University of Washington Professor Shares Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Google DeepMind Scientists

David Baker, professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He shares the award with Demis Hassabis and John Jumper from Google DeepMind.

“David Baker achieved the almost impossible feat of developing completely new types of proteins,” says the Nobel Prize website. “Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have developed an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting the complex structures of proteins.”

Baker, 62, was born in Seattle and earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University. He received his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.

Hassabis, 48, is a Cambridge-educated British computer scientist. He was knighted earlier this year. Jumper, 39, was born in Arkansas and received his doctorate from the University of Chicago.

Baker is the eighth University of Washington faculty member to win a Nobel Prize, the university said.

UW announced the recognition of Baker's work by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, noting in a statement that “Baker and others have used artificial intelligence to predict protein structures with unprecedented accuracy and speed.” Modeling the building blocks of life has been significantly expanded.”

Dr. Timothy Dellit, dean of the UW School of Medicine, said:

“David’s success in harnessing the power of computational protein design to deepen our understanding of protein prediction and design has enabled the creation of novel proteins to address some of the greatest challenges in medicine, technology and sustainability.”

This is the second Nobel Prize in 2024, awarded for work related to artificial intelligence. Earlier this week, Princeton University Professor Emeritus John Hopfield and University of Toronto Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton were awarded the Physics Prize.

-The Oregonian/OregonLive