TheNobel Prizes[a] are awards administered by theNobel Foundation and granted in accordance with theprinciple of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary ofAlfred Nobel's death.[2] The original Nobel Prizes covered five fields:physics,chemistry,physiology or medicine,literature, andpeace, specified in Nobel's will. A sixth prize, thePrize in Economic Sciences, was established in 1968 bySveriges Riksbank (Sweden's central bank) in memory of Alfred Nobel.[2][4][5] The Nobel Prizes are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards available in their respective fields.[6][7]
Except in extraordinary circumstances, such as war, all six prizes are given annually. Each recipient, known as alaureate, receives agreen goldmedal plated with24 karat gold, adiploma, and a monetary award. As of 2023, the Nobel Prize monetary award is 11,000,000kr, equivalent to approximatelyUS$1,035,000.[3] The medal shows Nobel in profile with "NAT. MDCCCXXXIII-OB. MDCCCXCVI" which is his year of birth, 1833 (NAT) and year of death, 1896 (OB). No more than three individuals may share a prize, although the Nobel Peace Prize can be awarded to organisations of more than three people.[8] Nobel Prizes are notawarded posthumously, but if a person is awarded a prize and dies before receiving it, the prize is presented.[9]
Between 1901 and 2024, the five Nobel Prizes and thePrize in Economic Sciences (since 1969) were awarded 627 times to 1,012 people and organisations.[10] Five individuals and two organisations have received more than one Nobel Prize.[11]
One story says thatAlfred Nobel had the unpleasant surprise of reading his own obituary, which was titled "The Merchant of Death Is Dead", in a French newspaper
Alfred Nobel was born on 21 October 1833 inStockholm, Sweden, into a family of engineers.[12] He was achemist,engineer, andinventor. In 1894, Nobel purchased theBofors iron and steel mill, which he made into a majorarmamentsmanufacturer. Nobel also inventedballistite. This invention was a precursor to many smokeless military explosives, especially the British smokeless powdercordite. As a consequence of his patent claims, Nobel was eventually involved in apatent infringementlawsuit over cordite. Nobel amassed a fortune during his lifetime, with most of his wealth coming from his 355 inventions, of whichdynamite is the most famous.[13]
There is a popular story about how, in 1888, Nobel was astonished to read his ownobituary, titled "The Merchant of Death Is Dead", in a French newspaper. It was Alfred's brotherLudvig who had died; theobituary was eight years premature. The article disconcerted Nobel and made him apprehensive about how he would be remembered. This inspired him to change hiswill.[14] Historians have been unable to verify this story and some dismiss the story as a myth.[15][16]
Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime. He composed the last over a year before he died, signing it at the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895.[18][19] To widespread astonishment, Nobel's last will specified that his fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" inphysics,chemistry,physiology ormedicine,literature, andpeace.[20] Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million SEK (c. US$186 million, €150 million in 2008), to establish the five Nobel Prizes.[21][22] Owing to skepticism surrounding the will, it was not approved by theStorting inNorway until 26 April 1897.[23] Theexecutors of the will,Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, formed theNobel Foundation to take care of the fortune and to organise the awarding of prizes.[24]
Nobel's instructions named aNorwegian Nobel Committee to award thePeace Prize, the members of which were appointed shortly after the will was approved in April 1897. Soon thereafter, the other prize-awarding organisations were designated. These were theKarolinska Institute on 7 June, the Swedish Academy on 9 June, and theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 11 June.[25] The Nobel Foundation reached an agreement on guidelines for how the prizes should be awarded; and, in 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly createdstatutes were promulgated byKing Oscar II.[20]
Alfred Nobel'swill, which stated that 94% of his total assets should be used to establish the Nobel Prizes
According to his will and testament read in Stockholm on 30 December 1896, a foundation established by Alfred Nobel would reward those who serve humanity. The Nobel Prize was funded by Alfred Nobel's personal fortune. According to the official sources, Alfred Nobel bequeathed most of his fortune to the Nobel Foundation that now forms the economic base of the Nobel Prize.[26]
