Greek Cypriot Demis Hassabis was among the three scientists who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on predicting the structure of proteins using artificial intelligence.
Hassabis was honored with the prestigious ward along with his colleagues David Baker and John Jumper.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Wednesday announced half of the prize to Baker “for computational protein design” and the other half jointly to Hassabis and Jumper “for protein structure prediction”.
Baker works at the University of Washington in Seattle, United States, while Hassabis and Jumper both work at Google Deepmind in London.
Hassabis used AI “to predict the structure of proteins”
The laureates revealed proteins’ secrets through computing and artificial intelligence, the committee said, noting that “chemists have long dreamed of fully understanding and mastering the chemical tools of life – proteins”.
While Hassabis and Jumper used artificial intelligence “to predict the structure of almost all known proteins”, Baker “has learned how to master life’s building blocks and create entirely new proteins”.
Describing the potential of their discoveries as “enormous” and “astounding”, the committee said that it could lead to the more rapid development of vaccines and a greener chemical industry “to name just a few applications that are for the greatest benefit of humankind”.
The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1m) from a bequest left by the award’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.
First handed out in 1901, 15 years after Nobel’s death, it is awarded for achievements in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace.
The London-born Greek Cypriot scientist
Demis Hassabis born to a Greek Cypriot father and a Singaporean mother in London was a child prodigy in chess from the age of 4. He reached master’s standard at the age of 13 with an Elo rating of 2300 and captained many of the England junior chess teams.
He became a video game AI programmer and designer, and an expert board games player. He is the chief executive officer and co-founder of DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs, and a UK Government AI Advisor.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and has won many prestigious awards for his work on AlphaFold including the Breakthrough Prize, the Canada Gairdner International Award, and the Lasker Award. In 2017 he was appointed a CBE and listed in the Time 100 most influential people list. In 2024 he was knighted for services to AI.
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