2012 Nobel laureates

Americans Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley were awarded the Nobel economics prize on Oct. 15 for research that helps explain the market processes at work when doctors are assigned to hospitals, students to schools and human organs for transplant to recipients.

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A screen displays photos of the winners of the Nobel prize in economic sciences. U.S. duo Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley won the prize on Oct. 15 for "the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Henrik Montgomery / AFP/Getty Images

The European Union was awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to promote peace and democracy in Europe, in the midst of the union's biggest crisis since its creation in the 1950s. The Norwegian prize committee said the E.U. received the award for six decades of contributions "to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe."

Virginia Mayo / AP

Chinese writer Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel Prize in literature, a cause of pride for a government that had disowned the only previous Chinese winner of the award, an exiled critic.

/ AP

Robert Lefkowitz of Duke University, along with Brian Kobilka of Stanford University, won the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the two researchers "for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors."

/ News & Observer via AP

Brian Kobilka of Stanford University, along with Robert Lefkowitz of Duke, won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering the inner workings of G-protein-coupled receptors, which allow cells to respond to chemical messages such as adrenaline rushes.

/ Reuters

In this 2003 photo, physicist David Wineland adjusts an ultraviolet laser beam used to manipulate ions in a high-vacuum apparatus containing an "ion trap" to demonstrate the basic operations required for a quantum computer. Wineland, of the United States, and Serge Haroche of France, both 68, shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics for inventing methods to observe the bizarre properties of the quantum world — research that has led to the construction of extremely precise clocks and helped scientists take the first steps toward building superfast computers.

Geoffrey Wheeler / National Institute of Standards and Technology via AP

Oct. 8, 2009

French physicist Serge Haroche is shown in Paris. Working separately, Haroche and David Wineland developed “ingenious laboratory methods,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Christophe Lebedinsky / French National Research Center via AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 8, 2012

John Gurdon, 79, poses for photographs at a news conference after being awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in London. Gurdon is an emeritus professor at Cambridge University who conducts research at an institute that bears his name; he was knighted in 1995 for his work in developmental biology. His frog experiments a half-century ago showed that scientists “should be able to derive any one kind of cell from another, because they’ve all got the same genes,” Gurdon said at the news conference.

Justin Tallis / AFP/Getty Images

This undated photograph taken by Nobel Prize winner John Gurdon shows his Eton College summer of 1949 report card, which describes his idea for becoming a scientist as “quite ridiculous.” The report card indicates that he was at the bottom of his class. Gurdon went on to study zoology at Cambridge University in England and won the 2012 Nobel Prize for medicine, which he shared with Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka.

John Gurdon / Via AP

Shinya Yamanaka, seen here in an undated photo, is a professor at Kyoto University in Japan. On Monday, Yamanaka credited his co-laureate for making his advances possible. “This field has a long history starting with John Gurdon,” he said in a brief telephone interview posted on the Nobel Prize Web site. Yamanaka noted he was born in 1962 — the year Gurdon published his pivotal frog experiments.

Chris Goodfellow / Gladstone Institutes via AP

The mouse in the upper right was born from an egg cell that was made from induced pluripotent stem cells at Kyoto University.

/ Kyoto University via Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images

FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES

TV presenter and conservationist Anneka Tanaka-Svenska wears a hat designed by Louis Mariette during the first day of Royal Ascot, in Berkshire, west of London, on June 18, 2013. The five-day meeting is one of the highlights of the horse racing calendar. Horse racing has been held at the famous Berkshire course since 1711 and tradition is a hallmark of the meeting. Top hats and tails remain compulsory in parts of the course while a daily procession of horse-drawn carriages brings the Queen to the course. AFP PHOTO / ADRIAN DENNISADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images

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Two-year old male rat named Dyatlik wears a costume during a rodent exhibition in Minsk, Belarus, Saturday, June 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

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WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 14: Johnathon Carrington, valedictorian at Dunbar High School, laughs with family and friends after his school's graduation ceremony at Howard University on Friday, June 14, 2013, in Washington, DC. Carrington, who grew up in Tyler House public-housing apartments and is graduating from one of DC's low-performing high schoolsy, where academic expectations are high. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

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U.S. actress Sandra Bullock poses for the media during a photocall to promote her latest move 'The Heat' in Berlin June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (GERMANY - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)

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Inmates walk at a high-security male prison camp outside Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk May 14, 2013. High-security male prison camp number 17 is intended to house male inmates who are serving a sentence for the first time, and have been convicted for serious crimes. Prisoners at the facility work in wood and metal processing shops, manufacture furniture, sew clothes and do other kinds of work. They can also take part in educational, sport and cultural programs. Picture taken May 14, 2013. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin (RUSSIA - Tags: CRIME LAW SOCIETY) ATTENTION EDITORS: PICTURE 4 OF 29 FOR PACKAGE 'INSIDE SIBERIA'S PRISONS' SEARCH 'ILYA PRISON' FOR ALL IMAGES

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LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 16: Reenactors dressed as knights stage a medieval jousting competition at Eltham Palace on June 16, 2013 in Eltham, England. The 'Grand Medieval Joust' event at Eltham Palace, an English Heritage property which was the childhood home of King Henry VIII, aims to give a great insight into life at the palace during the medieval period. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

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In this June 8, 2013 photo, youth compete in the Sao Carlos slum local soccer tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The pitch is just dirt and the incandescent lights aren't so bright. But when the boys' feet strike the football in the Sao Carlos slum as night falls every Saturday, big league dreams glow, inflated by the hope of escaping the shantytown with sporting skills. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

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WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 16: John F. Tatum Sr. hugs his grandson John F. Tatum III during his annual Father's Day block party on Sunday, June 16, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

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