Stockholm: The Nobel Prize 2024 in Physics was awarded to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.”
Hopfield, born in Chicago in 1933, completed his PhD from Cornell University in New York and was a professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. On the other hand, Honton was born in London in 1947 and completed his PhD from the University of Edinburgh before teaching at the University of Toronto in Canada.
The 2023 award went to French-Swedish physicist Anne L'Huillier, French scientist Pierre Agostini and Hungarian-born Ferenc Krausz for their work on providing the first split-second glimpse into the superfast world of spinning electrons, a field that could one day lead to better electronics or disease diagnoses.
"This year's laureates for the Nobel Prize in Physics, John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton used fundamental concepts from statistical physics to design artificial neural networks that function as associative memories and find patterns in large data sets. These artificial neural networks have been used to advance research across physics topics as diverse as particle physics, material science and astrophysics. They have also become part of our daily lives, for instance, in facial recognition and language translation," said Ellen Moons, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.
"The laureates' discoveries and inventions form the building blocks of machine learning that can aid humans in making faster and more reliable decisions, for instance, when diagnosing medical conditions. However, while machine learning has enormous benefits, its rapid development has also raised concerns about our future. Collectively, humans carry the responsibility for using this new technology in a safe and ethical way for the greatest benefit of humankind," she added.
The physics prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a bequest left by the award's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
"I'm flabbergasted. I had no idea this would happen, I'm very surprised," said Hinton by call upon learning of the achievement. The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded 117 times. Of those prizes, 47 went to a single winner, 32 were shared between two laureates and 38 prizes were shared between three people.
Six days of Nobel announcements opened Monday with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine prize for their discovery of tiny bits of genetic material that serve as on-and-off switches inside cells that help control what the cells do and when they do it. If scientists can better understand how they work and how to manipulate them, it could one day lead to powerful treatments for diseases like cancer.
(with inputs from agencies)
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