BERKELEY Inspire

Ruvkun, a 1973 graduate with a B.A. in biophysics, shares the prize with Victor Ambros, a professor at the UMass Chan Medical School, for their discovery of microRNA and and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.

Baker, a biochemist who worked with 2013 Nobelist Randy Schekman at Berkeley, was honored in 2024 for computational protein design.

Bertozzi’s research into bioorthogonal reactions furthers the work of her co-winners, who developed the new field of “click chemistry.”

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022 was awarded to Svante Pääbo “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.”

The prize was awarded jointly to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.”

Julius shared the prize with Ardem Patapoutian “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.”

Berkeley professor Saul Perlmutter (a fellow Cal alum) led a team that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe; the prize was awarded jointly to Riess and Brian Schmidt.

This prize recognized contributions to developments of methods within DNA-based chemistry, with one half to Mullis for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, the other to Michael Smith.

Cech shared his prize with Sidney Altman for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA.

Lee designed experiments that sent streams of intensely packed molecules into each other at supersonic speeds, contributing to today’s powerful lasers.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1960 was awarded to Willard Frank Libby “for his method to use carbon-14 for age determination in archaeology, geology, geophysics, and other branches of science.”

Erlanger shared his prize with Herbert S. Gasser for their discoveries relating to the highly differentiated functions of single nerve fibers.