Bill Gates Praises Katalin Karikó's Life's work

American businessman, investor and philanthropist Bill Gates – in his capacity as Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – has listed the most important events of 2023 in a Facebook post, and mentioned Hungarian biochemist Katalin Karikó's Nobel Prize in the first place.

“There’s no question these are challenging times, but I remain optimistic about the future. I’m lucky that my work gives me insight into all the ways the world is getting better. Here is a list of five good things that happened this year.

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman win the Nobel Prize. Dr. Katalin Karikó and Dr. Weissman saw the potential of mRNA when few others did and fought tooth and nail to study it – resulting in revolutionary vaccines that have saved tens of millions of lives. They won their well-deserved Nobel Prizes this year for work that has truly changed the world.”

Regarding other achievements on his list, he mentioned that “we got a glimpse of how AI will shape the future by supercharging innovation pipelines across all sectors.”

Regarding the fight against climate change, “at COP28, it became clear how sophisticated and nuanced the climate conversation has become.

He also mentioned that scientists make progress on preventing cervical cancer and “new single-dose guidance can help make these lifesaving vaccines more available and accessible to women and girls everywhere.”

He also expressed his satisfaction that “green jobs got a big boost. I’m excited to continue engaging with leading innovators through my work with Breakthrough Energy.”