Wolf Prize 2012: Winners

Recipients

1. Chemistry

   A. Paul Alivisatos

   Chemistry

   for developing the colloidal inorganic nanocrystal as a building block of nanoscience making fundamental contributions to controlling the synthesis of these particles, to measuring and understanding their physical properties, and to utilizing their unique properties for applications ranging from light generation and harvesting to biological imaging.

2. Chemistry

   Charles M. Lieber

   Chemistry

   for developing new methods to control the shape and heterostructure of nanowires, for characterizing their physical properties, and for demonstrating their potential applications.

3. Mathematics

   Luis Caffarelli

   Math

   for outstanding, visionary, original and fundamental work on partial differential equations, in particular on regularity for elliptic and parabolic equations, free boundary problems and fluid mechanics.

4. Mathematics

   Michael Aschbacher

   Math

   for being a principal architect of the classification of finite simple groups. His impact on the theory of finite is extraordinary in its depth, breadth and beauty.

5. Medicine

   Ronald M. Evans

   Biology

   for discovering the gene superfamily encoding nuclear receptors and elucidating the mechanism of action of this class of receptors.

6. Physics

   Jacob Bekenstein

   Physics

   for his work on astronomical super-massive objects called 'black holes' that showed they can possess a statistical-thermodynamic property called entropy even though the internal dynamics could not be known. This work created an entire field of black hole dynamics which has become a cornerstone in the important theoretical physics areas of quantum gravity and strings.