TheNobel Foundation was founded as a private organisation on 29 June 1900. Its function is to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes.[27] In accordance with Nobel'swill, the primary task of the foundation is to manage the fortune left to posterity by Nobel.Robert andLudvig Nobel were involved in theoil business inAzerbaijan, and according to Swedishhistorian E. Bargengren, who accessed theNobel familyarchive, it was this "decision to allow withdrawal of Alfred's money fromBaku that became the decisive factor that enabled the Nobel Prizes to be established".[28] Another important task of the Nobel Foundation is to market the prizes internationally and to oversee informal administration related to the prizes. The foundation is not involved in the process of selecting theNobel laureates.[29][30] In many ways, the Nobel Foundation is similar to aninvestment company, in that it invests Nobel's money to create a solid funding base for the prizes and the administrative activities. The Nobel Foundation isexempt from all taxes in Sweden (since 1946) and from investment taxes in the United States (since 1953).[31] Since the 1980s, the foundation's investments have become more profitable and as of 31 December 2007, the assets controlled by the Nobel Foundation amounted to 3.628 billion Swedishkronor (c. US$560 million).[32]
According to the statutes, the foundation consists of a board of five Swedish or Norwegian citizens, with its seat in Stockholm. Thechairman of the board is appointed by the SwedishKing in Council, with the other four members appointed by thetrustees of the prize-awarding institutions. Anexecutive director is chosen from among theboard members, a deputy director is appointed by the King in Council, and two deputies are appointed by thetrustees. However, since 1995, all the members of the board have been chosen by the trustees, and the executive director and the deputy director appointed by the board itself. As well as the board, the Nobel Foundation is made up of the prize-awarding institutions (the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute, the Swedish Academy, and theNorwegian Nobel Committee), the trustees of these institutions, andauditors.[32]
The capital of the Nobel Foundation today is invested 50% inshares, 20%bonds and 30% otherinvestments (e.g.hedge funds orreal estate). The distribution can vary by 10 percent.[33] At the beginning of 2008, 64% of the funds were invested mainly in American and European stocks, 20% in bonds, plus 12% in real estate and hedge funds.[34]
In 2011, the total annual cost was approximately 120 millionkronor, with 50 million kronor as the prize money. Further costs to pay institutions and persons engaged in giving the prizes were 27.4 million kronor. The events during the Nobel week in Stockholm and Oslo cost 20.2 million kronor. The administration, Nobelsymposium, and similar items had costs of 22.4 million kronor. The cost of theEconomic Sciences prize of 16.5 Million kronor is paid by theSveriges Riksbank.[33]
Once the Nobel Foundation and its guidelines were in place, theNobel Committees began collecting nominations for the inaugural prizes. Subsequently, they sent a list of preliminary candidates to the prize-awarding institutions.
The Nobel Committee's Physics Prize shortlist citedWilhelm Röntgen's discovery ofX-rays andPhilipp Lenard's work oncathode rays. The Academy of Sciences selected Röntgen for the prize.[35][36] In the last decades of the 19th century, many chemists had made significant contributions. Thus, with the Chemistry Prize, the academy "was chiefly faced with merely deciding the order in which these scientists should be awarded the prize".[37] The academy received 20 nominations, eleven of them forJacobus van 't Hoff.[38] Van 't Hoff was awarded the prize for his contributions inchemical thermodynamics.[39][40]
The Swedish Academy chose the poetSully Prudhomme for the first Nobel Prize in Literature. A group including 42 Swedish writers, artists, and literary critics protested against this decision, having expectedLeo Tolstoy to be awarded.[41] Some, includingBurton Feldman, have criticised this prize because they consider Prudhomme a mediocre poet. Feldman's explanation is that most of the academy members preferredVictorian literature and thus selected a Victorian poet.[42] The first Physiology or Medicine Prize went to the German physiologist and microbiologistEmil von Behring. During the 1890s, von Behring developed anantitoxin to treatdiphtheria, which until then had been causing thousands of deaths each year.[43][44]
The firstNobel Peace Prize went to the SwissJean Henri Dunant for his role in founding the InternationalRed Cross Movement and initiating the Geneva Convention, and jointly given to French pacifistFrédéric Passy, founder of the Peace League and active with Dunant in the Alliance for Order and Civilization.
