Ardem Patapoutian and David Julius were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday. Giorgio Parisi, Syukuro Manabe, and Klaus Hasselmann won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on 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, aged 72, became the second writer of color in sub-Saharan Africa to win the Nobel Prize for Literature on Wednesday. Toni Morrison was the last Black recipient of the prize in 1993. Anne-Marie Morhed, head of the Swedish Association of Female Academics, noted that Gurnah meets the criteria of a writer from a non-traditional cultural background, but he is not a woman. There are two prizes still available - the Peace Prize and the Economy Prize - that the Norwegian Nobel committee can award to honor a woman. Exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Greta Thunberg are among the women being considered for the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced in Norway on Friday. The Norwegian Nobel Committee is mostly comprised of women, with a woman leading the committee. This is similar to the previous committee, which was also led by a woman and had a majority of women members. 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, a trend that was more common in previous decades. Professor Winston Morgan, a toxicologist at the University of East London, has noted that while there have been a dozen Black peace laureates in the history of the Nobel Prize, there has never been a Black recipient in the fields of medicine, chemistry, and physics. Morgan also highlighted the significant gender gap among prize winners, with very few female recipients compared to the overall population. Many scientists, both male and female, have taken to social media to express their disappointment at the lack of women recognized for these prestigious awards. GenderAvenger, a non-profit organization committed to promoting women's voices in public discussions, criticized the Nobel Prize for announcing winners in four out of six categories with no women included. They questioned whether the 2021 Nobel Prize story is that only men are deserving of recognition, when in fact women are also making significant contributions. Some, like Ellie Murray, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health, expressed disappointment that this year's awards failed to acknowledge the important work of Katalin Kariko and Kizzmekia Corbett, who played crucial roles in developing mRNA vaccines that are revolutionizing the fight against the pandemic. Nobel experts believe that Kariko and Corbett may be recognized in the future, as the committee typically rewards recipients after some time has passed. The Nobel prize has specific criteria and traditions that are difficult to deviate from. Morgan suggested that the committee may acknowledge scientific advancements during the pandemic in a few years. He also noted an increase in the number of female scientists and scientists from Japan and China receiving Nobel prizes, but expressed concern about the lack of recognition for Black scientists following a similar trajectory. He expressed more concern about the number of black scientists in universities and whether they are receiving enough support. When asked about the lack of Black Nobel Prize winners in literature, Gurnah mentioned that the world is evolving. Jesper Haeggstrom, chairman of the Nobel Assembly for Physiology or Medicine, stated that the history of under-representation of women in science is reflected in the lack of female prize winners. Haeggstrom refused to disclose if gender influenced the committee's selection process, emphasizing that scientific competence is the main criteria. Critics argue that the composition of the selection committees, such as the low percentage of women on the medicine selection committee and the lack of gender diversity in the physics committee, raises concerns about potential bias. The chemistry committee is made up of six male members and two additional co-opted members who are both women.