Kailash Satyarthi(Hindi: ,Hindi pronunciation:[kla st jarti], born 11 January 1954) is an Indianchildren's rightsadvocate and an activist againstchild labour.[5][7]He founded theBachpan Bachao Andolan(lit.Save the Childhood Movement) in 1980 and has acted to protect the rights of more than 83,000 children from 144 countries.[8][9]It is largely because of Satyarthi's work and activism that theInternational Labour OrganizationadoptedConvention No. 182on the worst forms of child labour, which is now a principal guideline for governments around the world.[7]His work is recognized through various national and international honours and awards including theNobel Peace Prizeof 2014, which he shared withMalala Yousafzai, afemale educationactivist fromPakistan.[10]Originally named Kailash Sharma, Satyarthi was born on 11 January 1954 in theVidishadistrict of central Indian stateMadhya Pradesh.[1][2]He attended Government Boys Higher Secondary School,[3]and completed his degree in electrical engineering[2]atSamrat Ashok Technological Institute, Vidisha[1][3][4]and a post-graduate degree in high-voltage engineering. He then joined a college inBhopalas a lecturer for a few years.[11]

Malala Yousafzai(Urdu: Mallah Ysafzay,Pashto: [mlal jusf zj];[1]born 12 July 1997)[2][3]is aPakistaniactivistforfemale educationand the youngest-everNobel Prizerecipient.[4]She is known mainly forhuman rightsadvocacy foreducationand forwomenin her nativeSwat Valleyin theKhyber Pakhtunkhwaprovince of northwest Pakistan, where the localTalibanhad at timesbanned girls from attending school. Yousafzai's advocacy has since grown into an international movement.Her family runs a chain of schools in the region. In early 2009, when she was 1112, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for theBBCdetailing her life under Taliban occupation, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls in the Swat Valley. The following summer, journalistAdam B. Ellickmade aNew York Timesdocumentary[3]about her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region, culminating in theSecond Battle of Swat. Yousafzai rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and she was nominated for theInternational Children's Peace Prizeby South African activistDesmond Tutu.

Jean Patrick Modiano(French pronunciation:[ patik mdjano]; born 30 July 1945) is aFrenchnovelistand recipient of the 2014Nobel Prize in Literature. He previously won the 2012Austrian State Prize for European Literature, the 2010Prix mondial Cino Del Ducafrom theInstitut de Francefor lifetime achievement, the 1978Prix GoncourtforRue des boutiques obscures, and the 1972Grand Prix du roman de l'Acadmie franaiseforLes Boulevards de ceinture. His works have been translated into more than 30 languages and have been celebrated in and around France,[1]though only a few[quantify]were in circulation in English when he was awarded the Nobel Prize.[citation needed] Jean Patrick Modiano was born inBoulogne-Billancourt, acommunein the western suburbs ofParis,France, on July 30, 1945.

Shuji Nakamura( Nakamura Shji?, born May 22, 1954)is a Japanese-American professor at the Materials Department of theCollege of Engineering,University of California, Santa Barbara(UCSB),[5]and is regarded as the inventor of the blueLED, a major breakthrough in lighting technology.[6]Together withIsamu AkasakiandHiroshi Amano, he was one of the three recipients of the2014 Nobel Prize for Physics"for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources".Nakamura graduated from theUniversity of Tokushimain 1977 with aB.Eng.degree inelectronic engineering, and obtained anM.Eng.degree in the same subject two years later, after which he joined theNichia Corporation, also based inTokushima. It was while working for Nichia that Nakamura invented the first high brightnessgallium nitride(GaN) LED whose brilliantbluelight, when partially converted to yellow by a phosphor coating, is the key to white LED lighting, which went into production in 1993.

Hiroshi Amano( Amano Hiroshi?, born September 11, 1960)is a Japanesephysicistwho was awarded the 2014Nobel Prize in Physicstogether withIsamu AkasakiandShuji Nakamurafor "the invention of efficient bluelight-emitting diodeswhich has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources".[2]Amano was born in Hamamatsu, Japan on September 11, 1960. He received hisBE,MEandDEdegree in 1983, 1985 and 1989, respectively, fromNagoya University. From 1988 to 1992, he was a research associate at Nagoya University. In 1992, He moved toMeijo University, where he was an assistant professor. From 1998 till 2002, He was an associate professor. In 2002, he became a professor. In 2010, he moved to the Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, where he is currently a professor.

