Nobel Prize- The Most Prestigious Award for Laureates
Across the world, every year laureates are selected and awarded for their work for humanity and mankind- the award is known as the Nobel Prize. There are several categories on which the scholars are selected across the world, such as Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Physiology or Medicine, Peace, and Economical Science.
Total Number of Laureates
More than 900 laureates have been awarded as the Nobel prize winner so far.
Award Ceremony Date
On 10th December, every year, the names of the Nobel award winners are announced. The whole world keeps waiting for this day. All the curious eyes will be right pointing towards Sweden during this time.
How Does the Nobel Award Ceremony Take Place?
● The Nobel Week
On 10th December, the award ceremony takes place in both Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway. In Oslo, the Nobel Prize for Peace is awarded, whereas the other Nobel laureates are welcomed and awarded in Stockholm. The entire week(from 5th December to 11th December) in Stockholm is grandly celebrated, which is known as “Nobel Week”
● Press Conferences and Seminar
There will be numerous press conferences and seminars happening from 5th to 10th December in Stockholm, Sweden where reporters and journalists visit from the entire world to get the latest updates from the venue.
● Lectures by the Laureates
Laureates provide lectures about their work, research, society, and very useful messages with detailed, insightful speeches between the 7th and 8th of December.
● The Nobel Concert
A musical concert takes place to welcome and honor the laureates on 8th December in Stockholm.
● The Nobel Week Dialogue
9th December, a great eventful day, when the topmost scientists, inventors, thinkers, entrepreneurs, companies, scholars, laureates, celebrities, and social workers meet together at a conference. They share ideas, thoughts, and discuss social issues. Even, the common people get free entries to this exclusive event.
● The Award Ceremony
On 10th December, the laureates are awarded with the Nobel prize by the Swedish King. They are provided with the Nobel diploma, medal, and the Nobel prize money. The event is then followed by a royal dinner at the Stockholm City Hall.
A similar event takes place in Oslo, Norway, where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the laureates.
● The Closing Ceremony
The event gets concluded with a royal banquet again on the next day where all the delegates meet together for one last time before moving ahead to their destinations.
The Selection Procedure
Category-Wise Selection
Based on their merits, achievements, and social roles in particular categories, the laureates are selected. The categories to fill-up the criteria are given below:
Category:
● Physics
● Chemistry
● Physiology or Medical
● Literature
● Peace
● Economical Science
★ The Nobel prize is awarded by the Nobel Foundation which is governed and managed by four institutions (three in Sweden, one in Norway. When the foundation was set in the year 1900, then Sweden and Norway, they both were the same country.)
The Nobel Foundations
● Created: 1900
❏ Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
● Place: Stockholm, Sweden
● Category: Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences (commonly known as Nobel Prize for Economics). The Nobel prize in economics was included and awarded for the first time in the year 1969.
● Founded In: The year 1739
● Members: 460 Swedish members, 175 foreign members
❏ Swedish Academy
● Place: Stockholm, Sweden
● Category: Nobel Prize in Literature
● Founded In: The year 1786
● Total Members: 18 members
❏ Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute
● Place: Stockholm, Sweden
● Category: Nobel Prize Physiology or Medicine.
● Founded in: The year 1810
● Total members: 50 Professors
❏ Norwegian Nobel Committee
● Place: Oslo, Norway
● Category: Nobel Prize for Peace
● Founded: The year 1897
● Members: 5 members appointed by the Norwegian Parliament.
Alfred Nobel
Known for his famous inventions and researches on explosives. The Swedish inventor was also a philanthropist, engineer, chemist, and entrepreneur. He was the pioneer in explosive studies at that level, eventually managed to acquire 355 patents across the world. His explosive manufacturing industries were spread across 20 countries around the world. He had owned around 100 explosive companies under his name. He lived a very successful life, spent his days in Sweden, UK, Germany, Russia and other European countries like France, and Italy.
● Born: 21st October 1833
● Death: 10th December 1896
● Invention: Dynamite, Smokeless Gunpowder
● Last Will: 1895
The Will Says
● The entire assets of Alfred Nobel( which was then worth more than 31 million SEK, a quite big amount at that point of time) have to be donated to a fund/organization after his death.
● The fund should be created by four institutions namely:
1. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm
2. Swedish Academy, Stockholm
3. Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute
4. Norwegian Nobel Committee, Oslo, Norway
● The entire asset should be invested in such a way so that the interest and return through it should be utilized to reward the laureates in several categories across the world for their achievements in the previous year.
● In 1990, the Nobel Foundation was created.
Asset Worth in 1900
31 million SEK
Asset Current Worth
● 4.5 billion SEK
● This entire money is invested by the Nobel Foundation to gather the best ROI and arrange the award ceremony and prize money for the Nobel laureates.
● The interest and per year’s Return on Investment are shared as the prize money among the Nobel Laureates.
Current Prize Money for Each Category
● 9 million SEK which is equivalent to 8,45,000 Euro.
● The Nobel prize money to be shared among the laureates if, there is more than one laureate gets selected in the same category.
Maximum Number of Laureates in Each Category
Three Laureates- There can be a maximum of three Nobel prize winners in each category.
Nobel Prize for Peace
Why the Nobel Peace Award is Different From the Other Categories.
In his will, Alfred Bernard Nobel stated that the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded to the laureate who has established the idea of peace and harmony across the countries by going against social warfare and communal fights, riots, social abuses.
The award is completely based on human nature and achievements of the laureate and the selection procedure for that should be managed by the five members selected by the Norwegian parliament. The reason is a bit unclear till today, that why did Alfred Nobel, in his will inform the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded by the Norwegian Parliament.
When the world sees, the other prize categories such as the Nobel Prize for literature, Nobel Prize for Economics, Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry are awarded in Stockholm on 10th December, the Nobel Peace Prize winners receive awards by the Norwegian Parliament on the same day, at Oslo, Norway.
Famous Organizations and Individuals Who Own Nobel Peace Prize
★ Out of 106 individual Nobel Peace Prize winners to date, 17 laureates are women.
● International Committee of Red Cross (3 times, 1917, 1944, 1963)
● Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2 times, 1954 & 1981)
● The First Noble Peace Prize ever in 1901 was awarded to Frederik Passy. The joint winner was Henry Dunant.
● The Latest Winner was Abiy Ahamed in 2019
● Linus Pauling- won the Noble peace prize in 1962, who also own Nobel prize in Chemistry in 1954. Both these prizes were unshared.
● Bertha Von Shutter of Austria is the first-ever woman to win the Nobel Peace Award in 1905.
● Lê Đức Thọ is the only laureate who refused to accept the Nobel Peace Award due to Vietnam’s situation at that moment.
● Carl Von Ossietzky, Aung San Suu Kyi, Liu Xiaobo are some Noble Peace winners who were under arrest at the time of receiving the peace award!
● George Marshall (1953), Martin Luther King Jr. (1964), Mother Teresa (1979), Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai lama (1989), Nelson Mandela (1993), Kofi Annan (2001), Al Gore (2007), Barrack Obama (2009)- are some of important names in the Peace Prize winners list.
