Our Scientists Break Down the Nobel Prizes
From autoimmune disorders and macroscopic quantum tunnelling to chemical constructions with unimaginable powers, these conversations unwrap some of the most cutting-edge scientific developments of today.
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Every year, the Nobel Prizes introduce the world to three scientific developments that have been groundbreaking in different ways. Some have helped us unravel life’s greatest mysteries, such as the origins of homochirality through asymmetric organic synthesis. Others have directly transformed our lives, as mRNA vaccines did by saving countless lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have opened up new frontiers in astrophysics, as the discovery of high-energy neutrinos did, while others recognise technologies with the potential to reshape our future, such as metal organic frameworks and genome editing
Our University faculty believe that this complex science has to be made accessible to students and the general public because they may very well affect our lives in the future, if they don’t already.
Despite having their hands full at the University, our faculty manage to stay abreast of the latest developments in their field. Not only that, they believe that this complex science has to be made accessible to students and the general public because they may very well affect our lives in the future, if they don’t already.
This video series is an attempt by the scientists and science communicators on our campus to make this happen.
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”. Asha Mary Joseph, a cell biologist and faculty member, in conversation with Nandita Jayaraj, elaborates on how the laureates came upon this discovery, how it has transformed our understanding of the brain’s working, and what it could mean for human health:
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Francis Halzen “for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin”. Theoretical physicist Sridhar K, a theoretical physicist and faculty member, in conversation with Nandita Jayaraj, about neutrinos, the giant ice cube detector in the South Pole, and a new era of astrophysics that it has heralded:
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai “for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis”. Debobroto Sensharma, experimental chemist and faculty member, in conversation with Nandita Jayaraj on the “homochirality” of life’s chemistry, the puzzle it poses to chemists, and the most spectacular chemical experiment ever performed:
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi “for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.” Azim Premji University biologist Krishna Deepak sits down with science communicator Nandita Jayaraj to provide a short introduction to what this means and why this matters.
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The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit”. Azim Premji University physicist Kripa Gowrishankar sits down with science communicator Nandita Jayaraj to provide a short introduction to what this means and why this matters.
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The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal-organic frameworks.” Azim Premji University chemist Sathish CG sits down with science communicator Nandita Jayaraj to provide a short introduction to what this means and why this matters.
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The 2024 Nobel Prize 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”. Azim Premji University computer scientist R Ramanujam sits down with science communicator Nandita Jayaraj to discuss what this means. What does it mean for a machine to ‘learn’, how did the laureates bring us out of the ‘AI winter’, and how exactly is any of this physics?
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The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine was awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun “for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation”. Azim Premji University biologist Sravanti Uppaluri sits down with science communicator Nandita Jayaraj to discuss what this means. What is microRNA, what is the impact of its discovery and what exactly is so special about the serial Nobel Prize-winning C.elegans worm?
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The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to David Baker “for computational protein design” as well as Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for “protein structure prediction”. Azim Premji University faculty Aahana Ganguly sits down with science communicator Nandita Jayaraj to discuss what this means. Why do protein structures matter and what were the breakthroughs these laureates achieved?
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The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”. Azim Premji University physics faculty member Proteep Mallik tells us what an attosecond is and what this means for our understanding of the universe.
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Banner image — credit: Clément Morin