Did You Know?
- Nobel Prize Winners Born in Scotland
Introduction
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895. The prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace were first awarded in 1901. Each Nobel Prize is regarded as the most prestigious award in its field. Many of the winners have been of Scots descent but here are the winners who have been born in Scotland itself.Chemistry
Sir William Ramsay, 1904 - discovery of the noble gases.
Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd of Trumpington, 1957 - research on the structure and synthesis of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes.Economics
Sir James Alexander Mirrlees, 1996 - papers on economic models.Peace
Arthur Henderson, 1934 - worked with the World League of Peace and chaired the Geneva Disarmament Conference.
John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr, 1949 - for advocating a world food policy based on human needs rather than trade interests.Physics
Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, 1927 - for his invention of the cloud chamber.Physiology/Medicine
John J R MacLeod, 1928 - one of the co-discoverers of insulin.
Sir Alexander Fleming, 1945 - discovery of the enzyme lysozyme in 1923 and the antibiotic substance penicillin from the mold Penicillium notatum in 1928.
Sir James Black, 1988 - for work leading to the development of beta blockers propranolol and cimetidine for the treatment of heart disease and stomach ulcers respectively.
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