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Sketches of Science

See what happens when you give Nobel laureates crayons.
December 18, 2014

Three Institute alumni and six professors were among 50 Nobel laureates asked to “sketch their science” and pose with the resulting art for an unusual multimedia exhibition that includes photos, a video, and an art book. It’s the work of the award-winning German photographer Volker Steger, who was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT in 2000–’01. A project of the Nobel Museum, it has been exhibited globally from Berlin to Seoul. On January 5, it opens at the University of California, Davis.

The MIT alumni are all physicists—George F. Smoot ’66, PhD ’71; Robert B. Laughlin, PhD ’79; and Burton ­Richter ’52, PhD ’56. The MIT faculty include three award winners in physics, Jerome Friedman, Samuel Ting, and Frank ­Wilczek; two in chemistry, Mario Molina and Richard Schrock; and one in physiology or medicine, Robert Horvitz. In all, Nobel prizes have been awarded to 81 MIT alumni, faculty, and staff.

See all the photos online at nobelmuseum.se/en/sketches-of-science.

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