Winners of the Nobel Prize, especially for the sciences, usually are out of reach to the general public. Their ideas and concepts are, in one way or another, revolutionary in theory and for some, in practice as well. Many Nobel Prize winners in the natural sciences gravitate toward advancements in physics, chemistry, and medicine, much of which are too complex for the ordinary people like us who have no training or advance education in those fields. And one way that the Nobel Committee can communicate these ideas in simpler terms to the public is through illustrations, which distill the concepts into readily comprehensible imagery, analogies, or symbolisms. For the past 13 years, that has been the job of Johan Jarnestad.
One example is the illustration above, which depicts the research done by Claudia Goldin on the understanding of women's labor market outcomes. It's an incredibly simple illustration showing three generations of women looking back toward their mothers, with the first two having their children in tow, and the last one carrying books and a backpack. A signpost at the right end shows two opposite directions saying "expectations" and "opportunities". It's simple yet powerfully communicates a part of Goldin's research. Jarnestad also made three other illustrations of Goldin's research which you may check out on Fast Company.
(Image credit: Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)