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{{Short description|Prizes established by Alfred Nobel in 1895}}
{{Pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox award
| name = Nobel Prize
| image = Nobel Prize.png
| alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of Alfred Nobel facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "MDCCCXXXIII" above, followed by (smaller) "OB•" then "MDCCCXCVI" below.
| awarded_for = Contributions that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind in the areas of [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]], [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]], [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Physiology or Medicine]], [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Literature]], [[Nobel Peace Prize|Peace]], [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Economics]].
| presenter = {{Plainlist|
* [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] (Physics,  Chemistry and Economics<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel |website=Nobel Prize |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/ |access-date=4 October 2021 |archive-date=5 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181205110211/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/ |url-status=live }}</ref>)
* [[Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute]] (Physiology or Medicine)
* [[Swedish Academy]] (Literature)
* [[Norwegian Nobel Committee]] (Peace)
}}
| country = {{Plainlist|
* [[Sweden]] (all prizes except the Peace Prize)
* [[Norway]] (Peace Prize only)
}}
| year = {{start date and age|df=yes|1901|12|10}}
| reward = A gold-plated [[green gold]] [[Nobel Prize medal|medal]], a diploma, and a [[Nobel Prize#Award money|monetary award]] of 11 million [[Swedish Krona|SEK]] (approx. US$1.035 million as of 2023)<ref name=":0" /><ref name="PrizeAmount" />
| holder_label = Number of laureates
| holder = 627 prizes awarded to 1,012 individuals and organizations ({{As of|2024|lc=y}})<ref name=":0" />
| website = {{URL|https://www.nobelprize.org/|nobelprize.org}}
}}

The '''Nobel Prizes{{Efn|{{IPAc-en|n|oʊ|ˈ|b|ɛ|l}} {{respell|noh|BEL}}; {{langx|sv|Nobelpriset}} {{IPA|sv|nʊˈbɛ̂lːˌpriːsɛt|}}; {{langx|no|Nobelprisen}} {{IPA|no|nʊˈbɛ̀lːˌpriːsn̩|}}}}''' are awards administered by the [[Nobel Foundation]] and granted in accordance with the [[principle]] of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of [[Alfred Nobel]]'s death.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Alfred Nobel's will |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred-nobel/alfred-nobels-will/ |access-date=8 December 2020 |website=Nobel Prize |date=6 September 2019 |publisher=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=27 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627053525/https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred-nobel/alfred-nobels-will/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The original Nobel Prizes covered five fields: [[Nobel Prize in Physics|physics]], [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|chemistry]], [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|physiology or medicine]], [[Nobel Prize in Literature|literature]], and [[Nobel Peace Prize|peace]], specified in Nobel's will. A sixth prize, the [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Prize in Economic Sciences]], was established in 1968 by [[Sveriges Riksbank]] (Sweden's central bank) in memory of Alfred Nobel.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=All Nobel Prizes |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-prizes/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615233947/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-prizes |archive-date=15 June 2020 |access-date=6 October 2022 |publisher=[[The Nobel Foundation]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Nomination and selection of Laureates in Economic Sciences |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/economic-sciences/ |access-date=25 June 2018 |archive-date=10 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200510012450/https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/economic-sciences/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Nobel Prizes are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards available in their respective fields.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Top Award, ShanghaiRanking Academic Excellence Survey |url=http://www.shanghairanking.com/subject-survey/awards.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190312125455/http://ireg-observatory.org/en/pdfy/IREG-list-academic-awards-EN.pdf |archive-date=12 March 2019 |publisher=[[IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence]] |access-date=29 March 2018 |url-status=dead }}{{clarify|reason=url does not match archive-url in this citation|date=October 2020}}</ref><ref name="Shalev8">[[Nobel Prize#Shalev69|Shalev]], p. 8.</ref>

Except in extraordinary circumstances, such as war, all six prizes are given annually. Each recipient, known as a [[laureate]], receives a [[Electrum|green gold]] [[Nobel Prize medal|medal]] plated with [[24 karat]] gold, a [[diploma]], and a monetary award. As of 2023, the Nobel Prize monetary award is {{SEK|11,000,000|link=yes}}, equivalent to approximately {{USD|1035000}}.<ref name="PrizeAmount">{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize amounts |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/about/the-nobel-prize-amounts/ |access-date=29 September 2023 |website=The Nobel Prize |publisher= |archive-date=20 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720111123/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/about/amounts/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The medal shows Nobel in profile with "NAT. MDCCCXXXIII-OB. MDCCCXCVI" which is his year of birth, 1833 (NAT) and year of death, 1896 (OB). No more than three individuals may share a prize, although the Nobel Peace Prize can be awarded to organisations of more than three people.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schmidhuber |first=Jürgen |year=2010 |title=Evolution of National Nobel Prize Shares in the 20th century |url=http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/nobelshare.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327012415/http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/nobelshare.html |archive-date=27 March 2014 |access-date=9 October 2010}}</ref> Nobel Prizes are not [[Posthumous award|awarded posthumously]], but if a person is awarded a prize and dies before receiving it, the prize is presented.<ref name="cbc1003">{{Cite news |date=3 October 2011 |title=Montreal-born doctor gets posthumous Nobel honour |work=[[CBC News]] |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/montreal-born-doctor-gets-posthumous-nobel-honour-1.824238 |access-date=3 October 2011 |archive-date=6 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130206124045/http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/10/03/nobel-prize-medicine.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Between 1901 and 2024, the five Nobel Prizes and the [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Prize in Economic Sciences]] (since 1969) were awarded 627 times to 1,012 people and organisations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=All Nobel Prizes |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-prizes/ |access-date=2025-03-17 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}</ref> Five individuals and two organisations have received more than one Nobel Prize.<ref>[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/facts/nobel-prize-facts/#multiple Multiple Nobel Laureates] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106004028/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/facts/nobel-prize-facts/#multiple |date=6 November 2018 }}. ''Nobel Foundation''. Retrieved 8 December 2020.</ref>

== History ==
[[File:AlfredNobel adjusted.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A black and white photo of a bearded man in his fifties sitting in a chair.|One story says that [[Alfred Nobel]] had the unpleasant surprise of reading his own obituary, which was titled "The Merchant of Death Is Dead", in a French newspaper]]
[[Alfred Nobel]] was born on 21 October 1833 in [[Stockholm]], Sweden, into a family of engineers.<ref name="Levinovitz5">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 5.</ref> He was a [[chemist]], [[engineer]], and [[inventor]]. In 1894, Nobel purchased the [[Bofors]] iron and steel mill, which he made into a major [[Weapon|armaments]] [[manufacturing|manufacturer]]. Nobel also invented [[ballistite]]. This invention was a precursor to many smokeless military explosives, especially the British smokeless powder [[cordite]]. As a consequence of his patent claims, Nobel was eventually involved in a [[patent infringement]] [[lawsuit]] over cordite. Nobel amassed a fortune during his lifetime, with most of his wealth coming from his 355&nbsp;inventions, of which [[dynamite]] is the most famous.<ref name="Levinovitz11">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 11.</ref>

There is a popular story about how, in 1888, Nobel was astonished to read his own [[obituary]], titled "The Merchant of Death Is Dead", in a French newspaper. It was Alfred's brother [[Ludvig Nobel|Ludvig]] who had died; the [[List of premature obituaries|obituary was eight years premature]]. The article disconcerted Nobel and made him apprehensive about how he would be remembered. This inspired him to change his [[Will and testament|will]].<ref name="Time">{{Cite magazine |last=Golden |first=Frederic |date=16 October 2000 |title=The Worst And The Brightest |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,998209,00.html |access-date=15 January 2021 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415210534/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,998209,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Historians have been unable to verify this story and some dismiss the story as a myth.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/news/did-a-premature-obituary-inspire-the-nobel-prize |title=Did a Premature Obituary Inspire the Nobel Prize? |last=Andrews |first=Evan |date=23 July 2020 |access-date=30 November 2023 |archive-date=10 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231210194003/https://www.history.com/news/did-a-premature-obituary-inspire-the-nobel-prize |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Smiths">{{cite web|last=Schultz|first=Colin|title=Blame Sloppy Journalism for the Nobel Prizes|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/blame-sloppy-journalism-for-the-nobel-prizes-1172688/|date=2013-10-09|website=Smithsonian Magazine|access-date=30 November 2023|archive-date=30 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130142424/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/blame-sloppy-journalism-for-the-nobel-prizes-1172688/|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 10 December 1896, Alfred Nobel died in [[Villa Nobel|his villa]] in [[Sanremo|San Remo, Italy]], from a [[cerebral hemorrhage|cerebral haemorrhage]]. He was 63 years old.<ref name="Sohlman13">[[Nobel Prize#Sohlman69|Sohlman]], p. 13.</ref>

Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime. He composed the last over a year before he died, signing it at the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895.<ref name="Sohlman7">[[Nobel Prize#Sohlman69|Sohlman]], p. 7.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=von Euler |first=U. S. |date=6 June 1981 |title=The Nobel Foundation and its Role for Modern Day Science |work=[[Die Naturwissenschaften]] |format=PDF |url=http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=xu7j67w616m06488&size=largest |url-status=dead |access-date=21 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714080803/http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=xu7j67w616m06488&size=largest |archive-date=14 July 2011}}</ref> To widespread astonishment, Nobel's last will specified that his fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in [[physics]], [[chemistry]], [[physiology]] or [[medicine]], [[literature]], and [[peace]].<ref name="thelocal1">{{Cite web |title=Full text of Alfred Nobel's Will |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/will-full.html |website=Nobel Foundation |access-date=14 June 2017 |archive-date=15 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180815060015/https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/will-full.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31&nbsp;million SEK (c. US$186&nbsp;million, €150&nbsp;million in 2008), to establish the five Nobel Prizes.<ref name="Abrams7">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 7.</ref><ref name="NobelFoundationPrizeAmount">{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize Amounts |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/about/amounts/ |access-date=7 December 2015 |website=The Nobel Foundation |archive-date=20 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720111123/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/about/amounts/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Owing to skepticism surrounding the will, it was not approved by the [[Storting]] in [[Norway]] until 26 April 1897.<ref name="Levinovitz13-25">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], pp. 13–25.</ref> The [[executors]] of the will, [[Ragnar Sohlman]] and Rudolf Lilljequist, formed the [[Nobel Foundation]] to take care of the fortune and to organise the awarding of prizes.<ref name="Abrams7-8">[[#Abrams|Abrams]], pp. 7–8</ref>

Nobel's instructions named a [[Norwegian Nobel Committee]] to award the [[Nobel Peace Prize|Peace Prize]], the members of which were appointed shortly after the will was approved in April 1897. Soon thereafter, the other prize-awarding organisations were designated. These were the [[Karolinska Institute]] on 7 June, the Swedish Academy on 9 June, and the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] on 11 June.<ref name="Crawford1">[[Nobel Prize#Crawford69|Crawford]], p. 1.</ref> The Nobel Foundation reached an agreement on guidelines for how the prizes should be awarded; and, in 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly created [[statute]]s were promulgated by [[Oscar II of Sweden|King Oscar II]].<ref name="thelocal1" />

=== Nobel Foundation ===
==== Formation of Nobel Foundation ====
{{Main|Nobel Foundation}}
[[File:Alfred Nobels will-November 25th, 1895.jpg|thumb|alt=A paper with stylish handwriting on it with the title "Testament"|Alfred Nobel's [[Will and testament|will]], which stated that 94% of his total assets should be used to establish the Nobel Prizes]]
According to his will and testament read in Stockholm on 30 December 1896, a foundation established by Alfred Nobel would reward those who serve humanity. The Nobel Prize was funded by Alfred Nobel's personal fortune. According to the official sources, Alfred Nobel bequeathed most of his fortune to the Nobel Foundation that now forms the economic base of the Nobel Prize.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/about/financial-management/ |title="Financial Management" |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=8 November 2021 |website=Nobel Foundation |access-date=8 November 2021 |quote=Nobel stipulated in his will that most of his estate, more than SEK 31 million (today approximately SEK 1,794 million) should be converted into a fund and invested in "safe securities". |archive-date=8 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108223856/https://www.nobelprize.org/about/financial-management/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Nobel Foundation]] was founded as a private organisation on 29 June 1900. Its function is to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes.<ref name="Levinovitz14">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 14.</ref> In accordance with Nobel's [[Will and testament|will]], the primary task of the foundation is to manage the fortune left to posterity by Nobel. [[Robert Nobel|Robert]] and [[Ludvig Nobel]] were involved in the [[oil business]] in [[Azerbaijan]], and according to Swedish [[historian]] E. Bargengren, who accessed the [[Nobel family]] [[archive]], it was this "decision to allow withdrawal of Alfred's money from [[Baku]] that became the decisive factor that enabled the Nobel Prizes to be established".<ref>{{Cite journal |date=30 April 1996 |title=Nobel Prize Funded from Baku |url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/42_folder/42_articles/42_readersforum.html |journal=[[Azerbaijan International]] |access-date=18 March 2019 |archive-date=11 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011202819/http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/42_folder/42_articles/42_readersforum.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Another important task of the Nobel Foundation is to market the prizes internationally and to oversee informal administration related to the prizes. The foundation is not involved in the process of selecting the [[Nobel laureates]].<ref name="Levinovitz15">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 15.</ref><ref name="Feldman16">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 16.</ref> In many ways, the Nobel Foundation is similar to an [[investment company]], in that it invests Nobel's money to create a solid funding base for the prizes and the administrative activities. The Nobel Foundation is [[Tax exemption|exempt from all taxes]] in Sweden (since 1946) and from investment taxes in the United States (since 1953).<ref name="Levinovitz17-18">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], pp. 17–18.</ref> Since the 1980s, the foundation's investments have become more profitable and as of 31 December 2007, the assets controlled by the Nobel Foundation amounted to 3.628&nbsp;billion Swedish ''kronor'' (c. US $560&nbsp;million).<ref name="Levinovitz15-17">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], pp. 15–17.</ref>

