Academics from the US have dominated this week's Nobel Prizes, accounting for six of the eight joint winners in the three categories announced. The physiology or medicine prize was awarded to Richard Axel of Columbia University, New York, and Linda Buck of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Seattle. The physics prize went to David Gross of the University of California, Santa Barbara, David Politzer of the California Institute of Technology and Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The chemistry prize went to Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko of Technion of the Israel Institute of Technology, and Irwin Rose of the University of California, Irvine. Each prize has an award of some £750,000 The literature and peace prizes were due to be announced after The Times Higher went to press.