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Who Are the 2022 Nobel Prize Winners? Meet the Recipients So Far. The six prizes are awarded to individuals who made groundbreaking innovations in the fields of physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, economic science, literature and peace work.

By Sam Silverman Edited by Jessica Thomas

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The Nobel Prize committees have announced the winners of this year's prestigious awards, and each recipient is a trailblazer in their respective field.

The winners are chosen by committees in Sweden and Norway that select six individuals who have excelled in physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, economic science, literature and peace work. Traditionally, the committees announce one winner each day in Stockholm and Oslo during the first full week of October, and an in-person ceremony follows at a later date. However, this will be the first year since the start of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic that the winners will receive their medals and diplomas (not to mention 10 million Swedish kronor, or $900,000) in Stockholm in December. The winners from the past two years have been invited to join as well.

The Nobel Prize winners have been announced each October since the awards' inception in 1901. The awards are considered the most prestigious in the world and are given to "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind."

Keep scrolling to meet the 2022 Nobel Prize laureates.

Physiology or medicine: Dr. Svante Pääbo

Dr. Svante Pääbo won the 2022 Nobel Prize for his discoveries in human evolution.

The Sweden-based geneticist produced a full Neanderthal genome by extracting genetic material from 40,000-year-old bones, marking a groundbreaking milestone in ancient DNA studies.

Related: The Scientists Whose Research Led to Everything We Know About Sleep Just Won the Nobel Prize in Medicine

Physics: Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger

Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger's work in quantum technology landed them the second Nobel Prize announced in 2022.

Although Aspect is from France, Clauser hales from the U.S., and Zeilinger is from Austria, the three separately performed "groundbreaking experiments" using entangled quantum states that behaved as one unit even after being separated. "Their results have cleared the way for new technology," the committee stated.

Chemistry: Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless

The Nobel Prize for chemistry went to another trio, Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless "for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry," the committee stated.

Together, they created a functional form of chemistry, click chemistry, which is a "straightforward route" to building molecular functions. Dr. Bertozzi "took click chemistry to a new level" and started utilizing it in living organisms.

Dr. Bertozzi is the eighth woman chemist to be awarded the prize, while Dr. Sharpless is the fifth scientist to be awarded two Nobel Prizes.

Literature: Annie Ernaux

French novelist Annie Ernaux took home the Nobel Prize in literature as the 17th woman to win the award since 1901. The author, who is 82, has been writing autobiographical stories about feminism and the human experience for more than 50 years.

Peace work: Ales Bialiatski, human rights organizations Center for Civil Liberties and Memorial

The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize is shared by three recipients: Belarus-based human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski, Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties and Russian human rights organization Memorial.

Bialiatski is the founder of Belarus human rights organization Viasna, or Spring, which was born in 1996 in response to authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko, per CNN. The longtime advocate was arrested in 2020 after participating in protests against Lukashenko. According to the Nobel committee, Bialiatski is still detained without trial, but "despite tremendous personal hardship, Mr. Bialiatski has not yielded an inch in his fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus."

The Center for Civil Liberties has been working tirelessly since Russia invaded Ukraine to "identify and document Russian war crimes against the Ukrainian civilian population" and is playing a key role in "holding the guilty parties accountable for their crimes," the committee stated.

The third recipient, Memorial, was founded in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union to expose abuse and injustice. It was shut down by a Russian court in December 2021 for violating Russia's "foreign agent" law.

Related: Celebrate Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize Win With These 20 Inspiring Quotes

Economics: Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022 was awarded to Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig "for research on banks and financial crises," the Nobel Prize committee announced on Monday.

Bernanke was the chair of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014, per ABC News, while Diamond and Dybvig work as professors at The University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis, respectively.

By studying the history of American economics, particularly the Great Depression of the 1930s, they improved how we understand the role of banks during times of hardship and the bank's impact on societal functions.

"The laureates' insights have improved our ability to avoid both serious crises and expensive bailouts," Tore Ellingsen, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said in a press release.

Sam Silverman

Content Strategy Editor

Sam Silverman is a content strategy editor at Entrepreneur Media. She specializes in search engine optimization (SEO), and her work can be found in The US Sun, Nicki Swift, In Touch Weekly, Life & Style and Health. She writes for our news team with a focus on investigating scandals. Her coverage and expertise span from business news, entrepreneurship, technology, and true crime, to the latest in entertainment and TV news. Sam is a graduate of Lehigh University and currently resides in NYC. 

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