Japanese researcher Yoshinori Ohsumi was yesterday announced winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

According to the official website of the Nobel Prize, Nobelprize.org, Yoshinori Ohsumi “has discovered and elucidated mechanisms underlying autophagy, a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components.” Yoshinori Ohsumi is a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology since 2009.

The Nobel Prizes was founded in 1901 by Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel to honour achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and for work in world peace.

Today Tuesday, the Nobel Committee will announce the 2016 Prize for Physics, to be followed by the Prize winner for Chemistry, to be announced tomorrow Wednesday.

The winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace will be announced Thursday and for Economic Sciences on Friday. But the date for announcing the Nobel Prize winner for Literature will be set later.

African Nobel Prize Laureates include Late Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat, Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, South African freedom fighter Albert John Luthuli, Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu. Others are Kenyan late environmental and political activist Wangari Maathai.