According to the statutes, the foundation consists of a board of five Swedish or Norwegian citizens, with its seat in Stockholm. The [[chairman of the board]] is appointed by the Swedish [[Privy Council of Sweden|King in Council]], with the other four members appointed by the [[trustee]]s of the prize-awarding institutions. An [[executive director]] is chosen from among the [[board of directors|board members]], a deputy director is appointed by the King in Council, and two deputies are appointed by the [[trustees]]. However, since 1995, all the members of the board have been chosen by the trustees, and the executive director and the deputy director appointed by the board itself. As well as the board, the Nobel Foundation is made up of the prize-awarding institutions (the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute, the Swedish Academy, and the [[Norwegian Nobel Committee]]), the trustees of these institutions, and [[audit]]ors.<ref name="Levinovitz15-17" />

==== Foundation capital and cost ====
The capital of the Nobel Foundation today is invested 50% in [[Share capital|shares]], 20% [[Bond (finance)|bonds]] and 30% other [[investments]] (e.g. [[hedge funds]] or [[real estate]]). The distribution can vary by 10 percent.<ref name="dn20121202">{{Cite news |last=Sjöholm/Tt |first=Gustav |date=2 December 2012 |title=Rabatter räddar Nobelfesten |language=no |trans-title=Discounts Save the Nobel Party |work=[[Dagens Nyheter (Norwegian newspaper)|Dagens Nyheter]] |url=https://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/rabatter-raddar-nobelfesten/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=18 March 2019 |archive-date=6 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200906065704/https://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/rabatter-raddar-nobelfesten/ |url-status=live }}</ref> At the beginning of 2008, 64% of the funds were invested mainly in American and European stocks, 20% in bonds, plus 12% in real estate and hedge funds.<ref name="handelsblatt2008">{{Cite web |title=Nobel-Stiftung: Noble Sorgen |trans-title=Nobel Foundation: Noble Worries |url=https://www.handelsblatt.com/journal/nachrichten/noble-sorgen;2106721;0 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704211447/http://www.handelsblatt.com/journal/nachrichten/noble-sorgen;2106721;0 |archive-date=4 July 2009 |access-date=19 March 2019 |language=de |newspaper=[[Handelsblatt]]}}</ref>

In 2011, the total annual cost was approximately 120&nbsp;million [[Swedish krona|kronor]], with 50&nbsp;million kronor as the prize money. Further costs to pay institutions and persons engaged in giving the prizes were 27.4&nbsp;million kronor. The events during the Nobel week in Stockholm and Oslo cost 20.2&nbsp;million kronor. The administration, Nobel [[Academic conference|symposium]], and similar items had costs of 22.4&nbsp;million kronor. The cost of the [[Economic Sciences]] prize of 16.5&nbsp;Million kronor is paid by the [[Sveriges Riksbank]].<ref name="dn20121202" />

=== Inaugural Nobel prizes ===
[[File:Röntgen, Wilhelm Conrad (1845-1923).jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A black and white photo of a bearded man in his fifties sitting in a chair.|[[Wilhelm Röntgen]], who received the first [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] for his discovery of the [[X-ray]]]]
Once the Nobel Foundation and its guidelines were in place, the [[Nobel Committee]]s began collecting nominations for the inaugural prizes. Subsequently, they sent a list of preliminary candidates to the prize-awarding institutions.

The Nobel Committee's Physics Prize shortlist cited [[Wilhelm Röntgen]]'s discovery of [[X-ray]]s and [[Philipp Lenard]]'s work on [[cathode ray]]s. The Academy of Sciences selected Röntgen for the prize.<ref name="Feldman134">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 134.</ref><ref name="Leroy117-118">[[Nobel Prize#Leroy|Leroy]], pp. 117–118.</ref> In the last decades of the 19th century, many chemists had made significant contributions. Thus, with the Chemistry Prize, the academy "was chiefly faced with merely deciding the order in which these scientists should be awarded the prize".<ref name="Levinovitz77">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 77.</ref> The academy received 20 nominations, eleven of them for [[Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff|Jacobus van 't Hoff]].<ref name="Crawford118">[[Nobel Prize#Crawford69|Crawford]], p. 118.</ref> Van 't Hoff was awarded the prize for his contributions in [[chemical thermodynamics]].<ref name="Levinovitz81">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 81.</ref><ref name="Feldman205">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 205.</ref>

The Swedish Academy chose the poet [[Sully Prudhomme]] for the first Nobel Prize in Literature. A group including 42 Swedish writers, artists, and literary critics protested against this decision, having expected [[Leo Tolstoy]] to be awarded.<ref name="Levinovitz144">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 144.</ref> Some, including [[Burton Feldman]], have criticised this prize because they consider Prudhomme a mediocre poet. Feldman's explanation is that most of the academy members preferred [[Victorian literature]] and thus selected a Victorian poet.<ref name="Feldman69">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 69.</ref> The first Physiology or Medicine Prize went to the German physiologist and microbiologist [[Emil von Behring]]. During the 1890s, von Behring developed an [[antitoxin]] to treat [[diphtheria]], which until then had been causing thousands of deaths each year.<ref name="Feldman242-244">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], pp. 242–244.</ref><ref name="Leroy233">[[Nobel Prize#Leroy|Leroy]], p. 233.</ref>

The first [[Nobel Peace Prize]] went to the Swiss [[Henry Dunant|Jean Henri Dunant]] for his role in founding the International [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross Movement]] and initiating the Geneva Convention, and jointly given to French pacifist [[Frédéric Passy]], founder of the Peace League and active with Dunant in the Alliance for Order and Civilization.

=== Second World War ===
In 1938 and 1939, [[Adolf Hitler]]'s [[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]] forbade three laureates from Germany ([[Richard Kuhn]], [[Adolf Butenandt|Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt]], and [[Gerhard Domagk]]) from accepting their prizes.<ref name="Levinovitz23">[[#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 23</ref> They were all later able to receive the diploma and medal.<ref name="Wilhelm85">[[Nobel Prize#Wilhelm69|Wilhelm]], p. 85.</ref> Even though Sweden was officially neutral during the Second World War, the prizes were awarded irregularly. In 1939, the Peace Prize was not awarded. No prize was awarded in any category from 1940 to 1942, due to the [[German occupation of Norway|occupation of Norway by Germany]]. In the subsequent year, all prizes were awarded except those for literature and peace.<ref>{{Cite web |title=All Nobel Laureates |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/all/ |access-date=15 January 2010 |publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]] |archive-date=5 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605101827/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/all/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the occupation of Norway, three members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee fled into exile. The remaining members escaped persecution from the Germans when the Nobel Foundation stated that the committee building in [[Oslo]] was Swedish property. Thus it was a safe haven from the German military, which was not at war with Sweden.<ref name="Abrams23">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 23.</ref> These members kept the work of the committee going, but did not award any prizes. In 1944, the Nobel Foundation, together with the three members in exile, made sure that nominations were submitted for the Peace Prize and that the prize could be awarded once again.<ref name="Levinovitz23" />

=== Prize in Economic Sciences ===
{{Main|Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences}}
[[File:Worldmapnobellaureatesbycountry2.PNG|thumb|Map of Nobel laureates by country]]
After [[World War II]], [[economics]] evolved rapidly as an academic discipline and came to be increasingly recognized as a significant scientific field.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dupont-Kieffer |first1=Ariane |last2=Dimand |first2=Robert W. |last3=Rivot |first3=Sylvie |date=2024-12-01 |title=Introduction to Economists at War: How World War II Changed Economics (and Vice Versa) |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/hope/article/56/S1/1/390253/Introduction-to-Economists-at-War-How-World-War-II |journal=History of Political Economy |volume=56 |issue=S1 |pages=1–27 |doi=10.1215/00182702-11470303 |issn=0018-2702}}</ref> In 1968, Sweden's central bank, [[Sveriges Riksbank]], celebrated its 300th anniversary and donated a sum of money to the [[Nobel Foundation]] to be used to set up a new award in the field of [[economic sciences]]. The following year, 1969, the [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Prize in Economic Sciences]] was awarded for the first time. [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences|The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] is required to select the economics laureate in the same way as it does for the science Nobel Prizes. The first laureates for the Economics Prize were [[Jan Tinbergen]] and [[Ragnar Frisch]], "for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes".<ref name="Feldman343">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 343.</ref><ref name="Levinovitz207">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 207.</ref> The board of the Nobel Foundation decided that after this addition, it would allow no further new prizes.<ref name="Levinovitz20">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 20.</ref>

== Award process ==
The award process is similar for all of the Nobel Prizes, the main difference being who can make nominations for each of them.<ref name="Feldman16-17">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], pp. 16–17.</ref>
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|image1= Announcement Nobelprize Chemistry 2009-3.ogv
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|caption1= The 2009 announcement of the laureates in [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] by [[Gunnar Öquist]], permanent secretary of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]
|image2= Announcement Nobelprize Literature 2009-1.ogv
|width2= 200
|alt2=
|caption2= The 2009 [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] announcement by [[Peter Englund]] in Swedish, English, and German
}}

=== Nominations ===
Nomination forms are sent by the Nobel Committee to about 3,000 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, former Peace Prize laureates, and current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The deadline for the return of the nomination forms is 31 January of the year of the award.<ref name="Feldman16-17" /><ref name="Levinovitz26">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 26.</ref> The Nobel Committee nominates about 300 potential laureates from these forms and additional names.<ref name="Abrams15">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 15.</ref> 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 50 years from the awarding of the prize.<ref name="Feldman315" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nomination/nomination_facts.html |title=Nomination Facts |publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]] |access-date=3 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100109142845/http://nobelprize.org/nomination/nomination_facts.html <!--Added by H3llBot--> |archive-date=9 January 2010}}</ref>{{Main|List of Nobel laureates#50-year secrecy rule}}

=== Selection ===
The Nobel Committee then prepares a report reflecting the advice of experts in the relevant fields. This, along with the list of preliminary candidates, is submitted to the prize-awarding institutions.<ref name="Feldman52">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 52.</ref> There are four awarding institutions for the six prizes awarded:
* [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] – Chemistry; Physics; Economics
* [[Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute]] – Physiology / Medicine
* [[Swedish Academy]] – Literature
* [[Norwegian Nobel Committee]] – Peace
The institutions meet to choose the laureate or laureates in each field by a majority vote. Their decision, which cannot be appealed, is announced immediately after the vote.<ref name="Levinovitz25-28">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], pp. 25–28.</ref> A maximum of three laureates and two different works may be selected per award. Except for the Peace Prize, which can be awarded to institutions, the awards can only be given to individuals.<ref name="Abrams8">[[#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 8</ref> The winners are announced by the awarding institutions during the first two weeks of October.

