John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discoveries enabling machine learning. His name was announced on Tuesday. “The scientists awarded this year's Nobel Prize for Physics used the tools of physics to develop methods that are considered the foundation of today's powerful machine learning,” the Nobel Committee said in a press release.
Hopfield conducted his research at Princeton University and Hinton conducted his research at the University of Toronto. Last year, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three scientists who studied electrons in atoms during the smallest fraction of a second.
Pierre Augustini of Ohio State University in the US, Franz Kraus of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany and Anne Luillie of Lund University in Sweden were awarded this honour.
The Nobel Prize carries a cash amount of 11 million Swedish kronor (1 million US dollars). This money is given from the estate of the founder of the prize, Swedish citizen Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896. Nobel laureates will be honored on December 10, Nobel's death anniversary.
The Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded to American scientists Victor Ambrose and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA was announced on Monday. Nobel Prize winners will be announced in the field of Chemistry on Wednesday and Literature on Thursday. The Nobel Prize for Peace will be announced on Friday and the Nobel Prize for Economics will be announced on October 14.