In 1938 and 1939,Adolf Hitler'sThird Reich forbade three laureates from Germany (Richard Kuhn,Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt, andGerhard Domagk) from accepting their prizes.[45] They were all later able to receive the diploma and medal.[46] Even though Sweden was officially neutral during the Second World War, the prizes were awarded irregularly. In 1939, the Peace Prize was not awarded. No prize was awarded in any category from 1940 to 1942, due to theoccupation of Norway by Germany. In the subsequent year, all prizes were awarded except those for literature and peace.[47]
During the occupation of Norway, three members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee fled into exile. The remaining members escaped persecution from the Germans when the Nobel Foundation stated that the committee building inOslo was Swedish property. Thus it was a safe haven from the German military, which was not at war with Sweden.[48] These members kept the work of the committee going, but did not award any prizes. In 1944, the Nobel Foundation, together with the three members in exile, made sure that nominations were submitted for the Peace Prize and that the prize could be awarded once again.[45]
AfterWorld War II,economics evolved rapidly as an academic discipline and came to be increasingly recognized as a significant scientific field.[49] In 1968, Sweden's central bank,Sveriges Riksbank, celebrated its 300th anniversary and donated a sum of money to theNobel Foundation to be used to set up a new award in the field ofeconomic sciences. The following year, 1969, thePrize in Economic Sciences was awarded for the first time.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is required to select the economics laureate in the same way as it does for the science Nobel Prizes. The first laureates for the Economics Prize wereJan Tinbergen andRagnar Frisch, "for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes".[50][51] The board of the Nobel Foundation decided that after this addition, it would allow no further new prizes.[52]
Nomination forms are sent by the Nobel Committee to about 3,000 individuals, usually in September the year before the prizes are awarded. These individuals are generally prominent academics working in a relevant area. Regarding the Peace Prize, inquiries are also sent to governments, former Peace Prize laureates, and current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The deadline for the return of the nomination forms is 31 January of the year of the award.[53][54] The Nobel Committee nominates about 300 potential laureates from these forms and additional names.[55] The nominees are not publicly named, nor are they told that they are being considered for the prize. All nomination records for a prize are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of the prize.[56][57]
The Nobel Committee then prepares a report reflecting the advice of experts in the relevant fields. This, along with the list of preliminary candidates, is submitted to the prize-awarding institutions.[58] There are four awarding institutions for the six prizes awarded:
The institutions meet to choose the laureate or laureates in each field by a majority vote. Their decision, which cannot be appealed, is announced immediately after the vote.[59] A maximum of three laureates and two different works may be selected per award. Except for the Peace Prize, which can be awarded to institutions, the awards can only be given to individuals.[60] The winners are announced by the awarding institutions during the first two weeks of October.
