Geoffrey Hinton has won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Physics.
Hinton is a University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto.
"On behalf of the University of Toronto, I am absolutely delighted to congratulate University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton on receiving the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics," said U of T President Meric Gertler. "The U of T community is immensely proud of his historic accomplishment."
Hinton shared the prize with John J. Hopfield of Princeton University "for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks."
Hinton is the fourth researcher at U of T to win a Nobel Prize over the years.
Sir Frederick Banting and J.J.R Macleod won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work with Charles Best in 1923 to isolate insulin. In 1986, John Polanyi was one of three winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of the new field of reaction dynamics.
Other members of the U of T community, including several alumni, have received or been associated with the international honour.
Oliver Smithies, a past professor at U of T, was a joint winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2007 for discovering the "principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mince by the use of embryonic stem cells."
In 1999, U of T Professor James Orbinski accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Doctors Without Borders, which was recognized for its humanitarian work.
Anti-nuclear activist and U of T alumna Setsuko Thurlow accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway in 2017 on behalf the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
In 2001, Michael Spence, an alumnus of University of Toronto Schools, was one of three joint winners of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for his contributions to analyses of markets with asymmetrical information.
Bertram Brockhouse, who completed two degrees at U of T, was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1994 for the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter.
Arthur Schawlow, an alumnus, was one of three winners of the same prize in 1981 for his contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy.
In 1998, U of T alumnus Walter Kohn was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for development of the density-functional theory.
Former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, who received a bachelor's degree from U of T, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957.
More to come ...