=== Posthumous nominations ===
Although posthumous nominations are not presently permitted, individuals who died in the months between their nomination and the decision of the prize committee were originally eligible to receive the prize.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}} This has occurred twice: the 1931 Literature Prize awarded to [[Erik Axel Karlfeldt]], and the 1961 Peace Prize awarded to [[Secretary-General of the United Nations|UN Secretary General]] [[Dag Hammarskjöld]]. Since 1974, laureates must be thought alive at the time of the October announcement. There has been one laureate, [[William Vickrey]], who in 1996 died after the prize (in [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Economics]]) was announced but before it could be presented.<ref name="Abrams9">[[#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 9</ref> On 3 October 2011, the laureates for the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] were announced; however, the committee was not aware that one of the laureates, [[Ralph M. Steinman]], had died three days earlier. The committee reconsidered Steinman's award, since the rule is that the prize is not awarded posthumously,<ref name="cbc1003" /> but decided that as the decision to award Steinman the prize "was made in good faith", it would remain unchanged, and the prize would be awarded.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 October 2011 |title=Ralph Steinman Remains Nobel Laureate |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/press_releases_archive/2011/steinman.html |access-date=8 October 2012 |publisher=[[The Nobel Foundation]] |archive-date=20 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720112614/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/press_releases_archive/2011/steinman.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Recognition time lag ===
Nobel's will provided for prizes to be awarded in recognition of discoveries made "during the preceding year". Early on, the awards usually recognised recent discoveries.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 December 1999 |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/articles/espmark/index.html |access-date=10 February 2010 |publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]] |archive-date=26 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110426075458/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/articles/espmark/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> However, some of those early discoveries were later discredited. For example, [[Johannes Fibiger]] was awarded the 1926 Prize in [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Physiology or Medicine]] for his purported discovery of a parasite that caused cancer.<ref name="Levinovitz125">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 125.</ref> To avoid repeating this embarrassment, the awards increasingly recognised scientific discoveries that had withstood the test of time.<ref name="Abrams25">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 25.</ref><ref name="embo">{{Cite journal |last=Breithaupt |first=Holger |year=2001 |title=The Nobel Prizes in the new century: An interview with Ralf Pettersson, Director of the Stockholm Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the Karolinska Institute, and former chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology/Medicine |journal=EMBO Reports |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=83–5 |doi=10.1093/embo-reports/kve034 |pmc=1083830 |pmid=11258715|issn=1469-221X }}</ref><ref name="scienceline1">{{Cite web |date=7 October 2009 |title=Nobel Prize in Physics Honors "Masters of Light" |url=http://www.scienceline.org/2009/10/06/blog-liu-nobel_physics-200/ |access-date=19 February 2010 |website=Scienceline |archive-date=2 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100502180558/http://www.scienceline.org/2009/10/06/blog-liu-nobel_physics-200/ |url-status=live }}</ref> According to Ralf Pettersson, former chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology or Medicine, "the criterion 'the previous year' is interpreted by the Nobel Assembly as the year when the full impact of the discovery has become evident."<ref name="embo" />

[[File:Nobelinstituttet 20080913-01.jpg|thumb|alt=A room with pictures on the walls. In the middle of the room there is a wooden table with chairs around it.|The committee room of the Norwegian Nobel Committee]]
The interval between the award and the accomplishment it recognises varies from discipline to discipline. The Literature Prize is typically awarded to recognise a cumulative lifetime body of work rather than a single achievement.<ref>{{Cite web |title=All Nobel Laureates in Literature |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/ |access-date=15 January 2010 |publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]] |archive-date=26 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226100944/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-prizes-in-literature/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/ |access-date=15 January 2010 |publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]] |archive-date=14 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514004338/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Peace Prize can also be awarded for a lifetime body of work. For example, 2008 laureate [[Martti Ahtisaari]] was awarded for his work to resolve international conflicts.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Peace 2008 |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2008/index.html |access-date=15 January 2010 |publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]] |archive-date=9 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100109130550/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2008/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Bryant |first=Lisa |date=10 October 2008 |title=Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari Wins Nobel Peace Prize |work=[[Voice of America]] |publisher=International Broadcasting Bureau |url=http://voanews.com/english/archive/2008-10/2008-10-10-voa8.cfm |url-status=dead |access-date=27 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081117162443/http://voanews.com/english/archive/2008-10/2008-10-10-voa8.cfm |archive-date=17 November 2008}}</ref> However, they can also be awarded for specific recent events.<ref>{{Cite web |title=All Nobel Peace Prize Laureates |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/ |access-date=15 January 2010 |publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]] |archive-date=26 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226100955/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-peace-prizes/ |url-status=live }}</ref> For instance, [[Kofi Annan]] was awarded the 2001 Peace Prize just four years after becoming the Secretary-General of the United Nations.<ref name="Abrams330">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 330.</ref> Similarly [[Yasser Arafat]], [[Yitzhak Rabin]], and [[Shimon Peres]] received the 1994 award, about a year after they successfully concluded the [[Oslo Accords]].<ref name="Abrams27">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 27.</ref> A [[Nobel Prize controversies|controversy]] was caused by awarding the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to [[Barack Obama]] during his first year as US president.<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 October 2016 |title=Here are the most controversial Nobel Prize-winners ever |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/13/here-are-the-most-controversial-noble-prize-winners-ever.html |access-date=31 August 2022 |publisher=[[CNBC]] |archive-date=27 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220927151850/https://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/13/here-are-the-most-controversial-noble-prize-winners-ever.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=17 September 2015 |title=Nobel secretary regrets Obama peace prize |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34277960 |access-date=31 August 2022 |archive-date=31 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220831161116/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34277960 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Awards for physics, chemistry, and medicine are typically awarded once the achievement has been widely accepted. Sometimes, this takes decades – for example, [[Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar]] shared the 1983 Physics Prize for his 1930s work on stellar structure and evolution.<ref name="currentscience">{{Cite journal |last=Vishveshwara |first=C. V. |author-link=C. V. Vishveshwara |date=25 April 2000 |title=Leaves from an unwritten diary: S. Chandrasekhar, Reminiscences and Reflections |url=http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/apr252000/generalia.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Current Science |volume=78 |issue=8 |pages=1025–1033 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227013938/http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/apr252000/generalia.pdf |archive-date=27 February 2008 |access-date=27 February 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |year=1983 |title=Subramanyan Chandrasekhar – Autobiography |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1983/chandrasekhar-autobio.html |access-date=11 June 2010 |publisher=[[The Nobel Foundation]] |archive-date=18 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070818041100/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1983/chandrasekhar-autobio.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Not all scientists live long enough for their work to be recognised. Some discoveries can never be considered for a prize if their impact is realised after the discoverers have died.<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 October 2004 |title=Finn Kydland and Edward Prescott's Contribution to Dynamic Macroeconomics |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2004/ecoadv.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090626035538/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2004/ecoadv.pdf |archive-date=26 June 2009 |access-date=15 January 2010 |publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gingras |first1=Yves |last2=Wallace |first2=Matthew L. |year=2010 |title=Why it has become more difficult to predict Nobel Prize winners: a bibliometric analysis of nominees and winners of the chemistry and physics prizes (1901–2007) |journal=Scientometrics |volume=82 |issue=2 |page=401 |arxiv=0808.2517 |citeseerx=10.1.1.604.9844 |doi=10.1007/s11192-009-0035-9 |s2cid=23293903}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Editorial |year=2009 |title=Access : A nobel prize : Nature Chemistry |journal=Nature Chemistry |volume=1 |issue=7 |page=509 |bibcode=2009NatCh...1..509. |doi=10.1038/nchem.372 |pmid=21378920 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

== Award ceremonies and related events ==
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = horizontal
| header =
| header_align = centre
| header_background =
| footer = Right: [[Giovanni Jona-Lasinio]] presenting [[Yoichiro Nambu]]'s Nobel Lecture at [[Aula Magna (Stockholm University)|Aula Magna]] in Stockholm in 2008; Left: [[Barack Obama]] after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo City Hall from Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman [[Thorbjørn Jagland]] in 2009
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| image1 = Horbjorn Jagland presents President Barack Obama with the Nobel Prize medal and diploma.jpg
| width1 = 98
| alt1 = Two men standing on a stage. The man to the left is clapping his hands and looking towards the other man. The second man is smiling and showing two items to an audience not seen on the image. The items are a diploma which includes a painting and a box containing a gold medal. Behind them is a blue pillar clad in flowers.
| caption1 =
| image2 = Giovanni Jona-Lasinio-Nobel Lecture-2.jpg
| width2 = 170
| alt2 = A man in his fifties standing behind a desk with computers on it. On the desk is a sign reading "Kungl. Vetensk. Akad. Sigil".
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}}
Except for the Peace Prize, the Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm, Sweden, at the annual Prize Award Ceremony on 10 December, 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 10 December. The award ceremonies and the associated banquets are typically major international events.<ref name="autogenerated5">{{Cite web |date=10 December 2009 |title=2009 Nobel Prize award ceremony live online &#124; IT &#124; ICM Commercial & Business News |url=http://news.icm.ac.uk/technology/2009-nobel-prize-award-ceremony-live-online/4893/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209005839/http://news.icm.ac.uk/technology/2009-nobel-prize-award-ceremony-live-online/4893/ |archive-date=9 February 2010 |access-date=16 January 2010 |publisher=[[Institute of Commercial Management]]}}</ref><ref name="thelocal2">{{Cite web |date=10 December 2009 |title=Pomp aplenty as winners gather for Nobel gala |url=http://www.thelocal.se/23784/20091210/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091215055502/http://www.thelocal.se/23784/20091210/ |archive-date=15 December 2009 |access-date=16 January 2010 |website=[[The Local]]}}</ref> The Prizes awarded in Sweden's ceremonies are held at the [[Stockholm Concert Hall]], with the Nobel banquet following immediately at [[Stockholm City Hall]]. The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has been held at the [[Norwegian Nobel Institute]] (1905–1946), at the [[auditorium]] of the [[University of Oslo]] (1947–1989), and at [[Oslo City Hall]] (1990–present).<ref name="Levinovitz21-23">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], pp. 21–23.</ref>

The highlight of the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm occurs when each Nobel laureate steps forward to receive the prize from the hands of the [[Monarchy of Sweden|King of Sweden]]. In Oslo, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the [[Monarchy of Norway|King of Norway]] and the [[Norwegian royal family]].<ref name="thelocal2" /><ref name="sweden2">{{Cite web |last=Froman |first=Ingmarie |date=4 December 2007 |title=The Nobel Week — a celebration of science |url=http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Education/Research/Reading/The-Nobel-Week--a-celebration-of-science/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091014205607/http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Education/Research/Reading/The-Nobel-Week--a-celebration-of-science/ |archive-date=14 October 2009 |access-date=16 January 2010 |publisher=[[Swedish Institute]] }}</ref> At first, King [[Oscar II of Sweden|Oscar II]] did not approve of awarding grand prizes to foreigners.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 December 2009 |title=Alfred Nobel's last will and testament |url=http://www.thelocal.se/14776/20091005/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091009110708/http://www.thelocal.se/14776/20091005/ |archive-date=9 October 2009 |access-date=16 January 2010 |website=[[The Local]]}}</ref>

=== Nobel Banquet ===
{{Main|Nobel Banquet}}
[[File:Nobel-banquet-table.jpg|thumb|alt=A set table with a white table cloth. There are many plates and glasses plus a menu visible on the table.|Table at the 2005 [[Nobel Banquet]] in Stockholm]]
After the award ceremony in Sweden, a banquet is held in the [[Blue Hall]] at the [[Stockholm City Hall]], which is attended by the [[Swedish Royal Family]] and around 1,300 guests. The [[Nobel Peace Prize]] banquet is held in Norway at the [[Grand Hotel (Oslo)|Oslo Grand Hotel]] after the award ceremony. Apart from the laureate, guests include the president of the [[Storting]], on occasion the Swedish prime minister, and, since 2006, the King and Queen of Norway. In total, about 250 guests attend.

