As we ring in the New Year, we look back at the visionaries who defined the scientific and cultural landscape of 2025, while honoring the pioneers of 2024.
Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, Shimon Sakaguchi
For discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance, explaining how the immune system prevents damaging the body’s own cells—a breakthrough for autoimmune disease treatment.
John M. Martinis, Michel H. Devoret, John Clarke
For demonstrating macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit, laying the foundation for modern quantum technologies.
Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, Omar M. Yaghi
For developing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)—revolutionary porous materials now essential for gas storage, carbon capture, and catalysis.
László Krasznahorkai
Recognized for a visionary literary oeuvre exploring existential themes and the intense power of art in the modern human condition.
María Corina Machado
Awarded for her courageous work promoting democratic rights and striving for a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela.
Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt
For advancing theories of innovation-driven economic growth and the concept of "creative destruction" in modern economies.
A year defined by the rise of AI in science and profound reflections on history.
David Baker, Demis Hassabis, John Jumper for computational protein design and AI-based protein structure prediction (AlphaFold).
John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.
Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.
Nihon Hidankyo (Japanese atomic bomb survivors) for their efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
Han Kang for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.
Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.