The Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm announced the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 winner on 8th October 2024. This is the 118th Nobel Prize in the field of physics. The award has been given to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton with a prize sum of 11 million Sweden crowns ($1.1 million). This award is being rewarded for the discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning within artificial neural networks.

Hopfield designed a system for storing and reassembling data. He developed a technique that is now crucial for the massive neural networks that are currently in use and that can independently find qualities in data.

Selection of Nobel Prize in Physics 2024

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is responsible for the selection of the Nobel Prize laureates in physics. The Academy appoints a working group, the Nobel Committee for Physics, which screens the nominations and makes a suggestion for final contenders. Although there are officially five voting members on the committee, voting adjunct members have been a part of it for some years.

The Physics Class of the Academy, a larger body, discusses the Committee’s proposal and has the option to change it or submit an entirely new one to the Academy. Finally, at the last Academy meeting, other suggestions might be made. Theoretically, one may propose that there be no prize this year, although this is a rarely chosen option.