Although posthumous nominations are not presently permitted, individuals who died in the months between their nomination and the decision of the prize committee were originally eligible to receive the prize.[citation needed] This has occurred twice: the 1931 Literature Prize awarded toErik Axel Karlfeldt, and the 1961 Peace Prize awarded toUN Secretary GeneralDag Hammarskjöld. Since 1974, laureates must be thought alive at the time of the October announcement. There has been one laureate,William Vickrey, who in 1996 died after the prize (inEconomics) was announced but before it could be presented.[61] On 3 October 2011, the laureates for theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were announced; however, the committee was not aware that one of the laureates,Ralph M. Steinman, had died three days earlier. The committee reconsidered Steinman's award, since the rule is that the prize is not awarded posthumously,[9] but decided that as the decision to award Steinman the prize "was made in good faith", it would remain unchanged, and the prize would be awarded.[62]
Nobel's will provided for prizes to be awarded in recognition of discoveries made "during the preceding year". Early on, the awards usually recognised recent discoveries.[63] However, some of those early discoveries were later discredited. For example,Johannes Fibiger was awarded the 1926 Prize inPhysiology or Medicine for his purported discovery of a parasite that caused cancer.[64] To avoid repeating this embarrassment, the awards increasingly recognised scientific discoveries that had withstood the test of time.[65][66][67] According to Ralf Pettersson, former chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology or Medicine, "the criterion 'the previous year' is interpreted by the Nobel Assembly as the year when the full impact of the discovery has become evident."[66]
The committee room of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
The interval between the award and the accomplishment it recognises varies from discipline to discipline. The Literature Prize is typically awarded to recognise a cumulative lifetime body of work rather than a single achievement.[68][69] The Peace Prize can also be awarded for a lifetime body of work. For example, 2008 laureateMartti Ahtisaari was awarded for his work to resolve international conflicts.[70][71] However, they can also be awarded for specific recent events.[72] For instance,Kofi Annan was awarded the 2001 Peace Prize just four years after becoming the Secretary-General of the United Nations.[73] SimilarlyYasser Arafat,Yitzhak Rabin, andShimon Peres received the 1994 award, about a year after they successfully concluded theOslo Accords.[74] Acontroversy was caused by awarding the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize toBarack Obama during his first year as US president.[75][76]
Awards for physics, chemistry, and medicine are typically awarded once the achievement has been widely accepted. Sometimes, this takes decades – for example,Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar shared the 1983 Physics Prize for his 1930s work on stellar structure and evolution.[77][78] Not all scientists live long enough for their work to be recognised. Some discoveries can never be considered for a prize if their impact is realised after the discoverers have died.[79][80][81]
Except for the Peace Prize, the Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm, Sweden, at the annual Prize Award Ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The recipients' lectures are normally held in the days prior to the award ceremony. The Peace Prize and its recipients' lectures are presented at the annual Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, usually on 10 December. The award ceremonies and the associated banquets are typically major international events.[82][83] The Prizes awarded in Sweden's ceremonies are held at theStockholm Concert Hall, with the Nobel banquet following immediately atStockholm City Hall. The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has been held at theNorwegian Nobel Institute (1905–1946), at theauditorium of theUniversity of Oslo (1947–1989), and atOslo City Hall (1990–present).[84]
The highlight of the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm occurs when each Nobel laureate steps forward to receive the prize from the hands of theKing of Sweden. In Oslo, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of theKing of Norway and theNorwegian royal family.[83][85] At first, KingOscar II did not approve of awarding grand prizes to foreigners.[86]
After the award ceremony in Sweden, a banquet is held in theBlue Hall at theStockholm City Hall, which is attended by theSwedish Royal Family and around 1,300 guests. TheNobel Peace Prize banquet is held in Norway at theOslo Grand Hotel after the award ceremony. Apart from the laureate, guests include the president of theStorting, on occasion the Swedish prime minister, and, since 2006, the King and Queen of Norway. In total, about 250 guests attend.
According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, each laureate is required to give a public lecture on a subject related to the topic of their prize.[87] The Nobel lecture as a rhetorical genre took decades to reach its current format.[88] These lectures normally occur during Nobel Week (the week leading up to the award ceremony and banquet, which begins with the laureates arriving in Stockholm and normally ends with the Nobel banquet), but this is not mandatory. The laureate is only obliged to give the lecture within six months of receiving the prize, but some have happened even later. For example, US PresidentTheodore Roosevelt received the Peace Prize in 1906 but gave his lecture in 1910, after his term in office.[89] The lectures are organised by the same association which selected the laureates.[90]
Military cemeteries in every corner of the world are silent testimony to the failure of national leaders to sanctify human life.
