Congratulations to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane, and Mike Kosterlitz for the 2016 Nobel prize in physics!  They pioneered applications of topology to condensed matter physics.  It took a while, but now the use of topology in condensed matter is commonplace.

These guys did foundational work, and the field has developed a lot since their seminal contributions.  Given this prize, it will be interesting to see how the work of Charlie Kane and others on topological insulators fares with the Nobel committee in the future!