We're down to the Final Four of Sigma Xi's Nobel Prize prediction contest, October Madness! Vote to make sure your top picks make it to the finals. Each person is eligible to cast one vote per category, for a total of three votes.
Voting is open until 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on September 27, 2021, for the Final Four round.
Final Four Voting
1.
Andrew Smith, for the development of organocatalysis methodology to synthesize new heterocyclic ring systems
vs.
Omar M. Yaghi and Makoto Fujita, for the development of metal-organic frameworks/coordination polymers and reticular chemistry; for pioneering reticular chemistry
2.
Robert S. Langer, for development of nanocarriers as a platform for cancer therapy, and other biotechnology using his background as a chemical engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur
vs.
Carolyn Bertozzi, for founding bio-orthogonal chemistry, and applying this novel chemistry to install artificial sugars on the surface of living cells, enabling the study of their roles in cancer and the immune system.
1.
Anton Zeilinger, John Clauser, and Alain Aspect, for their Bell’s inequality experiments, which established quantum entanglement
vs.
Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, for her work on the discovery of pulsars, one of the major astronomical discoveries of the 20th century
2.
Edward Stone (and the Voyager team), for heading the Voyager I/II missions, which have explored all of the outer planets and are now cruising interstellar space (the first human-made objects to do so)
vs.
Michal Lipson, for her pioneering research that established the groundwork for silicon photonics
1.
Mary-Claire King, for the discovery of BRCA1 Linkage and confirmation of an inherited risk of cancer
vs.
Marilyn Hughes Gaston, for her work on sickle cell disease screening program for newborns and her research showed both the benefits of screening for sickle cell disease at birth and the effectiveness of penicillin to prevent infection from sepsis, which can be fatal in children with the disease.
2.
Max D. Cooper and Jacques Miller, for their discovery of the two distinct classes of lymphocytes, B and T cells – a monumental achievement that provided the organizing principle of the adaptive immune system and launched the course of modern immunology
vs.
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, for the idea to harness the power of mRNA to fight disease and the discovery and commercialization of mRNA vaccines