The U.S. Department of State commends two Fulbright Program alumni, Dr. Ei-Ichi Negishi of Japan and Dr. Peter A. Diamond of the United States, recipients of this year’s Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Economics, respectively. Dr. Negishi was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 1960 to conduct research at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Diamond received the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Economics award to lecture at the University of Siena in Italy in 2000.
Dr. Negishi, currently a professor at Purdue University, shares the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with two other scientists “for the development of palladium-catalyzed cross coupling,” which has uses in the production of pharmaceuticals and in the electronics industry.
Dr. Diamond, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, shares the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics with two other economists “for their analysis of markets with search frictions,” which help explain the ways in which unemployment, job vacancies, and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy. Dr. Diamond was recently nominated by President Obama to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
Dr. Negishi and Dr. Diamond are the 41st and 42nd Fulbright alumni to receive Nobel Prizes. Other recent Fulbright alumni who have received Nobels include Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, and Oliver Williamson of the United States, 2009 Nobel Laureate in Economics.
The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program and is supported by the people of the United States and partner countries around the world. Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 300,000 participants from over 155 countries with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.
For more information, visit http://fulbright.state.gov.
Media Contact: James A. Lawrence, LawrenceJA@state.gov, phone 632-3241