Isamu Akasaki( Akasaki Isamu?, born January 30, 1929)is a Japanese scientist and Nobel Prize laureate, known for inventing the brightgallium nitride(GaN) p-n junction blueLEDin 1989 and subsequently the high-brightness GaN blue LED as well.[1][2][3][4][5]For this and other work Isamu Akasaki was awarded theKyoto Prizein Advanced Technology in 2009[6]and theIEEE Edison Medalin 2011.[7]He was also awarded the 2014 Nobel prize in Physics, together withHiroshi AmanoandShuji Nakamura.[8]Born inKagoshimaPrefecture, Akasaki graduated fromKyoto Universityin 1952, and obtained aDr.Eng.degree inElectronicsfromNagoya Universityin 1964. He started working onGaN-based blue LEDs in the late 1960s. Step by step, he improved the quality of GaN crystals anddevicestructures[9]at Matsushita Research Institute Tokyo, Inc.(MRIT), where he decided to adoptmetal organic vapor phase epitaxy(MOVPE) as the preferred growth method for GaN.In 1981 he started afresh growth of GaN by MOVPE at Nagoya University,and in 1985 he and his group succeeded in growing high-quality GaN on sapphire substrate by pioneering the low-temperature(LT) buffer layer technology.[10][11]

Edvard Ingjald Moser(born 27 April 1962) is a Norwegian psychologist, neuroscientist, and institute director of theKavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computationat theNorwegian University of Science and Technology(NTNU) inTrondheim, Norway. He currently is based at theMax Planck Institute for NeurobiologynearMunich,Germanyas a visiting researcher.[1]Moser and his wife,May-Britt Moser, were appointed associate professors in psychology and neuroscience at NTNU in 1996. They were instrumental in the establishment of theCentre for the Biology of Memory(CBM) in 2002 and the Institute for Systems Neuroscience in 2007, and have pioneered research on the brain's mechanism for representing space.Moser has won several prizes, many together with his wife, including theLouisa Gross Horwitz Prize, and theKarl Spencer Lashley Award. In 2014 they shared theNobel Prize in Physiology or MedicinewithJohn O'Keefe. Moser also became a foreign associate of the United StatesNational Academy of Sciencesin 2014. The prize was awarded for work identifying the cells that make up the positioning system in the brain.

may-Britt Moser(born 4 January 1963) is a Norwegianpsychologist,neuroscientist, and founding director of theKavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for the Biology of Memoryat theNorwegian University of Science and Technology(NTNU) inTrondheim, Norway.Moser and her husband,Edvard, have pioneered research on the brain's mechanism for representing space. The Mosers were appointed associate professors in psychology and neuroscience at NTNU in 1996, less than one year after their Ph.D defenses. They established The Centre for the Biology of Memory (CBM) in 2002 and theKavli Institute, the fifteenth in the world and the fourth in neuroscience, in 2007.May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser shared the 2014Nobel prize in Physiology or MedicinewithJohn O'Keefe.[1]The prize was awarded for work identifying the cells that make up the positioning system in the brain.

John O'Keefe,FRSFMedSci(born 18 November 1939) is an American-Britishneuroscientistand aprofessorat theInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscienceand the Department of Anatomy atUniversity College London. He is known for his discovery ofplace cellsin thehippocampusand his discovery that they show a specific kind oftemporal codingin the form oftheta phase precession. In 2014, he received theKavli Prizein Neuroscience "for the discovery of specialized brain networks for memory and cognition", together withBrenda MilnerandMarcus Raichle. He shared theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicinein 2014 together withMay-Britt MoserandEdvard Moser.

Born in New York City to Irish immigrant parents, O'Keefe attendedRegis High School(Manhattan) and received aBAdegree from theCity College of New York.[1][2]He went on to study atMcGill UniversityinMontreal, where he obtained anMAdegree in 1964, and aPhDdegree inDonald Hebb's Department of Psychology in 1967, supervised byRonald Melzack.[3][4][5]He originally went toUniversity College Londonin 1967 as a USNIMHpostdoctoral fellow working with the late Patrick Wall. He has been there ever since, and was awarded a professorship in 1987. He is a citizen of both the United States and the United Kingdom.