=== Nobel lecture ===
According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, each laureate is required to give a public lecture on a subject related to the topic of their prize.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Foundation – Statutes |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/statutes.html#par9 |website=The Nobel Foundation |access-date=5 June 2017 |archive-date=24 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724075738/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/statutes.html#par9 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Nobel lecture as a rhetorical genre took decades to reach its current format.<ref>[[Philippe-Joseph Salazar]], "Nobel Rhetoric, Or Petrarch's Pendulum", in the journal Rhetoric and Philosophy 42(4), pp. 373–400, 2009, {{ISSN|0031-8213}}.</ref> These lectures normally occur during Nobel Week (the week leading up to the award ceremony and banquet, which begins with the laureates arriving in Stockholm and normally ends with the Nobel banquet), but this is not mandatory. The laureate is only obliged to give the lecture within six months of receiving the prize, but some have happened even later. For example, US President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] received the Peace Prize in 1906 but gave his lecture in 1910, after his term in office.<ref name="Abrams18-19">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], pp. 18–19.</ref> The lectures are organised by the same association which selected the laureates.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lea |first=Richard |date=8 December 2008 |title=Le Clézio uses Nobel lecture to attack information poverty |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/dec/08/jmg-clezio-nobel-lecture |access-date=20 January 2010 |archive-date=10 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110224404/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/dec/08/jmg-clezio-nobel-lecture |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Military cemeteries in every corner of the world are silent testimony to the failure of national leaders to sanctify human life.|[[Yitzhak Rabin]], 1994 Nobel Peace Prize lecture<ref>[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1994/rabin-lecture.html 1994 Nobel Peace Prize lecture] (10 December 1994).</ref>}}

=== Nobel Minds ===
From 1959 to 1990, Swedish journalist [[Bengt Feldreich]] gathered the science prize laureates to a discussion, broadcast as ''Snillen spekulerar'' (in English ''Science and Man'') first in radio, and then from the mid-1960s in [[Sveriges Television]]. Since 2004, the program is a coproduction with [[BBC World News]] under the title ''Nobel Minds'', since 2011 hosted by [[Zeinab Badawi]].<ref>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel-minds/ Nobel Minds], Nobel Prize website.</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m001tnx0/nobel-minds Nobel Minds], BBC website.</ref>

== Prizes ==
=== Medals ===
{{Main|Nobel Prize medal}}
[[File:Nobel Prize Diploma Fritz Haber 1918.JPG|thumb|alt=A heavily decorated paper with the name "Fritz Haber" on it.|[[Fritz Haber]]'s diploma is shown, which he received for the development of a method to synthesise [[ammonia]]. Laureates receive a heavily decorated diploma together with a gold medal and prize money]]
The Nobel Foundation announced on 30 May 2012 that it had awarded the contract for the production of the five (Swedish) Nobel Prize medals to Svenska Medalj AB. Between 1902 and 2010, the Nobel Prize medals were minted by [[Myntverket]] (the Swedish Mint), which ceased operations in 2011 after 107 years. In 2011, the Mint of Norway, located in Kongsberg, made the medals. The Nobel Prize medals are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Medalj – ett traditionellt hantverk |trans-title=Medals: A traditional Craft |url=http://www.myntverket.se/products.asp?lang=sv&page=3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218102934/http://www.myntverket.se/products.asp?lang%3Dsv%26page%3D3 |archive-date=18 December 2007 |access-date=15 December 2007 |website=[[Myntverket]] |language=sv}}</ref>

Each medal features an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the [[obverse and reverse|obverse]]. The medals for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature have identical obverses, showing the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death. Nobel's portrait also appears on the obverse of the Peace Prize medal and the medal for the Economics Prize, but with a slightly different design. For instance, the laureate's name is engraved on the rim of the Economics medal.<ref name="Feldman2">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 2.</ref> The image on the reverse of a medal varies according to the institution awarding the prize. The reverse sides of the medals for chemistry and physics share the same design.<ref name="Paulingmedal">[http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/bond/pictures/nobel-chemistry-medal.html "Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Front and back images of the medal. 1954"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812032606/http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/bond/pictures/nobel-chemistry-medal.html |date=12 August 2011 }}, "Source: Photo by Eric Arnold. Ava Helen and [[Linus Pauling]] Papers. Honors and Awards, 1954h2.1", "All Documents and Media: Pictures and Illustrations", ''Linus Pauling and The Nature of the Chemical Bond: A Documentary History'', the [[The Valley Library|Valley Library]], [[Oregon State University]]. Retrieved 7 December 2007.</ref>

All medals made before 1980 were struck in 23 [[carat (purity)|carat]] gold. Since then, they have been struck in 18 carat [[coloured gold#Green gold|green gold]] plated with 24 carat gold. The weight of each medal varies with the value of gold, but averages about {{convert|175|g|lb}} for each medal. The diameter is {{convert|66|mm|in}} and the thickness varies between {{convert|5.2|mm|in}} and {{convert|2.4|mm|in}}.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lemmel |first=Birgitta |title=The Nobel Prize Medals and the Medal for the Prize in Economics |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/about/medals/ |access-date=2 April 2010 |publisher=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=5 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180705121601/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/about/medals/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Because of the high value of their gold content and tendency to be on public display, Nobel medals are subject to medal theft.<ref name="UniversityofCalifornia">{{Cite press release |title=Nobel Prize medal stolen from Lawrence Hall of Science is found, student arrested |publisher=[[University of California]] |url=http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/8975 |access-date=21 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090111230223/http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/8975 |archive-date=11 January 2009}}</ref><ref name="NYTimes">{{Cite news |last=Kumar |first=Hari |date=26 March 2004 |title=Poet's Nobel Medal Stolen |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/26/world/world-briefing-asia-india-poet-s-nobel-medal-stolen.html?fta=y |access-date=21 January 2010 |archive-date=19 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110919102631/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/26/world/world-briefing-asia-india-poet-s-nobel-medal-stolen.html?fta=y |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Reuters">{{Cite news |date=16 June 2007 |title=Police hand back Tutu's stolen Nobel medal |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1646982020070616 |access-date=21 January 2010 |archive-date=24 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100124040533/http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1646982020070616 |url-status=live }}</ref> During World War II, the medals of German scientists [[Max von Laue]] and [[James Franck]] were sent to Copenhagen for safekeeping. When Germany invaded Denmark, Hungarian chemist (and Nobel laureate himself) [[George de Hevesy]] dissolved them in [[aqua regia]] (nitro-hydrochloric acid), to prevent confiscation by [[Nazi Germany]] and to prevent legal problems for the holders. After the war, the gold was recovered from solution, and the medals re-cast.<ref name="Feldman397">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 397.</ref>

=== Diplomas ===
[[File:Nobel Prize diplom Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen.jpg|thumb|The Nobel diploma awarded to [[Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen]] in 1901]]
Nobel laureates receive a diploma directly from the hands of the King of Sweden, or in the case of the peace prize, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Each diploma is uniquely designed by the prize-awarding institutions for the laureates that receive them.<ref name="Feldman2" /> The diploma contains a picture and text in Swedish which states the name of the laureate and normally a citation of why they received the prize. None of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates has ever had a citation on their diplomas.<ref name="Abrams18">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 18.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lemmel |first=Birgitta |year=2009 |title=The Nobel Prize Diplomas |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/about/diplomas/index.html |access-date=12 March 2010 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=19 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619110058/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/about/diplomas/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Award money ===
[[File:Nobel Prize - Prize money (1901-2023).svg|thumb|Evolution of the prize amount between 1901 and 2023, adjusted for inflation]]
The laureates are given a sum of money when they receive their prizes, in the form of a document confirming the amount awarded.<ref name="Feldman2" /> The amount of prize money depends upon how much money the Nobel Foundation can award each year. The purse has increased since the 1980s, when the prize money was 880,000 SEK per prize (c. 2.6&nbsp;million SEK altogether, US$350,000 today). In 2009, the monetary award was 10&nbsp;million SEK (US$1.4&nbsp;million).<ref name="Nobel Prize Amounts">{{Cite web |date=December 2013 |title=Prize amount and market value of invested capital |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/about/amounts/prize_amounts_14.pdf |access-date=6 October 2014 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=7 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141007210116/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/about/amounts/prize_amounts_14.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="CNN">{{Cite news |date=11 October 2009 |title=Video – Breaking News Videos from CNN.com |publisher=CNN |url=http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/10/11/foreman.how.nobel.awarded.cnn?iref=videosearch |url-status=dead |access-date=15 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100831124519/http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/10/11/foreman.how.nobel.awarded.cnn?iref=videosearch |archive-date=31 August 2010 }}</ref> In June 2012, it was lowered to 8&nbsp;million SEK.<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 June 2012 |title=Committee lowers Nobel Prize by 2 million kronor |url=http://www.thelocal.se/41378/20120611/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120615172218/http://www.thelocal.se/41378/20120611 |archive-date=15 June 2012 |access-date=12 June 2012 |newspaper=The Local}}</ref> If two laureates share the prize in a category, the award grant is divided equally between the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of dividing the grant equally, or awarding one-half to one recipient and one-quarter to each of the others.<ref name="Abrams8-10">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], pp. 8–10.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Sample |first=Ian |date=5 October 2009 |title=Nobel prize for medicine shared by scientists for work on ageing and cancer |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/oct/05/nobel-prize-medicine-2009-award |access-date=15 January 2010 |archive-date=13 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200113060257/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/oct/05/nobel-prize-medicine-2009-award |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Sample |first=Ian |date=7 October 2008 |title=Three share Nobel prize for physics |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/oct/07/physics.nobel |access-date=10 February 2010 |archive-date=1 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190601140728/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/oct/07/physics.nobel |url-status=live }}</ref> It is common for recipients to donate prize money to benefit scientific, cultural, or humanitarian causes.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Locke |first=Michelle |title=Berkeley Nobel laureates donate prize money to charity |url=http://www.ebcf.org/press/07/Smoot_AP_3-07.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726012539/http://ebcf.org/press/07/Smoot_AP_3-07.pdf |archive-date=26 July 2011 |access-date=10 February 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pederson |first=T. |year=2006 |title=Reflections on the prize of prizes: Alfred Nobel |journal=The FASEB Journal |volume=20 |issue=13 |pages=2186–9 |doi=10.1096/fj.06-1102ufm |doi-access=free |pmid=17077294 |s2cid=30015190}}</ref> As of 2025, the monetary award per prize category is 11 million Swedish kronor (SEK), equivalent to approximately US$1.035 million.<ref name="PrizeMoney">{{cite web |date=2025-03-26 |title=Nobel Prize amount raised by SEK 1 million |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2025/press-release |access-date=2025-09-21 |website=NobelPrize.org |quote=}}</ref>

== Statistics ==
* '''Youngest person to receive a Nobel Prize:'''
*: [[Malala Yousafzai]]; at the age of 17, received [[Nobel Peace Prize]] (2014).
* '''Oldest person to receive a Nobel Prize:'''
*: [[John B. Goodenough]]; at the age of 97, received [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (2019).
* '''Only person to receive more than one unshared Nobel Prize:'''
*: [[Linus Pauling]]; received the prize twice. [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1954) and [[Nobel Peace Prize]] (1962).
* '''Persons to receive a Nobel Prize in two different disciplines:'''
*: [[Marie Skłodowska-Curie]]; received the prize twice. [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1903) and [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1911).
*: [[Linus Pauling]]; received the prize twice. [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1954) and [[Nobel Peace Prize]] (1962).
* '''Country with most Nobel laureates:'''
{{Main|List of Nobel laureates by country}}
:: [[United States]]; [[List of Nobel laureates by country#United States|403 Nobel laureates]], as of 2022.
* '''Laureates who have received multiple Nobel Prizes:''' (by date of second Prize)
*# [[Marie Skłodowska-Curie]]; received the prize twice. [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1903) and [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1911).
*# [[International Committee of the Red Cross]]; received the prize thrice (the only person or entity to have receive more than two Nobel Prizes). [[Nobel Peace Prize]] (1917, 1944, 1963).
*# [[Linus Pauling]]; received the prize twice. [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1954) and [[Nobel Peace Prize]] (1962).
*# [[John Bardeen]]; received the prize twice. [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1956, 1972).
*# [[Frederick Sanger]]; received the prize twice. [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1958, 1980).
*# [[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees]]; received the prize twice. [[Nobel Peace Prize]] (1954, 1981).
*# [[Karl Barry Sharpless]]; received the prize twice. [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (2001, 2022).
* '''Posthumous Nobel Prizes laureates:'''
*# [[Erik Axel Karlfeldt]]; received [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] (1931).
*# [[Dag Hammarskjöld]]; received [[Nobel Peace Prize]] (1961).
*# [[Ralph M. Steinman]]; received [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] (2011).
* '''Married couples to receive Nobel Prizes:'''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nobel Prize facts |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/facts/nobel-prize-facts |website=NobelPrize.org |access-date=13 May 2020 |archive-date=9 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210909193617/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/facts/nobel-prize-facts/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{pb}}
{{Main|List of couples awarded the Nobel Prize}}
:# [[Marie Skłodowska-Curie]], [[Pierre Curie]] (along with [[Henri Becquerel]]). Received [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1903).
:# [[Irène Joliot-Curie]], [[Frédéric Joliot-Curie|Frédéric Joliot]]. Received [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1935).
:# [[Gerty Cori]], [[Carl Ferdinand Cori|Carl Cori]]. Received [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel Prize in Medicine]] (1947).
:# [[Gunnar Myrdal]] received [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics Sciences]] (1974), [[Alva Myrdal]] received [[Nobel Peace Prize]] (1982).
:# [[May-Britt Moser]], [[Edvard Moser|Edvard I. Moser]]. Received [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel Prize in Medicine]] (2014).
:# [[Esther Duflo]], [[Abhijit Banerjee]] (along with [[Michael Kremer]]). Received [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics Sciences]] (2019).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nobel Prize-awarded couples |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/themes/nobel-prize-awarded-couples |website=NobelPrize.org |access-date=29 July 2020 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804175133/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/themes/nobel-prize-awarded-couples |url-status=live }}</ref>
* '''Years without prizes:'''
:* [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]]: 1916, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1941, 1942

:* [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]]: 1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1933, 1940, 1941, 1942

:* [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Physiology or Medicine]]: 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1921, 1925, 1940, 1941, 1942

:* [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Literature]]: 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943

:* [[Nobel Peace Prize|Peace]]: 1914, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1948, 1955, 1956, 1966, 1967, 1972

== Specially distinguished laureates ==
=== Multiple laureates ===
[[File:Marie Curie 1903.jpg|left|thumb|upright|alt=A black and white portrait of a woman in profile. |[[Marie Skłodowska-Curie]], one of five people who have received the Nobel Prize twice (Physics and Chemistry)]]
Five people have received two Nobel Prizes. [[Marie Skłodowska-Curie]] received the Physics Prize in 1903 for her work on [[radioactive decay|radioactivity]] and the Chemistry Prize in 1911 for the isolation of pure [[radium]],<ref>{{Cite news |date=2 July 2009 |title=Marie Curie voted greatest female scientist |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/5715220/Marie-Curie-voted-greatest-female-scientist.html |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |access-date=15 January 2010 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/5715220/Marie-Curie-voted-greatest-female-scientist.html |archive-date=10 January 2022}}{{cbignore}}</ref> making her the only person to be awarded a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. [[Linus Pauling]] was awarded the 1954 Chemistry Prize for his research into the [[chemical bond]] and its application to the [[Chemical structure|structure]] of complex substances. Pauling was also awarded the Peace Prize in 1962 for his activism against nuclear weapons, making him the only laureate of two unshared prizes. [[John Bardeen]] received the Physics Prize twice: in 1956 for the invention of the [[transistor]] and in 1972 for the theory of [[superconductivity]].<ref name="Feldman180">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 180.</ref> [[Frederick Sanger]] received the prize twice in Chemistry: in 1958 for determining the structure of the [[insulin]] molecule and in 1980 for inventing a method of determining [[DNA sequencing|base sequences in DNA]].<ref name="Shalev78">[[Nobel Prize#Shalev69|Shalev]], p. 78.</ref><ref name="Feldman222">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 222.</ref> [[Karl Barry Sharpless]] was awarded the 2001 Chemistry Prize for his research into chirally catalysed oxidation reactions, and the 2022 Chemistry Prize for [[click chemistry]].

