The 2021 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to David Julius, pictured left, and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch. “Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival and underpins our interaction with the world around us,” the Nobel Committee said. “In our daily lives, we take these sensations for granted, but how are nerve impulses initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived? This question has been solved by this year’s Nobel Prize laureates.

Julius, a professor at the University of California/San Francisco, and Patapoutian, a professor at Scripps Research in California, will share the Nobel Prize of 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million).

In an autobiographical piece published online last year in honor of his winning the prestigious 2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, Julius described his family’s Jewish roots, saying he “grew up in a seaside Brooklyn neighborhood…that’s been a landing pad for Eastern European immigrants like my grandparents, who fled Czarist Russia and antisemitism in pursuit of a better life.”