From 1959 to 1990, Swedish journalistBengt Feldreich gathered the science prize laureates to a discussion, broadcast asSnillen spekulerar (in EnglishScience and Man) first in radio, and then from the mid-1960s inSveriges Television. Since 2004, the program is a coproduction withBBC World News under the titleNobel Minds, since 2011 hosted byZeinab Badawi.[92][93]
Fritz Haber's diploma is shown, which he received for the development of a method to synthesiseammonia. Laureates receive a heavily decorated diploma together with a gold medal and prize money
The Nobel Foundation announced on 30 May 2012 that it had awarded the contract for the production of the five (Swedish) Nobel Prize medals to Svenska Medalj AB. Between 1902 and 2010, the Nobel Prize medals were minted byMyntverket (the Swedish Mint), which ceased operations in 2011 after 107 years. In 2011, the Mint of Norway, located in Kongsberg, made the medals. The Nobel Prize medals are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation.[94]
Each medal features an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on theobverse. The medals for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature have identical obverses, showing the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death. Nobel's portrait also appears on the obverse of the Peace Prize medal and the medal for the Economics Prize, but with a slightly different design. For instance, the laureate's name is engraved on the rim of the Economics medal.[95] The image on the reverse of a medal varies according to the institution awarding the prize. The reverse sides of the medals for chemistry and physics share the same design.[96]
All medals made before 1980 were struck in 23carat gold. Since then, they have been struck in 18 caratgreen gold plated with 24 carat gold. The weight of each medal varies with the value of gold, but averages about 175 grams (0.386 lb) for each medal. The diameter is 66 millimetres (2.6 in) and the thickness varies between 5.2 millimetres (0.20 in) and 2.4 millimetres (0.094 in).[97] Because of the high value of their gold content and tendency to be on public display, Nobel medals are subject to medal theft.[98][99][100] During World War II, the medals of German scientistsMax von Laue andJames Franck were sent to Copenhagen for safekeeping. When Germany invaded Denmark, Hungarian chemist (and Nobel laureate himself)George de Hevesy dissolved them inaqua regia (nitro-hydrochloric acid), to prevent confiscation byNazi Germany and to prevent legal problems for the holders. After the war, the gold was recovered from solution, and the medals re-cast.[101]
Nobel laureates receive a diploma directly from the hands of the King of Sweden, or in the case of the peace prize, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Each diploma is uniquely designed by the prize-awarding institutions for the laureates that receive them.[95] The diploma contains a picture and text in Swedish which states the name of the laureate and normally a citation of why they received the prize. None of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates has ever had a citation on their diplomas.[102][103]
Evolution of the prize amount between 1901 and 2023, adjusted for inflation
The laureates are given a sum of money when they receive their prizes, in the form of a document confirming the amount awarded.[95] The amount of prize money depends upon how much money the Nobel Foundation can award each year. The purse has increased since the 1980s, when the prize money was 880,000 SEK per prize (c. 2.6 million SEK altogether, US$350,000 today). In 2009, the monetary award was 10 million SEK (US$1.4 million).[104][105] In June 2012, it was lowered to 8 million SEK.[106] If two laureates share the prize in a category, the award grant is divided equally between the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of dividing the grant equally, or awarding one-half to one recipient and one-quarter to each of the others.[107][108][109] It is common for recipients to donate prize money to benefit scientific, cultural, or humanitarian causes.[110][111] As of 2025, the monetary award per prize category is 11 million Swedish kronor (SEK), equivalent to approximately US$1.035 million.[112]
Marie Skłodowska-Curie, one of five people who have received the Nobel Prize twice (Physics and Chemistry)
Five people have received two Nobel Prizes.Marie Skłodowska-Curie received the Physics Prize in 1903 for her work onradioactivity and the Chemistry Prize in 1911 for the isolation of pureradium,[115] making her the only person to be awarded a Nobel Prize in two different sciences.Linus Pauling was awarded the 1954 Chemistry Prize for his research into thechemical bond and its application to thestructure of complex substances. Pauling was also awarded the Peace Prize in 1962 for his activism against nuclear weapons, making him the only laureate of two unshared prizes.John Bardeen received the Physics Prize twice: in 1956 for the invention of thetransistor and in 1972 for the theory ofsuperconductivity.[116]Frederick Sanger received the prize twice in Chemistry: in 1958 for determining the structure of theinsulin molecule and in 1980 for inventing a method of determiningbase sequences in DNA.[117][118]Karl Barry Sharpless was awarded the 2001 Chemistry Prize for his research into chirally catalysed oxidation reactions, and the 2022 Chemistry Prize forclick chemistry.
