Stockholm + Oslo · December 2024
The year AI won the Nobel Prize.
In 2024, two Nobel committees, in two different fields, awarded prizes for work in AI. The Physics prize went to Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield, whose foundational discoveries in artificial neural networks made modern machine learning possible.
The Chemistry prize went to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper, for using computation and AI to predict and design proteins, the molecular machinery of life. Baker pioneered computational protein design; Hassabis and Jumper developed AlphaFold2, which predicts a protein’s three-dimensional structure from its amino-acid sequence.
I photographed all five of them at the Nobel Lectures in Stockholm, then flew to Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize.
1 · The lectures
Photographing The Nobel Lectures in Stockholm
The Nobel Prizes consist of a few different events: the ceremony, the Nobel Lectures, and the press conference. In Stockholm, I covered the Nobel Lectures, where each laureate gets an hour on stage to present their life’s work.
2 · Physics
John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton
John Hopfield’s work on associative neural networks was published in 1982. By the time I photographed him at the Nobels, he was 91 years old.
He used two canes to walk across the stage, but set them down when he reached the microphone. He leaned on the podium with one hand, using his free hand to gesture as he spoke animatedly for an hour about his life’s work. It made me sad they waited 42 years to recognize his contributions.
He was a delightful speaker. I never got a good shot of Hinton, though. In an hour of lecturing, he didn't look up from his notes once.
3 · Chemistry
David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper
4 · Economic sciences
The Nobel Prize in Economics
5 · Oslo
The Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo
In Oslo, I was credentialed for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at City Hall. The 2024 prize went to Nihon Hidankyo, represented by its three co-chairs. That evening, I photographed the annual Torchlight Procession from the Nobel Peace Center to the Grand Hotel.
The ceremony
The Torchlight Procession
