The Kavli Prize

Kavli Prize Laureate David Charbonneau’s scientific beginning meant looking for evidence of exoplanets inside a wooden shed in the middle of a parking lot. Using a 4-inch telescope built by his colleague Tim Brown in Colorado, David checked the skies when the clouds cleared to try to detect a transit, or eclipse, of a hot Jupiter planet night after night. On the memorable date of 9/9/99, David saw what he was looking for - a 1% bump in light curves that proved the existence of an exoplanet, specifically a hot Jupiter. Persistence and a willingness to give a project a try (even as some colleagues discouraged him) led David to success. Take David’s story as a sign to keep pursuing that idea you believe in. https://lnkd.in/g9cEu8dS

Happy 106th Birthday to 2014 Kavli Prize Neuroscience Laureate Brenda Milner!   Brenda discovered specific locations in the brain responsible for memory formation, and how different types of memory are affected by injuries to the frontal lobes in the brain. Of her work in 2014 when she won the prize, Brenda wrote “The exciting challenge is to understand better how the left and right hemispheres work together, in health and in disease.” 🧠   https://lnkd.in/eGxd4ybk

Can we find signs of life beyond Earth? 2024 Astrophysics Laureate Sara Seager will answer this question and others at the The University of Luxembourg’s First European Interstellar Symposium. Learn more about the event: 

Congratulations to 2024 Kavli Prize Laureate Doris Tsao! She combined functional imaging and recording from individual brain cells in macaque monkeys to reveal a six-region system that compiles facial information into a complete picture. She went on to identify different features of the face that make up a code enabling single cells to identify faces. #kavliprize2024

Congratulations to 2024 Kavli Prize Laureate David Charbonneau! He pioneered the application of space-based observatories to perform the first studies of the atmospheres of giant extrasolar planets. #kavliprize2024

Congratulations to 2024 Kavli Prize Laureate Nancy Kanwisher! She pioneered the establishment of the functional region of interest (fROI) approach to localize the fusiform face area (FFA) in humans using fMRI. Kanwisher was the first to develop and employ a paradigm to identify a region sensitive to faces in each person. This finding strongly supported the idea of modular localization of cognitive function in the neocortex. The use of such functional localizers is now widespread and applied to domains beyond the face recognition system. #kavliprize2024

Congratulations to 2024 Kavli Prize Laureate Armand Paul Alivisatos! He pioneered the use of semiconductor nanocrystals for biological imaging by tailoring them through surface functionalization. Semiconductor nanocrystals, or “quantum dots”, are nanoparticles that possess bright, size-dependent light-emitting properties. Alivisatos showed that these nanoscale “beacons” can be used as multicolor fluorescent probes in biological imaging. Semiconductor nanocrystals are widely used today in applications such as live cell tracking, labelling and in vivo imaging. University of Chicago #kavliprize2024

Have you met the #KavliPrize2024 laureates? What an impressive group!

The #KavliPrize2024 Announcement is happening now! Watch here: https://lnkd.in/gaeW8W5C

Just Announced! The #KavliPrize2024 Laureates in #Neuroscience!