrepreneur. He instead asserted that a company is more of a system made up of physical, personal, and social elements that are connected by communication and cooperation of its members.

Rather than one person, Simon suggested that a number of decision-makers are involved, and their rational decision-making is limited by lack of knowledge and by personal ties. This group works to make satisfactory decisions. The result is that companies strive to solve problems rather than maximize profits. This theory has been applied to planning, budgeting, and control in business and public administration.

Simon also won the A. M. Turing Award in 1975. He is the only Carnegie Mellon professor to have received both honors.

Paul Flory
Chemistry, 1974

Flory was recognized "for his fundamental achievements, both theoretical and experimental, in the physical chemistry of macromolecules."

As a former Mellon Institute researcher, Flory made groundbreaking discoveries concerning the behavior of molecules in various types of polymers.


Otto Stern
Physics, 1943

Otto Stern won the Nobel Prize "for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton."

Stern worked with Walther Gerlach to verify the space quantization theory. This theory opposed classical theory by saying that atoms can only align themselves in a few directions in a magnetic field rather than in any direction.  Stern and Gerlach measured the magnetic moment of a proton in 1933 using a molecular beam.

Clinton J. Davisson
Physics, 1937
(Awarded jointly with George P. Thomson)

Clinton Davisson (and George Thomson) were awarded the Nobel Prize "for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals."

The discovery that electrons can be diffracted like light waves verified Louis de Broglie's theory that electrons behave both as waves and as particles. This finding has been useful in the study of nuclear, atomic, and molecular structure. In addition, Davisson later helped develop the electron microscope.