Nobel Prize: The Legacy of Alfred Nobel | History, Winners and Interesting Facts

2022-10-10 | Priyanka Chaudhary

The Nobel Prize is awarded as an execution of the last will and testament of the great Alfred Nobel, who was an inventor, entrepreneur, scientist and businessman with an interest in poetry and drama, born in Stockholm, Sweden on October 21, 1833.

History of Nobel Prize

As per his will, much of his wealth has been left for establishing and funding the prize that honours men and women around the world for their outstanding contribution as the “greatest benefit to mankind” in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Peace.

As per the will of Alfred Nobel, “The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows:

• One part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics.
• One part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement.
• One part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine.
• One part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.
• One part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Alfred Nobel’s will was executed by two young engineers, Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist. It took these men four years to finally execute the will of Alfred Nobel. They set-up the Nobel Foundation as a society to manage the finances left by Nobel for this purpose and to collaborate with the Prize-Awarding Institutions.

In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) established the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize, thus adding another category to the categories of Nobel Prizes.

Nobel Prize Awarding Institutions

The Prize- Awarding Institutions are:

Nobel Prize Ceremony

The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony is held on the 10^th December, where the awardees receive three things:

• Nobel diploma
• Nobel Medal
• Document confirming the Nobel Prize amount

Interesting Facts about Nobel Prize

Some Interesting facts about the Nobel Prize:

• The Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded 590 times between 1901 and 2018.
• Maximum awards have been conferred in the category of Physics.
• Maximum Laureates have been in the category of Medicine.
• In the category of Literature, in most cases, the award has not been shared.
• The Award has been shared by two or three Laureates, mostly in the category of Chemistry.
• The youngest Nobel Peace awardee is Malala Yousafzai, in the category of Peace.
• The oldest recipient of the Nobel Prize is John B. Goodenough, who received Nobel prize in the Physics category.
• Women have received the Nobel Prize 52 times between 1901 and 2018.

List of First Nobel Laureates

List of the very first Nobel Laureates, in the year 1901 and the year 1969 for Prize in Economic Sciences:

Nobel Prize 2022 Winners

Nobel Prize 2021 Winners

Nobel Prize 2020 Laureates

2020 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to American writer Lousie Glück for “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”

2020 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to World Food Programme for its efforts to provide food assistance in areas of conflict. World Food Programme was formed in 1961 and is the world's largest humanitarian organization that focuses on hunger and food security. 

Nobel Prize 2019 Laureates

Nobel Prizes for the year 2019 are currently being announced. The Nobel Prize Announcements commenced on 07^th October 2019 and would conclude on 14^th October 2019.

Nobel Prizes have so far been announced for the categories of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and Literature. The announcements for the remaining categories are awaited.

The 2019 Nobel Prize for the category of Physics has been awarded in sharing to:

• James Peebles for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology.

AND

• Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.

The 2019 Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been jointly awarded to:

• John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino for the development of lithium-ion batteries, which will help create a wireless and fossil-fuel-free society.

The 2019 Nobel Prize in the category of Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to:

• William G. Kaelin Jr, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.

The 2019 and 2018 Nobel Award in Literature is being conferred to:

• 2018: Polish author Olga Tokarczuk
• 2019: Austrian author Peter Handke

The 2019 Nobel Prize for Peace:

The 2019 Nobel Prize for Peace has been conferred upon Abiy Ahmed Ali, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences 2019:

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019 has been awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.

Nobel Prize 2018 Laureates

The Nobel Prize in each category including Economic Sciences was last awarded to:

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