TheCurie family has received the most prizes, with four prizes awarded to five individual laureates.Marie Skłodowska-Curie received the prizes in Physics (in 1903) and Chemistry (in 1911). Her husband,Pierre Curie, shared the 1903 Physics prize with her.[123] Their daughter,Irène Joliot-Curie, received the Chemistry Prize in 1935 together with her husbandFrédéric Joliot-Curie. In addition,Henry Labouisse, the husband of Marie and Pierre Curie's second daughterÈve Curie, was the director ofUNICEF when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 on that organisation's behalf.[124]
When it was announced thatHenry Kissinger was to be awarded theNobel Peace Prize in1973, two of the Norwegian Nobel Committee members resigned in protest
Among other criticisms, the Nobel Committees have been accused of having a political agenda, and of omitting more deserving candidates. They have also been accused ofEurocentrism, especially for the Literature Prize.[139][140][141]
Peace Prize
Among the most criticised Nobel Peace Prizes was the one awarded toHenry Kissinger andLê Đức Thọ. This led to the resignation of two Norwegian Nobel Committee members.[142] Kissinger and Thọ were awarded the prize for negotiating a ceasefire betweenNorth Vietnam and the United States in January 1973 during theVietnam War. However, when the award was announced, both sides were still engaging in hostilities.[143] Critics sympathetic to the North announced that Kissinger was not a peace-maker but the opposite, responsible for widening the war. Those hostile to the North and what they considered its deceptive practices during negotiations were deprived of a chance to criticise Lê Đức Thọ, as he declined the award.[56][144] The satirist and musicianTom Lehrer has remarked that "political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."[145]
Yasser Arafat,Shimon Peres, andYitzhak Rabin received the Peace Prize in 1994 for their efforts in making peace between Israel and Palestine.[56][146] Immediately after the award was announced, one of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members denounced Arafat as a terrorist and resigned.[147] Additional misgivings about Arafat were widely expressed in various newspapers.[148]
Another controversial Peace Prize was that awarded toBarack Obamain 2009.[149] Nominations had closed only eleven days after Obama took office asPresident of the United States, but the actual evaluation occurred over the next eight months.[150] Obama himself stated that he did not feel deserving of the award, or worthy of the company in which it would place him.[151][152] Past Peace Prize laureates were divided, some saying that Obama deserved the award, and others saying he had not secured the achievements to yet merit such an accolade. Obama's award, along with the previous Peace Prizes forJimmy Carter andAl Gore, also prompted accusations of aliberal bias.[153]
Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Peace Prize in 1991. However, in 2015, when she came into power inMyanmar, she was criticized for being silent on human rights violations under her rule and especially over theRohingya genocide and calls were made to strip her of her Nobel Peace Prize.[154][155]
Literature Prize
The award of the 2004 Literature Prize toElfriede Jelinek drew a protest from a member of the Swedish Academy,Knut Ahnlund. Ahnlund resigned, alleging that the selection of Jelinek had caused "irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art". He alleged that Jelinek's works were "a mass of text shovelled together without artistic structure".[156][157] The 2009 Literature Prize toHerta Müller also generated criticism. According toThe Washington Post, many US literary critics and professors were ignorant of her work.[158] This made those critics feel the prizes were too Eurocentric.[159] The 2019 Literature Prize toPeter Handke received heavy criticisms from various authors, such asSalman Rushdie andHari Kunzru, and was condemned by the governments ofBosnia and Herzegovina,Kosovo, andTurkey, due to his history ofBosnian genocide denialism and his support forSlobodan Milošević.[160][161][162]
Science prizes
In 1949, the neurologistAntónio Egas Moniz received the Physiology or Medicine Prize for his development of theprefrontal lobotomy. The previous year,Walter Freeman had developed aversion of the procedure which was faster and easier to carry out. Due in part to the publicity surrounding the original procedure, Freeman's procedure was prescribed without due consideration or regard for modernmedical ethics. Endorsed by such influential publications asThe New England Journal of Medicine, leucotomy or "lobotomy" became so popular that about 5,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States in the three years immediately following Moniz's receipt of the Prize.[163][164]
