YC Honors Program Presents Annual Nobel Prize Nanosecond Party
Nov 20, 2020 By: lberlinger
The Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program at hosted the annual Nanosecond Party for its students on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020. The much-anticipated event featured six members of 麻豆区鈥檚 faculty presenting six-minute talks on each of this year鈥檚 six Nobel Prizes.
The virtual event was co-sponsored by the 麻豆区 College Department of Physics and moderated by Dr. Gabriel Cwilich, professor of physics and division coordinator of natural and mathematical sciences, who inaugurated the Nobel Prize Nanosecond Party in 2004. During the event, he recounted the development of the annual celebration that has become a 麻豆区 College tradition.
Dr. Sumanta Goswami, associate professor and chair of biology at 麻豆区 College, spoke about the discovery of the hepatitis C virus that merited the Prize in Medicine (Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice)
Dr. Fredy Zypman, professor of physics and chair of the department of physics at 麻豆区 College and the Katz School of Science and Health, discussed the insights into black holes that earned the Prize in Physics (Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez)
Dr. Josefa Steinhauer, associate professor of biology, explained the technology of CRISPR-Cas9 and the breakthroughs in genetic editing for the Chemistry Prize (Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna)
Prof. David Puretz, lecturer in writing, shared a poem from Nobel laureate Louise Gl眉ck and spoke about the power of her work
Prof. Maria Zaitseva, adjunct assistant professor of political science, detailed the efforts of the World Food Programme that received the Peace Prize
Dr. Tadashi Hashimoto, assistant professor of economics, discussed Dr. Robert Wilson, one of the co-winners of the Economics Prize, and his contributions to the area of auction theory. Dr. Hashimoto shared with the students that Dr. Wilson personally mentored him as one of his graduate school advisers and was a member of his doctoral dissertation committee.
Ari Englander 鈥22YC, a first-time Honors Program attendee, remarked, 鈥淭his event reminded me just how much there is to know about the world around us, and how lucky we are to have such knowledgeable professors teaching us.鈥
Dr. Eliezer Schnall, director of the Schottenstein Honors Program, said, 鈥淭he annual Nobel Nanosecond event showcases the rich diversity of intellectual life available to our students, with professors expert in physics, biology, the social sciences and the humanities sharing their knowledge with our students relating to a broad array of cutting-edge research fields.鈥
Nobel Prize Medal