Ardem Patapoutian and David Julius were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday. Giorgio Parisi, Syukuro Manabe, and Klaus Hasselmann were honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on deciphering chaotic climate. Benjamin List and David MacMillan received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of a molecule-building tool. Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, 72, became the second writer of color in sub-Saharan Africa to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, following Toni Morrison in 1993. Anne-Marie Morhed, head of the Swedish Association of Female Academics, noted that Gurnah meets the criterion of being a writer from a non-traditional cultural background, but is not a woman. There are still two prizes to be awarded, the Peace Prize and the Economy Prize, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee has the opportunity to honor a woman. Possible contenders for the Nobel Peace Prize include exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and activist Greta Thunberg. The committee, which is led by a woman and has a majority of women members, has the chance to recognize the achievements of a woman. In recent years, there has been a strong effort to diversify the recipients of prestigious prizes, such as the Nobel Prize, to include individuals who are not just white men from North America and Western Europe. Professor Winston Morgan, a toxicologist at the University of East London, points out that while there have been a dozen Black peace laureates in history, there has never been a Black recipient of the prizes in medicine, chemistry, and physics. He also notes that there is a significant gender gap in the prize winners, with very few female recipients. Scientists of both sexes have expressed their disappointment on social media about the lack of women recognized for the prize this year. GenderAvenger, a non-profit organization focused on promoting women's voices in public discussions, criticized the Nobel Prize for only announcing 4 out of 6 categories with no women winners yet. They compared it to a frustrating mystery where the ending is already known halfway through the book. The organization questioned if the narrative of the 2021 Nobel Prize is that only men are doing significant work, when in reality women, like Katalin Kariko and Kizzmekia Corbett, are also making remarkable contributions, such as their involvement in the development of mRNA vaccines that are revolutionizing the response to the pandemic. Those who follow the Nobel Prize predicted that Kariko and Corbett could be honored in the future, as the committee typically rewards recipients after some time has passed. It may take three or four years for the committee to recognize scientific advancements made during the pandemic. While the number of women scientists and recipients from Japan and China is increasing among Nobel laureates, the same progress is not being seen for Black scientists. "I am more concerned about that," he stated. He emphasized the importance of questioning the presence and support of black scientists in universities. When asked about the lack of Black Nobel Prize winners in literature, Gurnah mentioned that the world is changing. Jesper Haeggstrom, the chairman of the Nobel Assembly responsible for awarding the prize in Physiology or Medicine, stated that there is no simple explanation for the scarcity of female prize winners, but it reflects the historical under-representation of women in science. Haeggstrom noted that the further back in time one looks, the fewer female candidates there are. Haeggstrom refused to comment on whether gender influenced the committee's selection process, stating that scientific competence is the primary factor. Critics argue that the composition of the selection committees is not representative, with only 25 percent of the professors on the medicine committee being women and only one woman on the physics committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The chemistry committee is made up of six male members and two co-opted members who are both female.