David Baker to accept Nobel Prize Dec. 10 in Stockholm

David Baker, professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, will receive the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry during an award ceremony Dec. 10 in Sweden at the Stockholm Concert Hall. 

Baker directs the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design and is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He was born in Seattle in 1962 and attended Seattle public schools. 

The award ceremony is part of Nobel Prize Week, Dec. 6-12. The ceremony, and some related events, will be livestreamed on the Nobel website and will be viewable afterward on the Nobel Prize YouTube channel.

The website also has information on services for news broadcasters seeking to cover the ceremonies or receive edited news clips.

The citation on Baker’s Nobel Prize will read “for computational protein design.” In 2003, Baker’s lab used computer-based methods he had developed to design, from scratch, a protein not found in nature. This breakthrough opened avenues to create a variety of new proteins to perform vital functions. Recent achievements include vaccines, sensors and biomaterials, as well as progress on new medications, energy sources, and environmental remediations.   

To learn more about this work, take the Nobel Prize One-Minute Crash Course, “Proteins and Their Structures,” or see the popular science backgrounder on the research leading to the 2024 award.

Here is the Nobel Week 2024 livestream schedule:

Sunday, Dec. 8: 4:50 a.m. to 6:40 a.m. EST, (1:50 a.m. to 3:40 a.m. PST) Nobel Prize Acceptance Lectures in Chemistry: Baker will be one of three speakers, along with fellow protein scientists and laureates Demis Hassabis and John Jumper. YouTube Link for these lectures.

Monday, Dec. 9:  4 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. EST (1 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. PST) Nobel Week Dialogue 2024: The Future of Health.

Tuesday, Dec. 10: 10 a.m. EST (7 a.m. PST) Award ceremony. Baker will receive his Nobel Prize medal and diploma from Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden. YouTube Link for this ceremony.

Dec. 14 5:30 GMT and repeat broadcasts: Nobel Minds: Roundtable discussion with the 2024 Nobel Chemistry laureates moderated by BBC presenter Zeinab Badawi and co-produced by Swedish Television and BBC World News. BBC webcast link.

During his visit to Stockholm, Baker will be accompanied by his wife, Hannele Ruohola-Baker, a native of Kullaa, Finland, and a University of Washington professor of biochemistry and associate director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, as well as by several other family members, friends, and colleagues. 

As part of a longstanding tradition, Baker will present an artifact from his research to the Nobel Prize Museum. During  Nobel Week, the city of Stockholm will be illuminated with festival lighting, courtesy of the Nobel Prize Museum. The light festival will include building projections, light shows, and artistic light displays inspired by discoveries made by Nobel Prize Laureates, by their lives and by their efforts to benefit humanity. 

The Nobel Prize Concert, featuring Swedish soprano Malin Byström and Vienna Symphony Orchestra conductor Petr Popelka, will be held after the award ceremony. A replay of the concert will be available on the Nobel Prize YouTube.

As a resource for teachers, the Nobel Prize organization has created Nobel Prize Lessons: Secrets of Proteins. The 45-minute lesson plan features a slideshow with a speaker’s manuscript, a video and a student assignment. 

Baker’s gold medal depicts Alfred Nobel, with the inverse side inscribed “Inventas vitam iuvat excoluisse per artes” (translation: “and they who bettered life by new-found mastery,” words adapted from Vergil’s Aeneid). The inverse shows Nature as a goddess, with the Genius of Science removing a veil from her face. Baker’s name will be engraved on the inverse. 

The Nobel Prize diplomas are unique works of art for each laureate created by leading Swedish and Norwegian artists and calligraphers. The monetary prize for Baker will be 5.5 million Swedish Kroner, approximately $500,000. The prize is awarded from income generated by estate investment funds that Alfred Nobel established in his will.

The UW Medicine Newsroom will be updated with photos and YouTube links from Nobel Prize Week as they become available.

For details about UW Medicine, please visit http://uwmedicine.org/about.