Sir Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, has been jointly awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Nobel committee announced. The prize recognizes Hassabis, along with Google DeepMind Senior Research Scientist Dr. John Jumper, for their development of AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence system capable of predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins.
The Nobel Prize committee cited AlphaFold’s ability to predict protein structures from amino acid sequences as “revolutionary,” noting the system has been widely adopted in pharmaceutical research and environmental technology. Proteins, the committee explained, are fundamental to all life, and understanding their structure is crucial to understanding their function.
Hassabis, born July 27, 1976, in London, is a British artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur. He founded DeepMind in 2010, which was later acquired by Google. He also leads Isomorphic Labs, a sister company to DeepMind focused on applying AI to drug discovery. Prior to founding DeepMind, Hassabis was a researcher at University College London, where he earned his PhD. His doctoral thesis focused on the neural processes underpinning episodic memory.
The award marks a significant milestone for artificial intelligence, demonstrating its potential to address complex scientific challenges. AlphaFold2, the iteration of the AI model presented in 2020, has been able to predict the structure of virtually all known proteins, according to the Nobel Prize organization.
Hassabis has received numerous accolades for his work, including the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Canada Gairdner International Award, and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, all awarded in 2023. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2017 and was knighted in 2024 for his contributions to artificial intelligence. He was also named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in both 2017 and 2025, and was a co-recipient of Time’s 2025 Person of the Year award as one of the “Architects of AI.”
James Manyika, SVP for Research, Labs, Technology & Society at Google and Alphabet, has also been involved in shaping AI policy, serving as Vice Chair of the US National AI Advisory Committee and Co-Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s AI Advisory Body. His role underscores the growing intersection of AI development and global governance.
The Nobel Prize share is divided equally between Hassabis and Jumper. The full implications of AlphaFold’s capabilities for future scientific breakthroughs remain under investigation.
