Nobel Prize in Chemistry – for green fluorescent protein
The 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists working in the United States – Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfi and Roger Tsien. They received the prize for the discovery of green fluorescent protein (GFP) and the development of methods for its application in science. Fluorescent proteins are widely used in the study of biological processes in living organisms (in vivo). The Nobel Committee divided the prize of 10 million Swedish kronor (about one million euros) equally between the laureates.
Osamu Shimomura, born in Kyoto, Japan, works at the marine Biology Laboratory at the Wood Halls Institute in Massachusetts. Martin Chalfi is at Columbia University in New York, Roger Tsien is at the University of California in San Diego. Chalfi and Tsien were born in the USA, the first in Chicago, the second in New York. Russian transliteration of Roger Tsien's traditional Chinese name is Yongjian Qian, as you might guess, Roger Tsien is an American of Chinese descent.
Traditionally, the winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry are announced on Wednesday. The winner is selected by a committee of six people from among the candidates whose names can be proposed by previous laureates and members of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. The Chairman of the Nobel Committee on Chemistry is currently Gunnar von Heijne.
The first Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 1901 to the Dutch chemist Jacob Hendrik Vanthoff for his work on the dynamics of chemical reactions and studies of osmotic pressure in solutions. Last year, German Gerhard Ertl was awarded the Nobel Prize for his research of chemical processes on solid surfaces, on which the action of a large number of catalysts for various chemical reactions is based – both in nature and in industry.
Russian scientists have received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry only once so far. In 1956, Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov received the prize for research on the mechanisms of chemical reactions (together with the Briton Cyril Norman Hinshelwood). In 1977, Ilya Prigozhin, born in Moscow, received the prize, whose scientific career took place in Belgium and the USA.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru08.10.2008