Two Europeans Win 2016 Economics Nobel for Contract Theory

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2016 has been awarded jointly to a British-born American economist Oliver Hart, Andrew E. Furer Professor of Economics at Harvard University and a Finnish national  Bengt R.Holmström, who is currently the Paul A. Samuelson Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for their discoveries in Contract Theory. Both will jointly share the 8m Kroner prize money. “The new theoretical tools created by Hart and Holmström are valuable to the understan­ding of real-life contracts and institutions, as well as potential pitfalls in contract design.” Said the Nobel committee in its press release. 

Holstrom's multi-tasking model shows that if the manager's performance pay emphasizes short-term cash-flow, his actions may neglect the company's long-term health. Courtesy: ©Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Molecular Machines Fetches 2016 Chemistry Nobel For Stoddart, Sauvage, and Feringa

This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded jointly to UK-born Sir J. FraserStoddart of Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA, a French national Jean-PierreSauvage of University of Strasbourg, France, and Bernard L. Feringa of University of Groningen, of the Netherlands for their design and synthesis of the molecular machines. The trio will share the 8m kronor or USD 932,210 prize money. The nanomolecular machines developed by the trio are tiny. They could be used to deliver drugs within the human body and have potential applications in the pharmaceutical industry. They have the potential to unleash the whole new era in the design of smart molecules. 

Stoddart’s (a) Molecular Borromean Rings (Credit: M. Stone, Wikimedia Commons) and (b) Rotaxane-based Molecular Machines (Stoddart, J. F. et al. A Molecular Elevator. Science 2004, 303 (5665), 1845–1849).