About the Nobel Prize

This award is given each year to people who have done outstanding research, invented revolutionary techniques or equipment, or made notable contributions to society.

History

The prizes were established as the last will of Alfred Nobel, inventor of Dynamite and Swedish industrialist, who stipulated it in his will signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on November 27, 1895.

Alfred Nobel felt guilty for his responsibility as a businessman enriched through the Dynamite production industry whose main market was Mining, but also War and that may have been the motivation for creating a foundation that would manage his assets and finance dedicated actions. to the well-being of humanity, the main will of his famous will, which also helped him follow the custom of the time of carrying out actions that would make his name transcend when he died.

Its award has wide repercussions, although it has not always been considered fair, such as the case of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to North American President Barack Obama in 2009, coinciding with his decision to reinforce the US military forces that were intervening in Afghanistan at that time. , although its delivery on occasions has tried to exert some political pressure on governments to the detriment of humanitarian work in essence.

The award

Facade of the Stockholm Konserthuset, where the Nobel and Polar Music prizes are awarded.

The first ceremony for the Nobel Prizes in Literature, Physics, Chemistry and Medicine was held at the Old Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1901. Since 1902, the prizes have been awarded by the King of Sweden. Initially, King Oscar II did not agree to give the award to foreigners, but it is said that he changed his mind when he realized the enormous advertising potential for the country.

The prizes are awarded to living scientists or personalities, never postmortem, in a ceremony held annually at the Stockholm Concert Hall, following the banquet at City Hall on December 10, the date Alfred Nobel died. The Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony takes place in Oslo, Norway. The names of the laureates, however, are usually announced in October by the various committees and institutions that act as selection boards for the awards.

At the same time that the diplomas and a gold medal are awarded, an important financial prize is awarded, in 2015 it represented, at the time, about 10 million Swedish crowns (just over one million Euros). The purpose of this sum is to avoid the financial worries of the laureate, so that he can better develop his future work, thus promoting the development of culture, science and technology around the world.

The various fields in which prizes are awarded are as follows:

• Physics (decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)

• Chemistry (decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)

• Physiology or Medicine (decided by the Karolinska Institute)

• Literature (decided by the Swedish Academy)

• Peace (decided by the Norwegian Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament)

• Economy, created in 1968 by the Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden). Officially it is called the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Upon the death of Alfred Nobel, a curious situation arose with respect to the institutions responsible for awarding the prizes, since Alfred Nobel appointed them without prior consultation with the institutions themselves regarding their acceptance or the criteria for awarding the prizes. However, after many doubts within these same institutions, all of them accepted.

The Nobel Prize in Economics was not funded based on the "Nobel Will" and is therefore not technically a Nobel Prize (and is not accepted as such by the current Nobel family). However, this prize is awarded together with the other Nobel Prizes. In 1968 it was decided not to add any other "Nobel Memorial" prizes in the future. In February 1995 it was agreed that the prize in economic sciences would be redefined as a prize in social sciences, thus opening the Nobel Prize to major contributions in fields such as political science, psychology and sociology. In addition, the economics prize committee underwent changes so that two non-economist members participated in the selection process each year (previously the prize committee was composed of only five economists).

Alfred Nobel's Will

Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), Swedish magnate, creator of the Nobel Prize. The delivery ceremony takes place on December 10, coinciding with the anniversary of his death, and is celebrated in Stockholm and Oslo.

As stated in the will of Alfred Bernhard Nobel:

"The entirety of what remains of my fortune will be disposed of as follows: the capital, invested in safe securities by my testamentaries, will constitute a fund whose interests will be distributed each year in the form of prizes among those who during the preceding year have made the greatest benefit to humanity. These interests will be divided into five equal parts, which will be distributed as follows: one part to the person who has made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who has made the most important discovery or improvement within chemistry; one part to the person who has made the most important discovery within the field of physiology and medicine; one part to the person who has produced the most outstanding work of idealistic tendency within the field of literature, and a part to the person who has worked more or better in favor of fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of existing armies and the celebration and promotion of peace processes. The prizes for physics and chemistry will be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences, the prize for physiology and medicine will be awarded by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm; that of literature, by the Stockholm Academy, and that of the defenders of peace, by a committee made up of five people elected by the Norwegian Storting (Parliament). It is my express wish that, when awarding these prizes, the nationality of the candidates is not taken into consideration, but that the most deserving are the ones who receive the prize, whether they are Scandinavian or not".