Two organisations have received the Peace Prize multiple times. The [[International Committee of the Red Cross]] received it three times: in 1917 and 1944 for its work during the world wars; and in 1963 during the year of its centenary.<ref name="Abrams84">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 84.</ref><ref name="Abrams149">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 149.</ref><ref name="Abrams199-200">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], pp. 199–200.</ref> The [[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees]] has been awarded the Peace Prize twice for assisting refugees: in 1954 and 1981.<ref name="Feldman313">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 313.</ref>

=== Family laureates ===
The [[Curie family]] has received the most prizes, with four prizes awarded to five individual laureates. [[Marie Skłodowska-Curie]] received the prizes in Physics (in 1903) and Chemistry (in 1911). Her husband, [[Pierre Curie]], shared the 1903 Physics prize with her.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Marie Curie (1867–1934) |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/curie_marie.shtml |access-date=21 January 2010 |archive-date=26 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100126075739/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/curie_marie.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> Their daughter, [[Irène Joliot-Curie]], received the Chemistry Prize in 1935 together with her husband [[Frédéric Joliot-Curie]]. In addition, [[Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr.|Henry Labouisse]], the husband of Marie and Pierre Curie's second daughter [[Ève Curie]], was the director of [[UNICEF]] when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 on that organisation's behalf.<ref name="Feldman405">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 405.</ref>

Although no family matches the Curie family's record, there have been multiple with two laureates. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the husband-and-wife team of [[Gerty Cori]] and [[Carl Ferdinand Cori]] in 1947,<ref name="GrinsteinBiermann1997">{{Cite book |last1=Grinstein |first1=Louise S. |url=https://archive.org/details/womeninbiologica00grin |title=Women in the Biological Sciences: A Biobibliographic Sourcebook |last2=Biermann |first2=Carol A. |last3=Rose |first3=Rose K. |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-313-29180-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/womeninbiologica00grin/page/108 108]–110 |access-date=25 December 2012 |url-access=registration}}</ref> and to the husband-and-wife team of [[May-Britt Moser]] and [[Edvard Moser]] in 2014 (along with [[John O'Keefe (neuroscientist)|John O'Keefe]]).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2014/ |access-date=28 January 2015 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=7 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141007190458/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2014/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Physics Prize in 1906 was won by [[J. J. Thomson]] for showing that [[electron]]s are particles, and in 1937 by his son, [[George Paget Thomson]], for showing that they [[Wave–particle duality|also have the properties of waves]].<ref name="Gribbin91">[[#Gribbin69|Gribbin]], p. 91</ref> [[William Henry Bragg]] and his son, [[William Lawrence Bragg]], shared the Physics Prize in 1915 for inventing [[X-ray crystallography]].<ref name="Hargittai2003">{{Cite book |last=Hargittai |first=István |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M9rF6MTXtXYC&pg=PA149 |title=The Road to Stockholm:Nobel Prizes, Science, and Scientists: Nobel Prizes, Science, and Scientists |date=28 August 2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-860785-4 |page=149 |access-date=25 December 2012}}</ref> [[Niels Bohr]] was awarded the Physics Prize in 1922, as was his son, [[Aage Bohr]], in 1975.<ref name="Feldman405" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=11 September 2009 |title=Professor Aage Bohr: Nobel prize-winning physicist |work=[[The Times]] |publisher=Times Newspapers Limited |location=London |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6829396.ece |access-date=24 January 2010 |archive-date=24 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100524221649/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6829396.ece |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Professor Aage Bohr: Nobel prize winning physicist |language=en |work=[[The Times]] |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/denmark/copenhagen/professor-aage-bohr-nobel-prize-winning-physicist-8xdt693c2mg |access-date=2022-04-11 |issn=0140-0460 |archive-date=11 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411060157/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/professor-aage-bohr-nobel-prize-winning-physicist-8xdt693c2mg |url-status=live }}</ref> The Physics Prize was awarded to [[Manne Siegbahn]] in 1924, followed by his son, [[Kai Siegbahn]], in 1981.<ref name="Feldman405" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Maugh |first=Thomas H. II |date=8 August 2007 |title=Kai Siegbahn, 89; Nobel-winning physicist invented electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-siegbahn8aug08,1,6152607.story |access-date=24 January 2010 |archive-date=19 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090919024107/http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-siegbahn8aug08,1,6152607.story |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Hans von Euler-Chelpin]], who received the Chemistry Prize in 1929, was the father of [[Ulf von Euler]], who was awarded the Physiology or Medicine Prize in 1970.<ref name="Feldman405" /> [[C. V. Raman]] was awarded the Physics Prize in 1930 and was the uncle of [[Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar]], who was awarded the same prize in 1983.<ref>{{Cite press release |title=Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar |date=22 August 1995 |publisher=[[University of Chicago]] |url=http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/95/950822.chandrasekhar.shtml |access-date=24 January 2010 |archive-date=17 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100117074737/http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/95/950822.chandrasekhar.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Feldman406">[[#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 406</ref> [[Arthur Kornberg]] received the Physiology or Medicine Prize in 1959; Kornberg's son [[Roger D. Kornberg|Roger]] later received the Chemistry Prize in 2006.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Conger |first=Krista |date=4 October 2006 |title=Roger Kornberg wins the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry |url=http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2006/october11/kornberg-101106.html |access-date=24 January 2010 |website=Stanford Report |archive-date=5 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105094041/http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2006/october11/kornberg-101106.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Arthur Schawlow]] received the 1981 Physics prize, and was married to the sister of 1964 Physics laureate [[Charles Townes]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 April 1999 |title=Arthur Schawlow, 77, Nobelist for Lasers, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/30/us/arthur-schawlow-77-nobelist-for-lasers-dies.html |access-date=16 December 2021 |newspaper=The New York Times |archive-date=16 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211216185351/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/30/us/arthur-schawlow-77-nobelist-for-lasers-dies.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Two members of the [[Hodgkin family]] received Nobels in consecutive years: [[Alan Hodgkin|Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin]] shared in the Nobel for Physiology or Medicine in 1963, followed by [[Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin]], the wife of his first cousin, who won solo for Chemistry in 1964. [[Jan Tinbergen]], who was awarded the first Economics Prize in 1969, was the brother of [[Nikolaas Tinbergen]], who received the 1973 Physiology or Medicine Prize.<ref name="Feldman405" /> [[Gunnar Myrdal]], who was awarded the Economics Prize in 1974, was the husband of [[Alva Myrdal]], Peace Prize laureate in 1982.<ref name="Feldman405" /> Economics laureates [[Paul Samuelson]] (1970) and [[Kenneth Arrow]] (1972; shared) were brothers-in-law. [[Frits Zernike]], who was awarded the 1953 Physics Prize, was the great-uncle of 1999 Physics laureate [[Gerard 't Hooft]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gerardus 't Hooft – Biographical |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1999/thooft-bio.html |access-date=5 July 2017 |publisher=Nobelprize.org |archive-date=3 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703175556/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1999/thooft-bio.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2019, married couple [[Abhijit Banerjee]] and [[Esther Duflo]] were awarded the Economics Prize.<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 October 2019 |title=Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo Winning the Nobel Prize Together is #CoupleGoals |url=https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/abhijit-banerjee-esther-duflo-winning-the-nobel-prize-together-is-real-couplegoal-2345283.html |access-date=9 March 2020 |website=News18 |archive-date=19 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200219031712/https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/abhijit-banerjee-esther-duflo-winning-the-nobel-prize-together-is-real-couplegoal-2345283.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard]] was awarded the Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995, and her nephew [[Benjamin List]] received the Chemistry Prize in 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chemistry Nobel Prize for Benjamin List |url=https://www.mpg.de/17662517/nobel-prize-for-chemistry-2021-benjamin-list |access-date=23 October 2021 |website=www.mpg.de |language=en |archive-date=23 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023111305/https://www.mpg.de/17662517/nobel-prize-for-chemistry-2021-benjamin-list |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Sune Bergström]] was awarded the Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982, and his son [[Svante Pääbo]] was awarded the same prize in 2022. [[Edwin McMillan]], who shared the Prize in Chemistry in 1951, was the uncle of [[John Clauser]], who was awarded the Prize in Physics in 2022.

== Reception and controversies ==
{{Main|Nobel Prize controversies}}
{{unbalanced section|date=May 2024}}
<!-- Please read before editing: If you would like to add a new section here add it to the Main Controversies page instead. When it is established there you can start a talk page about adding it to this page. DO NOT start a new section directly here. -->

=== Controversial recipients ===
[[File:Henry A. Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State, 1973-1977.jpg|thumb|upright|When it was announced that [[Henry Kissinger]] was to be awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in [[1973 Nobel Peace Prize|1973]], two of the Norwegian Nobel Committee members resigned in protest]]
Among other criticisms, the Nobel Committees have been accused of having a political agenda, and of omitting more deserving candidates. They have also been accused of [[Eurocentrism]], especially for the Literature Prize.<ref name="Abramsxiv">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. xiv.</ref><ref name="Feldman65">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 65.</ref><ref name="Sarasota">{{Cite news |last=Tuohy |first=William |date=20 September 1981 |title=Literature Award Hardest for Nobel Prize Panel |page=58 |work=[[Sarasota Herald Tribune]] |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19810920&id=FZ0cAAAAIBAJ&pg=6245,2424225 |access-date=9 March 2010 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415223203/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19810920&id=FZ0cAAAAIBAJ&pg=6245,2424225 |url-status=live }}</ref>

;Peace Prize

Among the most criticised 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.<ref name="topten">{{Cite news |last=de Sousa |first=Ana Naomi |date=9 October 2009 |title=Top ten Nobel Prize rows |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6868007.ece |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100234/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Kissinger and Thọ were awarded the prize for [[Paris Peace Accords|negotiating a ceasefire]] between [[North Vietnam]] and the United States in January 1973 during the [[Vietnam War]]. However, when the award was announced, both sides were still engaging in hostilities.<ref name="Abrams219">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 219.</ref> Critics sympathetic to the North announced that Kissinger was not a peace-maker but the opposite, responsible for widening the war. Those hostile to the North and what they considered its deceptive practices during negotiations were deprived of a chance to criticise Lê Đức Thọ, as he declined the award.<ref name="Feldman315">[[#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 315</ref><ref name="Abrams315">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 315.</ref> The satirist and musician [[Tom Lehrer]] has remarked that "political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."<ref name="Lehrer">{{Cite news |last=Purdom |first=Todd |title=When Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize, satire died |work=The Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/jul/31/artsfeatures1 |url-status=live |access-date=26 September 2020 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140531212217/http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/jul/31/artsfeatures1 |archive-date=31 May 2014}}</ref>

[[Yasser Arafat]], [[Shimon Peres]], and [[Yitzhak Rabin]] received the Peace Prize in 1994 for their [[Oslo Accords|efforts in making peace]] between Israel and Palestine.<ref name="Feldman315" /><ref name="Levinovitz183">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 183.</ref> Immediately after the award was announced, one of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members denounced Arafat as a terrorist and resigned.<ref name="Feldman15-16">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], pp. 15–16.</ref> Additional misgivings about Arafat were widely expressed in various newspapers.<ref name="Abrams302-306">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], pp. 302–306.</ref>

