Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed in several categories by Swedish and Norwegian institutions in recognition of academic, cultural, or scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist, engineer and industrialist Alfred Nobel established the five Nobel prizes in 1895. The prizes in Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine were first awarded in 1901. An associated prize, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (commonly known as the Nobel Prize in Economics), was instituted by Sweden’s central bank in 1968 and first awarded in 1969.

Nobel Prizes are awarded for outstanding contributions in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace work and economics. They are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards available in their respective fields.

The award winners are selected by committees consisting of leading international experts from various disciplines. The selection process is rigorous and involves careful scrutiny of nominations received from all over the world before a decision is reached.

Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist who invented dynamite and held 355 patents during his lifetime. He also made substantial donations to armaments manufacturers through his company Nobels Fabrikker (now known as NitroNobel). In his final years he became increasingly interested philanthropy and wanted to use his fortune to benefit humanity. As a result, he specified that his estate should be used to create a series of prizes for those who had “conferred the greatest benefit on mankind” In total there have been 1048 laureates since 1901 (as of 2020), including 903 men and 145 women; these figures include 870 individuals and 178 organizations.. Marie Curie is the only person to have won two different Nobels: Physics 1903 & Chemistry 1911) John Bardeen is the only person to have won twice within one category: Physics 1956 & 1972). Frederick Sanger is the only British laureate to have been awarded two Nobels: Chemistry 1958 & 1980). Linus Pauling was similarly honoured with two separate awards: Chemistry 1954 for “research into the nature of chemical bonds” and Peace 1962 “for his campaign against nuclear weapons tests”. organisations have been awarded 18 times between 1945-1989; International Committee of the Red Cross has been recognized 3 times; Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been honored twice; while United Nations Children’s Fund has received it once.