Custom «2009 Nobel Prize Winners » Essay Paper Sample

Since its inception in 1901, the Nobel Prize has always been awarded to those who have shown exceptional excellence in various fields such as physics, chemistry, literature and other disciplines. The internationally recognized awards are administered in Stockholm, Sweden by the Nobel Foundation. Those who are deemed fit to get the award are usually prized with a medal, a diploma and a monetary award. The Nobel Prize in Physics, Chemistry and Medicine is usually awarded by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to the various personalities who have managed to excel in these disciplines. Since there are strict Nobel Prize rules that prohibit sharing the prize, no more than three people can share it. The 2009 Nobel Prize was no exemption to these strict rules that govern issuance of the prize. The Nobel Price in Chemistry was awarded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to Venkatranam Ramakrishan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath for the roles they played in the "studies of the structure and functions of the ribosome".

The three nominees were awarded for having shown how the ribosome functions at the atomic level and the way it looks like. One of the common methodologies that the three awardees used was mapping the positions of each single atom that makes up the ribosome with the "X-Ray crystallography method" (Epelboin, 110). The main reason why they were awarded with this reward is that the study and understanding of ribosomes is an essential part of the scientific world. Their study is an essential part in which scientists can understand life and use put the findings to immediate use. Its usage in the field of medicine is of utmost importance since most of the antibiotics cure diseases by "blocking the function of bacterial ribosomes" and this is why the study of this subject has been recognized and awarded to the three influential personalities.

Venkatraman Ramakrishan is a citizen of the US but was initially born in India. The Ph.D. holder in Physics is a senior scientist and structural biologist in Cambridge. He is accredited for his influential study of how the ribosome is structured and the way it functions. The scientist began his exceptional career at Yale University then continued to pursue the subject at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. He moved to his current position in 1995. Some of his main famed achievements include publishing a resolution structure. His other main achievements except the Nobel Prize include being awarded with the Louis Jeantet Prize in 2007 and the 2008 Heatley Medal of the British Biochemical Society.

Thomas A. Streitz is a citizen of the US and he was born in the year 1940 at Milwaukee, WI. The PhD holder in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Harvard University is a Professor at the Yale University in the US. Some of his main achievements include winning the coveted Gairdner International Award which he won at 2007 for his role in showing that "peptidyl transferase was characterized by the RNA. By this research and studies, he revealed the various mechanisms of this function and how they are aided by antibiotics.

Ada E. Yonath is an Israeli national who was born in Jerusalem. The PhD holder in X-ray Crystallography is famed mostly for her pioneering skill with ribosomes. The PhD holder works as a director at the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Bio-molecular Structure and Assembly at the Weizman Institute of Science. Some of her main achievements include winning the European Crystallography in 2000 which was also the year that it was incepted. She also won the Israeli Prize in Chemistry in 2002. She was also the first Israeli woman to be coveted with the Nobel Prize.