2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
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10/9/2013
GovXShortDescription
Two Israeli citizens among the recipients
The
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2013 to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel
"for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical
systems".
In the 1970s, Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel laid the
foundation for the powerful programs that are used to understand and predict
chemical processes. Computer models mirroring real life have become crucial for
most advances made in chemistry today.
Arieh Warshel, U.S. and Israeli citizen. Born 1940 in Kibbutz Sde-Nahum, Israel. Ph.D. 1969 from Weizmann Institute of Science,
Rehovot, Israel. Distinguished Professor, University of Southern California,
Los Angeles, CA, USA,
Michael Levitt, U.S., British and Israeli citizen. Born 1947 in
Pretoria, South Africa. Ph.D. 1971 from University of Cambridge, UK. Robert W.
and Vivian K. Cahill Professor in Cancer Research, Stanford University School
of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
The work of Karplus, Levitt and Warshel is ground-breaking in that they managed
to make Newton’s classical physics work side-by-side with the fundamentally
different quantum physics which require enormous computing power. For instance,
in simulations of how a drug couples to its target protein in the body, the
computer performs quantum theoretical calculations on those atoms in the target
protein that interact with the drug. The rest of the large protein is simulated
using less demanding classical physics.
Today the computer is just as important a tool for chemists as the test tube.
Simulations are so realistic that they predict the outcome of traditional
experiments.
Profs. Arieh Warshel and Michael Levitt began their scientific collaboration in
the 1960s at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where Warshel was a doctoral
student. They worked with the late Prof. Shneior Lifson in the Chemical Physics
Department. Together, they developed a computer program that ran on the
Institute’s Golem computer – a powerful device in those days – to model
molecules.
Warshel and Levitt reunited at the Weizmann Institute in 1972. According to the
Nobel site, “Levitt and Warshel aimed high.” They developed a computer program
that was “revolutionary because it could be used for any kind of molecule.”
They also found a way to make the program more efficient, by focusing on the
more interesting parts of the molecule. They went on to make seminal
contributions to the field of computational biology by performing simulations
to study how proteins work.
President Shimon Peres congratulated Professor Arieh Warshel: "I want to
congratulate you on behalf of the State of Israel and the Jewish people and
every person who hopes to overcome sickness and suffering because of your work.
I am sure that your breakthrough will lead to advances in medicine and further
scientific breakthroughs." President Peres asked Professor Warshel to
convey his congratulations to the scientists who worked with him and with whom
he is sharing the Nobel Prize, Professor Michael Levitt and Professor Martin
Karplus.
Prof. Warshel related that the research for which he has been
awarded the Nobel Prize was carried out while he was in Israel.
Prime Minister Netanyahu: "We are proud of you and proud of the people who
were at the Technion and
the Weizmann Institute of Science and moved them forward."
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Profs. Arieh Warshel and Michael Levitt
Copyright: Wikipedia Commons, MFA
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Copyright: Wikipedia Commons
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