Another controversial Peace Prize was that awarded to [[Barack Obama]] [[2009 Nobel Peace Prize|in 2009]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Erlanger |first1=Steven |last2=Stolberg |first2=Sheryl Gay |date=9 October 2009 |title=Surprise Nobel for Obama Stirs Praise and Doubts |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?_r=1 |access-date=1 April 2010 |archive-date=5 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105204618/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?_r=1 |url-status=live }}</ref> Nominations had closed only eleven days after Obama took office as [[President of the United States]], but the actual evaluation occurred over the next eight months.<ref name="philp">{{Cite news |last=Philp |first=Catherine |date=10 October 2009 |title=How the Nobel Peace Prize winner is decided |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6868833.ece |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100235/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Obama himself stated that he did not feel deserving of the award, or worthy of the company in which it would place him.<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 October 2009 |title=Obama is surprise winner of Nobel Peace Prize |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5981JK20091009?sp=true |access-date=9 October 2009 |archive-date=12 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091012134156/https://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5981JK20091009?sp=true |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=9 October 2009 |title=Remarks by the President on winning the Nobel Peace Prize |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-Winning-the-Nobel-Peace-Prize/ |access-date=1 April 2010 |website=[[whitehouse.gov]] |via=[[NARA|National Archives]] }}</ref> Past Peace Prize laureates were divided, some saying that Obama deserved the award, and others saying he had not secured the achievements to yet merit such an accolade. Obama's award, along with the previous Peace Prizes for [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Al Gore]], also prompted accusations of a [[Liberalism|liberal]] bias.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Naughton |first=Philippe |date=9 October 2009 |title=President Obama humbled: I do not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/president-obama-humbled-i-do-not-deserve-the-nobel-peace-prize-f2c2vxwz7hj |access-date=6 January 2022 |archive-date=6 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106032627/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/president-obama-humbled-i-do-not-deserve-the-nobel-peace-prize-f2c2vxwz7hj |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[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 and especially over the [[Rohingya genocide]] and calls were made to strip her of her Nobel Peace Prize.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-11-03 |title=Aung San Suu Kyi: Myanmar democracy icon who fell from grace |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11685977 |access-date=2024-06-07 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Ellis-Petersen |first=Hannah |date=2018-11-23 |title=From peace icon to pariah: Aung San Suu Kyi's fall from grace |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/23/aung-san-suu-kyi-fall-from-grace-myanmar |access-date=2024-06-07 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

;Literature Prize

The award of the 2004 Literature Prize to [[Elfriede Jelinek]] drew a protest from a member of the Swedish Academy, [[Knut Ahnlund]]. Ahnlund resigned, alleging that the selection of Jelinek had caused "irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art". He alleged that Jelinek's works were "a mass of text shovelled together without artistic structure".<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 October 2005 |title=Who deserves Nobel prize? Judges don't agree |work=[[Today (U.S. TV program)|Today]] |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/who-deserves-nobel-prize-judges-don-t-agree-wbna9665122 |access-date=18 March 2019 |archive-date=8 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508051921/https://www.today.com/popculture/who-deserves-nobel-prize-judges-don-t-agree-wbna9665122 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=11 October 2005 |title=Nobel judge steps down in protest |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4329962.stm |access-date=1 April 2010 |archive-date=31 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331111632/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4329962.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> The 2009 Literature Prize to [[Herta Müller]] also generated criticism. According to ''[[The Washington Post]]'', many US literary critics and professors were ignorant of her work.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jordan |first=Mary |date=9 October 2009 |title=Author's Nobel Stirs Shock-and-'Bah' |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/08/AR2009100800965.html |access-date=1 April 2010 |archive-date=4 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091104035508/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/08/AR2009100800965.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This made those critics feel the prizes were too Eurocentric.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=8 October 2009 |title=NOBEL PRIZE WINNER: Herta Muller |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/08/nobel-prize-winner-herta_n_313577.html |journal=The Huffington Post |access-date=31 March 2010 |archive-date=10 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091010040101/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/08/nobel-prize-winner-herta_n_313577.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The 2019 Literature Prize to [[Peter Handke]] received heavy criticisms from various authors, such as [[Salman Rushdie]] and [[Hari Kunzru]], and was condemned by the governments of [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Kosovo]], and [[Turkey]], due to his history of [[Bosnian genocide denial]]ism and his support for [[Slobodan Milošević]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 October 2019 |title=Outrage in Bosnia, Kosovo over Peter Handke's Nobel prize win |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/outrage-bosnia-kosovo-peter-handke-nobel-prize-win-191010183645296.html |access-date=28 June 2022 |publisher=Al Jazeera |archive-date=29 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200829061001/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/outrage-bosnia-kosovo-peter-handke-nobel-prize-win-191010183645296.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Cain |first=Sian |date=10 October 2019 |title='A troubling choice': authors criticise Peter Handke's controversial Nobel win |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/10/troubling-choice-authors-criticise-peter-handke-controversial-nobel-win |access-date=28 June 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en |archive-date=15 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220615070941/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/10/troubling-choice-authors-criticise-peter-handke-controversial-nobel-win |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=7 December 2019 |title=Kosovo to boycott Nobel ceremony over Handke's literature prize |agency=Al Jazeera |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/kosovo-boycott-nobel-ceremony-handke-literature-prize-191207143607923.html |access-date=28 June 2022 |archive-date=9 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909093959/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/kosovo-boycott-nobel-ceremony-handke-literature-prize-191207143607923.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

;Science prizes

In 1949, the neurologist [[António Egas Moniz]] received the Physiology or Medicine Prize for his development of the [[Lobotomy|prefrontal lobotomy]]. The previous year, [[Walter Jackson Freeman II|Walter Freeman]] had developed a [[Lobotomy#Transorbital lobotomy|version of the procedure]] which was faster and easier to carry out. Due in part to the publicity surrounding the original procedure, Freeman's procedure was prescribed without due consideration or regard for modern [[medical ethics]]. Endorsed by such influential publications as ''[[The New England Journal of Medicine]]'', leucotomy or "lobotomy" became so popular that about 5,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States in the three years immediately following Moniz's receipt of the Prize.<ref name="Feldman286-289">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], pp. 286–289.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Day |first=Elizabeth |date=12 January 2008 |title=He was bad, so they put an ice pick in his brain... |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jan/13/neuroscience.medicalscience |access-date=31 March 2010 |archive-date=20 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020075415/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jan/13/neuroscience.medicalscience |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Overlooked achievements ===
[[File:MKGandhi.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Mohandas Gandhi]], although nominated five times, was never awarded a Nobel Peace Prize]]
[[File:Revolutionary Joyce Better Contrast.jpg|thumb|upright|[[James Joyce]], one of the controversial omissions of the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]]]]

Although [[Mohandas Gandhi]], an icon of [[nonviolence]] in the 20th century, was nominated for the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] five times, in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and a few days before he was assassinated on 30 January 1948, he was never awarded the prize.<ref name="Gandhi">{{Cite web |last=Tønnesson |first=Øyvind |date=1 December 1999 |title=Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/peace/gandhi/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705224937/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/peace/gandhi/ |archive-date=5 July 2013 |access-date=24 October 2020 |publisher=Nobel Foundation}}</ref><ref name="Levinovitz181-186">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], pp. 181–186.</ref><ref name="Nobel Also Rans">{{Cite news |last=Kenner |first=David |date=7 October 2009 |title=Nobel Peace Prize Also-Rans |pages=1–7 |work=Foreign Policy |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/07/nobel_peace_prize_also_rans |url-status=dead |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100125073527/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/07/nobel_peace_prize_also_rans |archive-date=25 January 2010 }}</ref> In 1948, the year of [[Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi|Gandhi's death]], the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to make no award that year on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate".<ref name="Gandhi" /><ref name="Abrams147-148">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], pp. 147–148.</ref> In 1989, this omission was publicly regretted, when the [[14th Dalai Lama]] was awarded the Peace Prize, the chairman of the committee said that it was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Aarvik |first=Egil |title=The Nobel Prize in Peace 1989 – Presentation Speech |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1989/presentation-speech.html |access-date=24 October 2020 |publisher=[[The Nobel Foundation]] |archive-date=27 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110127192457/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1989/presentation-speech.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Geir Lundestad]], 2006 Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee, said

{{Blockquote|text=The greatest omission in our 106-year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace Prize. Whether the Nobel committee can do without Gandhi, is the question.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ghosh |first=Avijit |date=October 17, 2006 |title='We missed Mahatma Gandhi' |work=The Times of India |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/we-missed-mahatma-gandhi/articleshow/2181375.cms |access-date=4 November 2022 |archive-date=23 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523225928/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/we-missed-mahatma-gandhi/articleshow/2181375.cms |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110915025114/http://www.icrs.ugm.ac.id/wednesday-forum-schedule/111-relevance-of-gandhian-philosophy-in-the-21st-century Relevance of Gandhian Philosophy in the 21st century]. icrs.ugm.ac.id</ref>}}

Other high-profile individuals with widely recognised contributions to peace have been overlooked. In 2009, an article in ''[[Foreign Policy]]'' magazine identified seven people who "never won the prize, but should have". The list consisted of Gandhi, [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], [[Václav Havel]], [[Ken Saro-Wiwa]], [[Sari Nusseibeh]], [[Corazon Aquino]], and [[Liu Xiaobo]].<ref name="Nobel Also Rans" /> Liu Xiaobo would go on to win the [[2010 Nobel Peace Prize]] while imprisoned.

In 1965, UN Secretary General [[U Thant]] was informed by the Norwegian Permanent Representative to the UN that he would be awarded that year's prize and asked whether or not he would accept. He consulted staff and later replied that he would. At the same time, Chairman [[Gunnar Jahn]] of the Nobel Peace Prize committee lobbied heavily against giving U Thant the prize and the prize was at the last minute awarded to [[UNICEF]]. The rest of the committee all wanted the prize to go to U Thant, for his work in defusing the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]], ending the war in the Congo, and his ongoing work to mediate an end to the Vietnam War. The disagreement lasted three years and in 1966 and 1967 no prize was given, with Gunnar Jahn effectively vetoing an award to U Thant.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Peace Prize 1901–2000 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/peace/lundestad-review/ |access-date=25 February 2014 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=18 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618204330/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/peace/lundestad-review/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nassif |first=Rames |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vdUsAAAAMAAJ&q=Nobel+Prize |title=U Thant in New York: A Portrait of the Third Secretary-General of the United Nations |date=31 December 1988 |publisher=Hurst |isbn=978-1-85065-045-4 |url-access=subscription |access-date=18 November 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100248/https://books.google.com/books?id=vdUsAAAAMAAJ&q=Nobel+Prize |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Literature Prize also has controversial omissions. [[Adam Kirsch]] has suggested that many notable writers have missed out on the award for political or extra-literary reasons. The heavy focus on European and Swedish authors has been a subject of criticism.<ref name="KirschNoClue">{{Cite magazine |last=Kirsch |first=Adam |date=3 October 2008 |title=The Nobel Committee has no clue about American literature |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2201447/ |magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |access-date=31 March 2010 |archive-date=5 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605164728/http://www.slate.com/id/2201447/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Fristorp |first=Mimmi |date=8 October 2008 |title=Akademien väljer helst en europé |language=sv |work=Dagens Nyheter |url=https://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/bocker/akademien-valjer-helst-en-europe/ |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100218021516/http://www.dn.se/dnbok/akademien-valjer-helst-en-europe-1.789000 |archive-date=18 February 2010 }}</ref> The Eurocentric nature of the award was acknowledged by [[Peter Englund]], the 2009 Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, as a problem with the award and was attributed to the tendency for the academy to relate more to European authors.<ref>{{Cite news |date=6 October 2009 |title=Judge: Nobel literature prizes 'too Eurocentric' |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/8742797 |access-date=3 February 2010 |archive-date=2 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002173301/http://www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/8742797 |url-status=live }}</ref> This tendency towards European authors still leaves many European writers on a list of notable writers that have been overlooked for the Literature Prize, including [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Anton Chekhov]], [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], [[Émile Zola]], [[Marcel Proust]], [[Vladimir Nabokov]], [[James Joyce]], [[August Strindberg]], [[Simon Vestdijk]], [[Karel Čapek]]; the [[New World]]'s [[Jorge Luis Borges]], [[Ezra Pound]], [[John Updike]], [[Arthur Miller]], [[Mark Twain]]; and Africa's [[Chinua Achebe]].<ref name="Feldman56-57">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], pp. 56–57.</ref>