AlthoughMohandas Gandhi, an icon ofnonviolence in the 20th century, was nominated for theNobel Peace Prize five times, in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and a few days before he was assassinated on 30 January 1948, he was never awarded the prize.[165][166][167] In 1948, the year ofGandhi's death, the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to make no award that year on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate".[165][168] In 1989, this omission was publicly regretted, when the14th Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize, the chairman of the committee said that it was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi".[169]Geir Lundestad, 2006 Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee, said,
The greatest omission in our 106-year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace Prize. Whether the Nobel committee can do without Gandhi, is the question.[170][171]
In 1965, UN Secretary GeneralU Thant was informed by the Norwegian Permanent Representative to the UN that he would be awarded that year's prize and asked whether or not he would accept. He consulted staff and later replied that he would. At the same time, ChairmanGunnar Jahn of the Nobel Peace prize committee, lobbied heavily against giving U Thant the prize and the prize was at the last minute awarded toUNICEF. The rest of the committee all wanted the prize to go to U Thant, for his work in defusing theCuban Missile Crisis, ending the war in the Congo, and his ongoing work to mediate an end to the Vietnam War. The disagreement lasted three years and in 1966 and 1967 no prize was given, with Gunnar Jahn effectively vetoing an award to U Thant.[172][173]
Candidates can receive multiple nominations the same year.Gaston Ramon received a total of 155[178] nominations in physiology or medicine from 1930 to 1953, the last year with public nomination data for that award as of 2016[update]. He died in 1963 without being awarded.Pierre Paul Émile Roux received 115[179] nominations in physiology or medicine, andArnold Sommerfeld received 84[180] in physics. These are the three most nominated scientists without awards in the data published as of 2016[update].[181]Otto Stern received 79[182] nominations in physics 1925–1943 before being awarded in 1943.[183]
The strict rule against awarding a prize to more than three people is also controversial.[184] When a prize is awarded to recognise an achievement by a team of more than three collaborators, one or more will miss out. For example, in 2002, the prize was awarded toKoichi Tanaka andJohn Fenn for the development ofmass spectrometry inprotein chemistry, an award that did not recognise the achievements ofFranz Hillenkamp andMichael Karas of the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at theUniversity of Frankfurt.[185][186]
According to one of the nominees for the prize in physics, the three person limit deprived him and two other members of his team of the honor in 2013: the team ofCarl Hagen,Gerald Guralnik, andTom Kibble published a paper in 1964 that gave answers to how the cosmos began, but did not share the 2013 Physics Prize awarded toPeter Higgs andFrançois Englert, who had also published papers in 1964 concerning the subject. All five physicists arrived at the same conclusion, albeit from different angles. Hagen contends that an equitable solution is to either abandon the three limit restriction, or expand the time period of recognition for a given achievement to two years.[187]
Similarly, the prohibition of posthumous awards fails to recognise achievements by an individual or collaborator who dies before the prize is awarded. The Economics Prize was not awarded toFischer Black, who died in 1995, when his co-authorMyron Scholes received the honor in 1997 for their landmark work on option pricing along withRobert C. Merton, another pioneer in the development of valuation of stock options. In the announcement of the award that year, the Nobel committee prominently mentioned Black's key role.
Political subterfuge may also deny proper recognition.Lise Meitner andFritz Strassmann, who co-discovered nuclear fission along withOtto Hahn, may have been denied a share of Hahn's 1944 Nobel Chemistry Award due to having fled Germany when theNazis came to power.[188] The Meitner and Strassmann roles in the research was not fully recognised until years later, when they joined Hahn in receiving the 1966Enrico Fermi Award.
