The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2025 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth”.

One half of the prize will go to Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress” and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.”

Joel Mokyr used historical sources as one means to uncover the causes of sustained growth becoming the new normal. Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt also studied the mechanisms behind sustained growth. In an article from 1992, they constructed a mathematical model for what is called creative destruction: when a new and better product enters the market, the companies selling the older products lose out, the Nobel Committee said in a media release.

The Netherlands-born Joel Mokyr is Professor at Northwestern University, United States, while Philippe Aghion is Professor at Collège de France and INSEAD, Paris, and The London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. Peter Howitt is Professor at Brown University, United States.

Last year’s award went to three economists — Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson — whose studies explained why some countries are rich and others poor.

Formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the Economics Nobel was established in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank.

The award, though technically not a Nobel Prize, is presented together with the others on December 10, the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel. The prize consists of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1.2 million cheque.

Nobel announcements kicked off last week with the prize for medicine or physiology announced on October 6, followed by physics, chemistry, literature and peace.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is being awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal–organic frameworks.,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday (October 8, 2025).

The Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry 2025 have created molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow. These constructions, metal-organic frameworks, can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyse chemical reactions.

 In 1989, Richard Robson tested utilising the inherent properties of atoms in a new way by combining positively charged copper ions with a four-armed molecule; this had a chemical group that was attracted to copper ions at the end of each arm. Though the molecular construction had potential, it was unstable and collapsed easily.

However, Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi provided this building method with a firm foundation. Kitagawa showed that gases can flow in and out of the constructions and predicted that MOFs could be made flexible. Yaghi created a very stable MOF and showed that it can be modified using rational design, giving it new and desirable properties.

The 2024 Nobel Prize for chemistry was shared by David Baker “for computational protein design” along with Demis Hassabis and John Jumper “for protein structure prediction,”

Nobel Prize announcements kicked off on Monday (October 6, 2025) with the Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Three scientists – Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi shared the Medicine Nobel for identifying the immune system’s security guards, regulatory T cells. Physics Nobel, announced on Tuesday (October 7), was awarded to John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martini for building device showing ‘quantum tunnelling’.

The winners of the Literature, Peace and Economic Sciences Prize will be declared on October 9, October 10, and October 13 respectively.

The prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately ₹1.03 crore) and will be awarded on December 10.

The Nobel Prize was created by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who in his will dictated that his estate should be used to fund “prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”.

The Nobel Prize in Physics is being awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced in Stockhom on Tuesday (October 7, 2025).

“It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises. It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology,” saids Olle Eriksson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

The transistors in computer microchips are one example of the established quantum technology that surrounds us. This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics has provided opportunities for developing the next generation of quantum technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers, and quantum sensors, the Nobel Prize committee said in a media release.

John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton were jointly awarded the Physics Nobel last year “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.”

Nobel Prize announcements kicked off on Monday (October 7, 2025) with the Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Three scientists — Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi — shared the Medicine Nobel for identifying the immune system’s security guards, regulatory T cells. The winners for Chemistry will be announced on Wednesday (October 8), while the winners of the Literature, Peace and Economic Sciences Prize will be declared on October 9, October 10, and October 13 respectively.

The prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately ₹1.03 crore) and will be awarded on December 10.

The Nobel Prize was created by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who in his will dictated that his estate should be used to fund “prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”.