The following are authorized to make proposals:

• In Physics and Chemistry:

The Swedish and foreign members of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm (Kungl-Vetenskapsakademien), the members of the Nobel Committees for the Prizes in Physics and Chemistry; the men of science who have obtained the Nobel Prize from the Academy of Sciences; the professors of physics and chemistry of the Universities of Uppsala, Lund, Oslo, Copenhagen and Helsingfors (Helsinki), the Carolinian Institute and the Royal Technical University of Stockholm; the free professors of these sciences who permanently carry out their activities at the University of Stockholm, professors and correspondent free professors from at least six Universities and Academies, designated by the Academy of Sciences in order to conveniently share the work with other countries and their professorships, and finally the men of science who, due to their special conditions, be invited to do so by the Academy.

• In Physiology or Medicine:

The members of the faculty of the Royal Carolinian Medical-Surgical Institute (Kugl-Karolinska Institutet) in Stockholm; the members of the medical section of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; the persons who are holders of the Nobel Prize in Medicine; the members of the Medical Faculties of the Universities of Uppsala, Lund, Oslo, Copenhagen and Helsingfors (Helsinki); members of at least six Medical Faculties, appointed by the faculty in order to conveniently share the task with others countries and their chairs, and those men of science who are required for this by the Carolino Institute.

• In Literature:

Members of the Swedish Academy and analogous French and Spanish Academies; members of literary institutions and societies that have the category of Academies, and university professors of aesthetics, literature and history.

• And in the work of Peace:

The current and former members of the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament; the advisors appointed by the Norwegian Nobel Institute; the members of the national legislative bodies and of the governments of the different countries; the members of the Interparliamentary Association; those of the International Court of The Hague; those of the Committee of the Permanent International Peace Bureau; the members and associates of the Paris Institute of International Law; the university professors who hold chairs of law, history and philosophy and the people who have obtained the Nobel Prize in peace.

Nobel Prize Medals

The Nobel Prize medals, minted by Myntverket in Sweden and the Norwegian Mint since 1902, are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation. On all the medals an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile stands out on the face of the medal. The five Nobel Prize medals (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature) have the same design on their front sides. The reverse sides of the Chemistry and Physics award medals share a design. Both sides of the Nobel Peace Prize and the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences have unique designs.

Others awards

Some disciplines without a Nobel Prize have instituted their own prizes, although they are not as well known. Among some of these awards are the Polar Music Prize, the Prince of Asturias Prize, the Fields Medal for mathematics (awarded by the International Mathematical Union) and the Abel Prize for mathematics (awarded by the King of Norway), the Pritzker Prize for architecture, the Pulitzer Prizes for journalism, the Turing Prize for computer science, the Wollaston Medal for geology, and the Schock Prize for logic, philosophy, mathematics, visual arts, and music. The Kyoto Prizes, awarded by the Inamori Foundation, are awarded in three categories: Advanced Technologies, Basic Sciences, and Art and Philosophy. The Millennium Technology Prize is an international award for outstanding technological achievements. The Well-Earned Livelihood Prize (known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize") is awarded to people who make important contributions in fields such as environmental protection, peace, human rights, health, etc. In 2002, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize, an international prize for children's and young people's literature, was established in memory of the Swedish children's book author Astrid Lindgren. The satirical Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody that annually rewards those researches that cannot or should not be repeated because this is what Nobel's will states.

Controversies and Curiosities about the Nobel Prize

Inconsistencies

While such writers as Mark Twain, Marcel Proust, Henrik Johan Ibsen, James Joyce, Leo Tolstoy, Jorge Luis Borges, and Anton Chekhov never received it, the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature went to Winston Churchill.

Ironically, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and yet Mahatma Gandhi (nominated five times) never received it. In his case, it should be noted that two days before the 1948 awards ceremony he was murdered and that year the award was not assigned to anyone.

Rejections

Curiously, only two people have rejected a Nobel Prize: the French writer Jean Paul Sartre and the Prime Minister of Vietnam, Le Duc Tho in 1973, refusing to share it with Henry Kissinger.

The oldest and the youngest

The oldest winner is the Russian-American Leonid Hurwicz (2007 Economics Prize) and the youngest is Malala Yousaf-zai, a Pakistani girl shot for defending female education in her country.

Nobel family

In 1903, the couple Pierre and Marie Curie received the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1911 Marie received it again for her research in the field of Chemistry (being the only woman awarded twice) and in 1935 her daughter Irene Joliot-Curie and her husband Fréderic Joliot received it for Chemistry.

Multi-awarded

o  Linus Puling won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his activism against nuclear testing.

o  John Barden received the Physics degree in 1956 for the invention of the transistor and in 1972 for discovering the Theory of Superconductivity.

o  The Red Cross has won the Nobel Peace Prize three times (1917, 1944, 1963) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has won it in 1954 and 1981.