Imprisoned Iranian Engineer and Activist Wins Peace Prize

Narges Mohammadi was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for her activism on behalf of women and human rights in Iran.

After studying physics at Imam Khomeini University, Mohammadi worked as both an engineer and a journalist. Since 2011, she has been repeatedly arrested for her political activities and is currently imprisoned in Iran on charges that include defamation against the state.

In 2018, Mohammadi received the American Physical Society’s Andrei Sakharov Prize for her “unwavering efforts to promote the human rights and freedoms of the Iranian people, despite persecution that has forced her to suspend her scientific pursuits and endure lengthy incarceration.”

This year’s Nobel Prize for Physics went to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier for work enabling electron-illuminating ultrafast laser pulses.

The chemistry prize went to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus, and Alexei Ekimov for developing “quantum dots” that can alter the color of semiconductor crystals.