Nobel Prize

• 1. The Merchant Of Death

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  Alfred Nobel died on the 10th of December 1896 in his villa located in San Remo, Italy. He was sixty-three years old when a cerebral haemorrhage ended his life. The story goes that he read his own obituary titled "The Merchant of Death Is Dead" in a French newspaper eight years before his death. This premature announcement disconcerted him and made him apprehensive about how history would remember him. Historians have been unable to verify this specific incident and some dismiss it as a myth. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the story, the event inspired him to change his will. He composed the final version over a year before he died. He signed the document at the Swedish, Norwegian Club in Paris on the 27th of November 1895. To widespread astonishment, his last will specified that his fortune be used to create prizes for those who confer the greatest benefit on mankind. Nobel bequeathed ninety-four percent of his total assets to establish five distinct awards. These categories included physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. The executors of the will were Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist. They formed the Nobel Foundation to take care of the fortune and organize the awarding of prizes.

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• 2. Foundation Governance

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  The Nobel Foundation was founded as a private organization on the 29th of June 1900. Its primary function is to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. According to official sources, Alfred Nobel bequeathed most of his fortune to the foundation which now forms the economic base of the prize. Robert and Ludvig Nobel were involved in the oil business in Azerbaijan. A decision to allow withdrawal of Alfred's money from Baku became the decisive factor that enabled the Nobel Prizes to be established. Another important task of the foundation is to market the prizes internationally. It also oversees informal administration related to the prizes. The foundation is not involved in the process of selecting the Nobel laureates. In many ways, the Nobel Foundation operates like an investment company. It invests Nobel's money to create a solid funding base for the prizes and administrative activities. Since the 1980s, the foundation's investments have become more profitable. As of the 31st of December 2007, assets controlled by the foundation amounted to 3.628 billion Swedish kronor. The capital today is invested fifty percent in shares and twenty percent in bonds. The remaining thirty percent goes into other investments such as hedge funds or real estate. At the beginning of 2008, sixty-four percent of the funds were invested mainly in American and European stocks.

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• 3. Selection Process

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  Nomination forms are sent by the Nobel Committee to about three thousand 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 and former Peace Prize laureates. The deadline for the return of nomination forms is the 31st of January of the year of the award. The Nobel Committee nominates about three hundred potential laureates from these forms and additional names. 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 fifty years from the awarding of the prize. The Nobel Committee then prepares a report reflecting the advice of experts in the relevant fields. This report along with the list of preliminary candidates is submitted to the prize-awarding institutions. There are four awarding institutions for the six prizes awarded. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences handles Chemistry, Physics, and Economics. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute manages Physiology or Medicine. The Swedish Academy oversees Literature. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Peace Prize. The institutions meet to choose the laureate or laureates in each field by a majority vote. Their decision cannot be appealed and is announced immediately after the vote.

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• 4. Ceremonial Traditions

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  Except for the Peace Prize, the Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm, Sweden at the annual Prize Award Ceremony on the 10th of December. This date marks 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 the 10th of December. The award ceremonies and associated banquets are typically major international events. The Prizes awarded in Sweden's ceremonies are held at the Stockholm Concert Hall. The Nobel banquet follows immediately at Stockholm City Hall. The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has been held at various locations including the Norwegian Nobel Institute from 1905 to 1946. It moved to the auditorium of the University of Oslo between 1947 and 1989. Since 1990 it has been held at Oslo City Hall. The highlight of the Stockholm ceremony occurs when each Nobel laureate steps forward to receive the prize from the hands of the King of Sweden. In Oslo, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway and the Norwegian royal family.

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• 5. Historical Controversies

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  Among the most criticized Nobel Peace Prizes was the one awarded to Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ. This led to the resignation of two Norwegian Nobel Committee members. Kissinger and Thọ were awarded the prize for negotiating a ceasefire between North Vietnam and the United States in January 1933 during the Vietnam War. When the award was announced both sides were still engaging in hostilities. Critics sympathetic to the North announced that Kissinger was not a peace-maker but responsible for widening the war. Those hostile to the North were deprived of a chance to criticize Lê Đức Thọ as he declined the award. Another controversial Peace Prize was that awarded to Barack Obama in 2009. Nominations had closed only eleven days after Obama took office as President of the United States. The actual evaluation occurred over the next eight months. Obama himself stated that he did not feel deserving of the award or worthy of the company in which it would place him. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Peace Prize in 1991. However in 2015 when she came into power in Myanmar she was criticized for being silent on human rights violations under her rule. Calls were made to strip her of her Nobel Peace Prize.

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• 6. Demographic Patterns

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  In terms of the most prestigious awards in STEM fields, only a small proportion have been awarded to women. Out of two hundred ten laureates in Physics one hundred eighty-one in Chemistry and two hundred sixteen in Medicine between 1901 and 2018 there were only three female laureates in physics. There were five in chemistry and twelve in medicine. Factors proposed to contribute to this discrepancy include biased nominations and fewer women than men being active in the relevant fields. Nobel Prizes are typically awarded decades after the research was done reflecting a time when gender bias in the relevant fields was greater. Despite these factors Marie Curie is to date the only person awarded Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. She received the Physics Prize in 1903 and the Chemistry Prize in 1911. Malala Yousafzai is the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When she received it in 2014 she was only seventeen years old. The United States has produced four hundred three Nobel laureates as of 2022. This makes it the country with the most Nobel laureates. Five people have received two Nobel Prizes including Linus Pauling who won the Chemistry Prize in 1954 and the Peace Prize in 1962.

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