Candidates can receive multiple nominations the same year. [[Gaston Ramon]] received a total of 155<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nomination Database: Gaston Ramon |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=7545 |access-date=7 January 2017 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=8 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170108190254/https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=7545 |url-status=live }}</ref> nominations in physiology or medicine from 1930 to 1953, the last year with public nomination data for that award {{as of|2016|lc=on}}. He died in 1963 without being awarded. [[Pierre Paul Émile Roux]] received 115<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nomination Database: Emile P Roux |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=7930 |access-date=7 January 2017 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=8 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170108185920/https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=7930 |url-status=live }}</ref> nominations in physiology or medicine, and [[Arnold Sommerfeld]] received 84<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nomination Database: Arnold Sommerfeld |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=8661 |access-date=7 January 2017 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=12 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212085135/https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=8661 |url-status=live }}</ref> in physics. These are the three most nominated scientists without awards in the data published {{as of|2016|lc=on}}.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Butler |first=Declan |date=11 October 2016 |title=Close but no Nobel: the scientists who never won |url=http://www.nature.com/news/close-but-no-nobel-the-scientists-who-never-won-1.20781 |journal=Nature |doi=10.1038/nature.2016.20781 |s2cid=165001434 |access-date=7 January 2017 |archive-date=2 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102071239/http://www.nature.com/news/close-but-no-nobel-the-scientists-who-never-won-1.20781 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Otto Stern]] received 79<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nomination Database: Otto Stern |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=8779 |access-date=7 January 2017 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=6 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161106224218/http://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=8779 |url-status=live }}</ref> nominations in physics 1925–1943 before being awarded in 1943.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Crawford |first=Elisabeth |date=November 2001 |title=Nobel population 1901–50: anatomy of a scientific elite |work=Physics World |url=http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/14/11/7 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060203183205/http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/14/11/7 |archive-date=3 February 2006}}</ref>

The strict rule against awarding a prize to more than three people is also controversial.<ref name="Levinovitz61">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 61.</ref> When a prize is awarded to recognise an achievement by a team of more than three collaborators, one or more will miss out. For example, in 2002, the prize was awarded to [[Koichi Tanaka]] and [[John Fenn (chemist)|John Fenn]] for the development of [[mass spectrometry]] in [[protein]] chemistry, an award that did not recognise the achievements of [[Franz Hillenkamp]] and [[Michael Karas]] of the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the [[Goethe University Frankfurt|University of Frankfurt]].<ref name="Spinney">{{Cite web |last=Spinney |first=Laura |date=4 December 2001 |title=News Analysis: Nobel Prize Controversy |url=http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/20931 |access-date=28 October 2006 |website=[[The Scientist (magazine)|The Scientist]] |archive-date=27 June 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060627152315/http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/20931/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Dawidoff |first=Nicholas |date=25 April 2009 |title=The Civil Heretic |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all/ |access-date=8 June 2010 |archive-date=8 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108201111/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to one of the nominees for the prize in physics, the three person limit deprived him and two other members of his team of the honor in 2013: the team of [[C. R. Hagen|Carl Hagen]], [[Gerald Guralnik]], and [[Tom Kibble]] published a paper in 1964 that gave answers to how the cosmos began, but did not share the 2013 Physics Prize awarded to [[Peter Higgs]] and [[François Englert]], who had also published papers in 1964 concerning the subject. All five physicists arrived at the same conclusion, albeit from different angles. Hagen contends that an equitable solution is to either abandon the three limit restriction, or expand the time period of recognition for a given achievement to two years.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Goodman |first=James |title=UR prof disappointed in Nobel Prize decision |work=[[Democrat and Chronicle]] |location=Rochester, New York |url=http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/2013/10/08/ur-prof-disappointed-in-nobel-prize-decision/2941821/ |access-date=18 March 2019 |archive-date=27 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127195332/https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/2013/10/08/ur-prof-disappointed-in-nobel-prize-decision/2941821/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Similarly, the prohibition of posthumous awards fails to recognise achievements by an individual or collaborator who dies before the prize is awarded. The Economics Prize was not awarded to [[Fischer Black]], who died in 1995, when his co-author [[Myron Scholes]] received the honor in 1997 for their landmark work on option pricing along with [[Robert C. Merton]], another pioneer in the development of valuation of stock options. In the announcement of the award that year, the Nobel committee prominently mentioned Black's key role.

Political subterfuge may also deny proper recognition. [[Lise Meitner]] and [[Fritz Strassmann]], who co-discovered nuclear fission along with [[Otto Hahn]], may have been denied a share of Hahn's 1944 Nobel Chemistry Award due to having fled Germany when the [[Nazi Party|Nazis]] came to power.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Crawford |first1=Elisabeth |last2=Lewin Sime |first2=Ruth |last3=Walker |first3=Mark |display-authors=1 |year=1997 |title=A Nobel Tale of Postwar Injustice |journal=Physics Today |volume=50 |issue=9 |pages=26–32 |bibcode=1997PhT....50i..26C |doi=10.1063/1.881933}}</ref> The Meitner and Strassmann roles in the research was not fully recognised until years later, when they joined Hahn in receiving the 1966 [[Enrico Fermi Award]].

=== Emphasis on discoveries over inventions ===
Alfred Nobel left his fortune to finance annual prizes to be awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110604155708/http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/short_testamente.html Excerpt from the Will of Alfred Nobel]. nobelprize.org</ref> He stated that the Nobel Prizes in Physics should be given "to the person who shall have made the most important 'discovery' or 'invention' within the field of physics". Nobel did not emphasise discoveries, but they have historically been held in higher respect by the Nobel Prize Committee than inventions: 77% of the Physics Prizes have been given to discoveries, compared with only 23% to inventions. Christoph Bartneck and Matthias Rauterberg, in papers published in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' and ''Technoetic Arts'', have argued this emphasis on discoveries has moved the Nobel Prize away from its original intention of rewarding the greatest contribution to society.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bartneck |first1=Christoph |last2=Rauterberg |first2=Matthias |date=9 August 2007 |title=Physics Nobels should favour inventions |journal=Nature |volume=448 |issue=7154 |page=644 |bibcode=2007Natur.448..644B |doi=10.1038/448644c |pmid=17687300 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bartneck |first1=Christoph |last2=Rauterberg |first2=Matthias |year=2008 |title=The asymmetry between discoveries and inventions in the Nobel Prize in Physics |url=http://www.bartneck.de/publications/2008/nobel/bartneckTechnoeticArts2008.pdf |journal=Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research |volume=6 |page=73 |citeseerx=10.1.1.145.8130 |doi=10.1386/tear.6.1.73_1 |access-date=25 October 2017 |archive-date=26 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226225222/http://www.bartneck.de/publications/2008/nobel/bartneckTechnoeticArts2008.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Gender===
{{See also|List of female Nobel laureates|List of female nominees for the Nobel Prize}}
In terms of the most prestigious awards in [[Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics|STEM]] fields, only a small proportion have been awarded to women. Out of 210 laureates in Physics, 181 in Chemistry and 216 in Medicine between 1901 and 2018, there were only three female laureates in physics, five in chemistry and 12 in medicine.<ref>''[https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/ Nobel Prize Facts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180815021423/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/ |date=15 August 2018 }}'', Nobel Foundation, 2014. (accessed 29 October 2014)</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002315/231519e.pdf |title=A Complex Formula: Girls and Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Asia |publisher=UNESCO |year=2015 |isbn=978-92-9223-492-8 |location=Paris |pages=23 |access-date=3 May 2017 |archive-date=15 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115233123/http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002315/231519e.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>''[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-prizes-in-chemistry/ Nobel Prize in Chemistry] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523074546/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-prizes-in-chemistry |date=23 May 2020 }}'' Nobel Foundation 2018 (accessed 3 October 2018)</ref><ref>''[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-laureates-in-physiology-or-medicine/ Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523072810/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-laureates-in-physiology-or-medicine |date=23 May 2020 }}'' Nobel Foundation 2018. (accessed 3 October 2018)</ref> Factors proposed to contribute to the discrepancy between this and the roughly equal [[human sex ratio]] include biased nominations, fewer women than men being active in the relevant fields, Nobel Prizes typically being awarded decades after the research was done (reflecting a time when [[gender bias]] in the relevant fields was greater), a greater delay in awarding Nobel Prizes for women's achievements making longevity a more important factor for women (one cannot be nominated for the Nobel Prize posthumously), and a tendency to omit women from jointly awarded Nobel Prizes.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 October 2018 |title=Nobel Prizes still struggle with wide gender disparity |language=en |work=CBC News |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nobel-prizes-women-gender-1.4845225 |access-date=12 December 2018 |archive-date=11 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211141358/https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nobel-prizes-women-gender-1.4845225 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Feeney |first=Mary K. |date=5 October 2018 |title=Why more women don't win science Nobels |url=http://theconversation.com/why-more-women-dont-win-science-nobels-104370 |journal=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]] |language=en |access-date=12 December 2018 |archive-date=12 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181212024209/https://theconversation.com/why-more-women-dont-win-science-nobels-104370 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Rathi |first=Akshat |date=9 October 2017 |title=The Nobel Prize committee explains why women win so few prizes |url=https://qz.com/1097888/the-nobel-prize-committee-explains-why-women-win-so-few-prizes/ |access-date=12 December 2018 |website=Quartz |language=en |archive-date=14 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214024211/https://qz.com/1097888/the-nobel-prize-committee-explains-why-women-win-so-few-prizes/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Devlin |first=Hannah |date=6 October 2017 |title=Why don't women win Nobel science prizes? |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/06/women-win-nobel-science-prizes |access-date=12 December 2018 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=15 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915022136/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/06/women-win-nobel-science-prizes |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rose |first=Hilary |url=https://archive.org/details/lovepowerknowled00rose |title=Love, Power, and Knowledge: Towards a Feminist Transformation of the Sciences |date=1994 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-20907-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lovepowerknowled00rose/page/137 137] |language=en |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Siegel |first=Ethan |date=18 October 2018 |title=These 5 Women Deserved, And Were Unjustly Denied, A Nobel Prize In Physics |url=https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/these-5-women-deserved-and-were-unjustly-denied-a-nobel-prize-in-physics-7f769e28331 |journal=[[Medium (website)|Medium]] |access-date=12 December 2018 |archive-date=28 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190628012302/https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/these-5-women-deserved-and-were-unjustly-denied-a-nobel-prize-in-physics-7f769e28331 |url-status=live }}</ref> Despite these factors, Marie Curie is to date the only person awarded Nobel Prizes in two different sciences (Physics in 1903, Chemistry in 1911); she is one of only three people who have received two Nobel Prizes in sciences (see Multiple Laureates above). [[Malala Yousafzai]] is the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When she received it in 2014, she was only 17 years old.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=20 October 2014 |title=Nobel Laureates by Age |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/age.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010190719/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/age.html |archive-date=10 October 2014 |access-date=20 October 2014 |publisher=nobelprize.org}}</ref>

=== Status of the Economic Sciences Prize ===
[[Peter Nobel]] describes the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel as a "false Nobel prize" that dishonours his relative Alfred Nobel, after whom the prize is named, and considers economics to be a pseudoscience.<ref>{{Cite web |date=14 October 2007 |title=The Local – Nobel descendant slams Economics prize |url=http://www.thelocal.se/2173/20050928/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014012248/http://www.thelocal.se/2173/20050928/ |archive-date=14 October 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Henderson |first=Hazel |author-link=Hazel Henderson |date=1 January 2004 |title=Abolish the Nobel in Economics, Many Scientists Agree |url=https://hazelhenderson.com/2004/01/01/abolish-the-nobel-in-economics-many-scientists-agree-2004/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027065720/https://hazelhenderson.com/2004/01/01/abolish-the-nobel-in-economics-many-scientists-agree-2004/ |archive-date=27 October 2021 |access-date=20 September 2021 }}</ref>

== Refusals and constraints ==
[[File:Richard Kuhn ETH-Bib Dia 248-065.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A black and white portrait of a man in a suit and tie. Half of his face is in a shadow.|[[Richard Kuhn]], who was forced to decline his [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]]]]
Two laureates have voluntarily declined the Nobel Prize. In 1964, [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] was awarded the Literature Prize, but refused, stating, "A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honourable form."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Holt |first=Jim |date=22 September 2003 |title=Exit, Pursued by a Lobster |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2088648/ |journal=Slate |access-date=21 January 2010 |archive-date=31 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100531173058/http://www.slate.com/id/2088648 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Lê Đức Thọ]], chosen for the 1973 Peace Prize for his role in the [[Paris Peace Accords]], declined, stating that there was no actual peace in Vietnam.<ref name="autogenerated4">{{Cite news |last=English |first=Jason |date=6 October 2009 |title=Odd facts about Nobel Prize winners |work=[[CNN]] |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/10/06/mf.nobel.odd.facts/index.html |access-date=21 January 2010 |archive-date=6 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106195732/http://edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/10/06/mf.nobel.odd.facts/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[George Bernard Shaw]] attempted to decline the prize money while accepting the 1925 Literature Prize; eventually it was agreed to use it to found the [[Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation]].<ref>{{cite ODNB |last=Weintraub |first=Stanley |title=Shaw, George Bernard (1856–1950), playwright and polemicist |date=3 October 2013 |id=36047 }}</ref>