Alfred Nobel left his fortune to finance annual prizes to be awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".[189] He stated that the Nobel Prizes in Physics should be given "to the person who shall have made the most important 'discovery' or 'invention' within the field of physics". Nobel did not emphasise discoveries, but they have historically been held in higher respect by the Nobel Prize Committee than inventions: 77% of the Physics Prizes have been given to discoveries, compared with only 23% to inventions. Christoph Bartneck and Matthias Rauterberg, in papers published inNature andTechnoetic Arts, have argued this emphasis on discoveries has moved the Nobel Prize away from its original intention of rewarding the greatest contribution to society.[190][191]
In terms of the most prestigious awards inSTEM fields, only a small proportion have been awarded to women. Out of 210 laureates in Physics, 181 in Chemistry and 216 in Medicine between 1901 and 2018, there were only three female laureates in physics, five in chemistry and 12 in medicine.[192][193][194][195] Factors proposed to contribute to the discrepancy between this and the roughly equalhuman sex ratio include biased nominations, fewer women than men being active in the relevant fields, Nobel Prizes typically being awarded decades after the research was done (reflecting a time whengender bias in the relevant fields was greater), a greater delay in awarding Nobel Prizes for women's achievements making longevity a more important factor for women (one cannot be nominated for the Nobel Prize posthumously), and a tendency to omit women from jointly awarded Nobel Prizes.[196][197][198][199][200][201] Despite these factors, Marie Curie is to date the only person awarded Nobel Prizes in two different sciences (Physics in 1903, Chemistry in 1911); she is one of only three people who have received two Nobel Prizes in sciences (see Multiple Laureates above).Malala Yousafzai is the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When she received it in 2014, she was only 17 years old.[202]
Peter Nobel describes the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel as a "false Nobel prize" that dishonours his relative Alfred Nobel, after whom the prize is named, and considers economics to be a pseudoscience.[203][204]
Two laureates have voluntarily declined the Nobel Prize. In 1964,Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Literature Prize, but refused, stating, "A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honourable form."[205]Lê Đức Thọ, chosen for the 1973 Peace Prize for his role in theParis Peace Accords, declined, stating that there was no actual peace in Vietnam.[206]George Bernard Shaw attempted to decline the prize money while accepting the 1925 Literature Prize; eventually it was agreed to use it to found theAnglo-Swedish Literary Foundation.[207]
In 1958,Boris Pasternak declined his prize for literature due to fear of what the Soviet Union government might do if he travelled to Stockholm to accept his prize. In return, the Swedish Academy refused his refusal, saying "this refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award."[206] The academy announced with regret that the presentation of the Literature Prize could not take place that year, holding it back until 1989 when Pasternak's son accepted the prize on his behalf.[210][211]
Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, but her children accepted the prize because she had been placed under house arrest inBurma; Suu Kyi delivered her speech two decades later, in 2012.[212]Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 while he and his wife were under house arrest in China as political prisoners, and he was unable to accept the prize in his lifetime.
The Nobel Prize in Literature laureatesIvo Andrić (recipient in1961) andJosé Saramago (recipient in1998) pictured on a 2022 Serbian stamp
Being a symbol of scientific or literary achievement that is recognisable worldwide, the Nobel Prize is often depicted in fiction. This includes films such asThe Prize (1963),Nobel Son (2007), andThe Wife (2017) about fictional Nobel laureates, as well as fictionalised accounts of stories surrounding real prizes such asNobel Chor, a 2012 film based on thetheft of Rabindranath Tagore's prize. It has also been depicted in television shows such asThe Big Bang Theory.[213][214]
The statue and memorial symbolPlanet of Alfred Nobel was opened inAlfred Nobel University of Economics and Law inDnipro, Ukraine in 2008. On the globe, there are 802 Nobel laureates' reliefs made of a composite alloy obtained when disposing of military strategic missiles.[215]
^""Financial Management"".Nobel Foundation. 8 November 2021.Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved8 November 2021.Nobel stipulated in his will that most of his estate, more than SEK 31 million (today approximately SEK 1,794 million) should be converted into a fund and invested in "safe securities".
^Bishop, J. Michael (2003).How to win the Nobel Prize : an unexpected life in science. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-02097-9.OCLC450899218.
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