William Esco Moerner(born June 24, 1953) is an Americanphysical chemistandchemical physicistwith current work in thebiophysicsand imaging of single molecules. He is credited with achieving the first optical detection andspectroscopy of a single moleculeincondensed phases, along with his postdoc, Lothar Kador.[1][2]Optical study of single molecules has subsequently become a widely usedsingle-molecule experimentin chemistry, physics and biology.[3]In 2014 he was awarded theNobel Prize in Chemistry.[4][5]

Moerner was born inPleasanton, California,in 1953 June 24 the son of Bertha Frances (Robinson) and William Alfred Moerner.[6]He was a boy scout, with theBoy Scouts of Americaand became anEagle Scout.[7]He attendedWashington University in St. Louisfor undergraduate studies as an Alexander S. Langsdorf Engineering Fellow, and obtained three degrees: aB.S.inphysicswithFinal Honors, a B.S. inelectrical engineeringwith Final Honors, and anA.B.inmathematicssumma cum laudein 1975.[8]This was followed by graduate study, partially supported by aNational Science FoundationGraduate Fellowship, atCornell Universityin the group of Albert J. Sievers III.[9]Here he received anM.S.degree and aPh.D.degree in physics in 1978 and 1982, respectively. His doctoral thesis was on vibrational relaxation dynamics of an IR-laser-excited molecular impurity mode in alkali halide lattices.[10]Throughout his school years, Moerner was a straight A student from 1963 to 1982, and won both the Dean's Award for Unusually Exceptional Academic Achievement as well as the Ethan A. H. Shepley Award for Outstanding Achievement when he graduated from college.[11]

Robert Eric Betzig(born January 13, 1960) is anAmericanphysicistbased at theJanelia Farm Research CampusinAshburn, Virginia.[2]He was awarded the 2014Nobel Prize in Chemistryfor "the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy"[3]along withStefan HellandWilliam E. Moerner.[4]

Betzig was born inAnn Arbor, Michigan, the son of Robert Betzig. For his undergraduate degree, Betzig studiedPhysicsat theCalifornia Institute of Technology, graduating with aBSdegree in 1983. He then went on to study atCornell Universitywhere he obtained anMSdegree and aPhDdegree inAppliedandEngineering physicsin 1985 and 1988, respectively.[5]After receiving his doctorate, Betzig worked atAT&T Bell Laboratoriesin the Semiconductor Physics Research Department. In 1996, Betzig left academia to become vice president ofresearch and developmentat Ann Arbor Machine Company, then owned by his father.[4]Here he developed Flexible Adaptive Servohydraulic Technology (FAST) but did not achieve commercial success.[5][6]

Stefan Walter Hell(born 23 December 1962) is aRomanian-bornGermanphysicistand one of the directors of theMax Planck Institute for Biophysical ChemistryinGttingen,Germany.[1]He received theKavli Prizein Nanoscience in 2014 for transformative contributions to the field of nano-optics that have broken long-held beliefs about the limitations of the resolution limits of optical microscopy and imaging, together withThomas Ebbesen, and SirJohn Pendryand received theNobel Prize in Chemistryin 2014 "for the development ofsuper-resolved fluorescence microscopy", together withEric BetzigandWilliam Moerner.[2]Born into aBanat Swabianfamily inArad,Romania, he grew up in his parents' home in nearbySntana.[3][4]Hell attended primary school there between 1969 and 1977.[5]Subsequently, he attended one year of secondary education at theNikolaus Lenau High SchoolinTimioarabefore leaving with his parents toWest Germanyin 1978.[6]His father was an engineer and his mother a teacher; the family settled inLudwigshafenafter emigrating.[5]Hell began his studies at theHeidelberg Universityin 1981, where he received hisdoctoratein physics in 1990. His thesis advisor was the solid-state physicistSiegfried Hunklinger. The title of the thesis was Imaging of transparent microstructures in a confocal microscope.[7]He was an independent inventor for a short period thereafter working on improving depth (axial)resolutioninconfocal microscopy, which became later known as the4Pi microscope. Resolution is the possibility to separate two similar objects in close proximity and is therefore the most important property of a microscope.

Jean Tirole(born 9 August 1953) is a French professor ofeconomics. He focuses onindustrial organization,game theory, banking and finance, andeconomics and psychology. In 2014 he was awarded theNobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciencesfor his analysis ofmarket powerandregulationin natural monopolies andoligopoly.[1][2]

Tirole received engineering degrees from thecole Polytechniquein Paris in 1976, and from thecole nationale des ponts et chaussesin 1978. He graduated as a member of the eliteCorps of Bridges, Waters and Forests. Tirole pursued graduate studies at theParis Dauphine Universityand was awarded aDEAdegree in 1976 and aDoctorat de troisime cycleindecision mathematicsin 1978. In 1981, he received aPh.D.degree from theMassachusetts Institute of Technologyfor his thesis titledEssays in economic theory, under the supervision ofEric Maskin.[3]