During the Third Reich, [[Adolf Hitler]] hindered [[Richard Kuhn]], [[Adolf Butenandt]], and [[Gerhard Domagk]] from accepting their prizes. All of them were awarded their diplomas and gold medals after World War II.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Facts on the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/facts/facts-on-the-nobel-prize-in-physiology-or-medicine |access-date=2022-05-22 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US |archive-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521151149/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/facts/facts-on-the-nobel-prize-in-physiology-or-medicine/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bishop |first=J. Michael |title=How to win the Nobel Prize : an unexpected life in science |date=2003 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-02097-9 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |oclc=450899218}}</ref>

In 1958, [[Boris Pasternak]] declined his prize for literature due to fear of what the Soviet Union government might do if he travelled to Stockholm to accept his prize. In return, the Swedish Academy refused his refusal, saying "this refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award."<ref name="autogenerated4" /> The academy announced with regret that the presentation of the Literature Prize could not take place that year, holding it back until 1989 when Pasternak's son accepted the prize on his behalf.<ref name="timesonline-292690">{{cite news |last=Franchetti |first=Mark |title=How the CIA won Zhivago a Nobel |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1292690.ece |work=[[The Times]] |date=14 January 2007 |access-date=21 January 2010 |location=London |archive-date=5 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805073045/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1292690.ece |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="washingtonpost">{{cite news |last=Finn |first=Peter |title=The Plot Thickens |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR2007012601758.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=27 January 2007 |access-date=21 January 2010 |archive-date=8 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108090317/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR2007012601758.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Aung San Suu Kyi]] was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, but her children accepted the prize because she had been placed under house arrest in [[Myanmar|Burma]]; Suu Kyi delivered her speech two decades later, in 2012.<ref>{{cite web |title=Aung San Suu Kyi – Biographical |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi.html |website=The Nobel Foundation |access-date=28 July 2012 |archive-date=25 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925122550/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Liu Xiaobo]] was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 while he and his wife were under house arrest in China as political prisoners, and he was unable to accept the prize in his lifetime.

== Impact ==
=== Cultural ===
[[File:Ivo Andrić and José Saramago 2022 stamp of Serbia.jpg|thumb|The Nobel Prize in Literature laureates [[Ivo Andrić]] (recipient in [[1961 Nobel Prize in Literature|1961]]) and [[José Saramago]] (recipient in [[1998 Nobel Prize in Literature|1998]]) pictured on a 2022 Serbian stamp]]
Being a symbol of scientific or literary achievement that is recognisable worldwide, the Nobel Prize is often depicted in fiction. This includes films such as ''[[The Prize (1963 film)|The Prize]]'' (1963), ''[[Nobel Son]]'' (2007), and ''[[The Wife (2017 film)|The Wife]]'' (2017) about fictional Nobel laureates, as well as fictionalised accounts of stories surrounding real prizes such as ''[[Nobel Chor]]'', a 2012 film based on the [[Rabindranath Tagore#Theft of Nobel Prize|theft of Rabindranath Tagore's prize]]. It has also been depicted in television shows such as ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]''.<ref name="nobel film screen">{{cite press release |url=http://www.mynewsdesk.com/stockholmvisitorsboard/pressreleases/the-nobel-prize-on-the-film-screen-937364 |title=The Nobel Prize: On the film screen |publisher=Stockholm Business Region |date=5 December 2013 |access-date=31 March 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402102825/http://www.mynewsdesk.com/stockholmvisitorsboard/pressreleases/the-nobel-prize-on-the-film-screen-937364 |archive-date=2 April 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Brodesco |first=Alberto|date=2018 |title=Nobel laureates in fiction: From La fin du monde to The Big Bang Theory |journal=Public Understanding of Science |language=en |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=458–470 |doi=10.1177/0963662518766476 |pmid=29720058 |s2cid=19223540|issn=0963-6625}}</ref>

The statue and memorial symbol ''Planet of Alfred Nobel'' was opened in [[Alfred Nobel University]] of Economics and Law in [[Dnipro]], Ukraine in 2008. On the globe, there are 802 Nobel laureates' reliefs made of a composite alloy obtained when disposing of military strategic missiles.<ref>[https://www.panoramio.com/photo/27994903?comment_page=1 Monument of the Planet of Alfred Nobel] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809124737/http://www.panoramio.com/photo/27994903?comment_page=1 |date=9 August 2017 }}. Panoramio.com. Retrieved on 28 July 2013.</ref>

Despite the symbolism of intellectual achievement, some recipients have embraced unsupported and [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] concepts, including various [[Vitamin C and the Common Cold (book)#Research, writing and revisions|health benefits of vitamin C]] and other dietary supplements, [[homeopathy]], [[HIV/AIDS denialism]], and various claims about [[race and intelligence]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Basterfield |first1=Candice |last2=Lilienfeld |first2=Scott O. |author-link2=Scott Lilienfeld |last3=Bowes |first3=Shauna M. |last4=Costello |first4=Thomas H. |date=May–June 2020 |title=The Nobel Disease: When Intelligence Fails to Protect against Irrationality |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/2020/05/the-nobel-disease-when-intelligence-fails-to-protect-against-irrationality/ |magazine=[[Skeptical Inquirer]] |location=Amherst, New York |publisher=[[Center for Inquiry]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200717193429/https://skepticalinquirer.org/2020/05/the-nobel-disease-when-intelligence-fails-to-protect-against-irrationality/ |archive-date=17 July 2020 |access-date=24 December 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> This is sometimes referred to as [[Nobel disease]].

In 2001, [[Gustavus Adolphus College]] in [[St. Peter, Minnesota]], host of the [[Nobel Conference]], commissioned American composer and alumnus [[Steve Heitzeg]] to compose a piece for the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prizes. The 75-minute ''Nobel Symphony'' highlights all the major Nobel Prizes, and includes texts from Nobel laureates such as [[Pablo Neruda]], [[Albert Camus]], [[Toni Morrison]], [[Amartya Sen]], [[Martin Luther King Jr.|Martin Luther King, Jr.]], [[Rigoberta Menchú]], [[Dag Hammarskjöld]], and [[Nelson Mandela]]. The ''Nobel Symphony'' premiered at Gustavus Adolphus on October 2, 2001, and was restaged by [[Philip Brunelle]] and [[VocalEssence]] at [[Orchestra Hall (Minneapolis)|Orchestra Hall]] in [[Minneapolis|Minneapolis, Minnesota]] on April 18, 2004.<ref name="Strib20010929">{{cite news |last=Miller |first=Kay |page=1E |date=September 29, 2001 |title=Playing for peace: Nobel symphony underscores global need for unity |url= https://www.newspapers.com/article/star-tribune-playing-for-peace-nobel-sy/182404541/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |work=[[Star Tribune]] |location=[[Minneapolis-St. Paul]] |access-date=January 3, 2022}}</ref><ref name="MPR2004">{{cite news |last= Roberts |first=Chris |date= April 16, 2004 |title= A symphony where the audience interacts with more than sound |work=[[Minnesota Public Radio]] |url=https://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/04/16_robertsc_nobel/ |location=[[St. Paul, Minnesota]] |access-date=2025-02-04 }}</ref><ref name="MPR20231002">{{cite web |url=https://www.yourclassical.org/episode/2023/10/02/steve-heitzegs-nobel-symphony |title=Composer's Datebook: Steve Heitzeg's "Nobel Symphony" |last= |first= |date=October 2, 2023 |website=Minnesota Public Radio |publisher= |access-date=2025-02-04}}</ref><ref name="OpusNobel">{{cite web |url=https://opusimprints.com/products/nobel-symphony-steve-heitzeg?variant=47268169515296 |title=Nobel Symphony – Steve Heitzeg |last= |first= |date= |website=Opus Imprints |publisher= |access-date=2025-02-04}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|History of Science|Norway|Sweden}}
<!-- Please keep entries in alphabetical order & add a short description per [[WP:SEEALSO]] -->
{{Div col|colwidth=20em}}
* [[List of Nobel laureates]]
** [[List of Asian Nobel laureates]]
** [[List of female Nobel laureates]]
** [[List of Jewish Nobel laureates]]
** [[List of Nobel laureates by country]]
** [[List of Nobel laureates by university affiliation]]
** [[List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry]]
** [[List of Nobel laureates in Literature]]
** [[List of Nobel laureates in Physics]]
** [[List of Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine]]
** [[List of Nobel Memorial Prize laureates in Economics]]
** [[List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates]]
* {{annotated link|Abel Prize}}
* {{annotated link|Fields Medal}}
* {{annotated link|Ig Nobel Prize}}
* {{annotated link|Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings}}
* [[List of prizes known as the Nobel of a field]]
* [[Lists of science and technology awards]]
* {{annotated link|Nobel Conference}}
* {{annotated link|Nobel Library}}
* {{annotated link|Nobel Prize effect}}
* [[Nobel Prize medal]]
* {{annotated link|Nobel Prize Museum}}
{{Div col end}}
<!-- Please keep entries in alphabetical order -->

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{Free-content attribution
| title = A Complex Formula: Girls and Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Asia
| author = UNESCO
| publisher = UNESCO
| page numbers = 23
| source = UNESCO
| documentURL = http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002315/231519e.pdf
| license statement URL = http://www.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?catno=231519&set=0058E24F98_1_192&gp=1&lin=1&ll=1
| license = CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
}}

==== Books ====
{{refbegin|40em}}
* {{cite book |last=Abrams |first=Irwin |title=The Nobel Peace Prize and the Laureates |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ny77bPwKxaUC |year=2001 |publisher=Watson Publishing International |isbn=978-0-88135-388-4 |ref=Abrams }}
* {{cite book |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth T. |title=The Beginnings of the Nobel Institution – The Science Prizes, 1901–1915 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EGfhs_tvjVYC |year=1984 |publisher=Maison des Sciences de l'Homme & [[Cambridge University Press]] |edition=First |isbn=978-0-521-26584-3 |ref=Crawford69 |access-date=18 November 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100253/https://books.google.com/books?id=EGfhs_tvjVYC |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xnckeeTICn0C |last=Feldman |first=Burton |title=The Nobel prize: a history of genius, controversy, and prestige |publisher=Arcade Publishing |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-55970-592-9 |ref=Feldman |access-date=18 November 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100249/https://books.google.com/books?id=xnckeeTICn0C |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Gribbin |first=John |title=In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality |year=1985 |publisher=Corgi |isbn=978-0-552-12555-0 |ref=Gribbin69 |title-link=In Search of Schrödinger's Cat}}
* {{cite book |last=Jones |first=Brenn |title=Learning about love from the life of Mother Teresa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bg6_1Ejy9r4C&q=Mother+Teresa+Nobel+banquet+cancelled |year=2003 |publisher=PowerKids Press |isbn=978-0-8239-5777-4 |ref=Jones |access-date=18 November 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100816/https://books.google.com/books?id=Bg6_1Ejy9r4C&q=Mother+Teresa+Nobel+banquet+cancelled |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Levinovitz |first=Agneta Wallin |title=The Nobel Prize: The First 100 Years |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QMSg5mRJiukC |editor=Nils Ringertz |year=2001 |publisher=[[Imperial College Press]] and [[World Scientific]] Publishing |isbn=978-981-02-4664-8 |ref=Levinovitz69 |access-date=18 November 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100744/https://books.google.com/books?id=QMSg5mRJiukC |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Leroy |first=Francis |title=A century of Nobel Prizes recipients: chemistry, physics, and medicine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8DjwaFWE4fYC |year=2003 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-0-8247-0876-4 |ref=Leroy |access-date=18 November 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100744/https://books.google.com/books?id=8DjwaFWE4fYC |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Shalev |first=Baruch Aba |title=100 years of Nobel prizes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PfRaPHr86XUC |year=2005 |publisher=The Americas Group |edition=Third |isbn=978-0-935047-37-0 |ref=Shalev69 |access-date=18 November 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100745/https://books.google.com/books?id=PfRaPHr86XUC |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Sohlman |first=Ragnar |title=The Legacy of Alfred Nobel – The Story Behind the Nobel Prizes |year=1983 |publisher=The Nobel Foundation |author-link=Ragnar Sohlman |ref=Sohlman69 }}
* {{cite book |last=Söderlind |first=Ulrica |title=The Nobel Banquet |year=2010 |publisher=World Scientific Publishing |ref=judia85 |doi=10.1142/7789 |isbn=978-981-4313-11-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Wilhelm |first=Peter |title=The Nobel Prize |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CNnZKHxQpO4C |year=1983 |publisher=Springwood Books |isbn=978-0-86254-111-8 |ref=Wilhelm69 |access-date=18 November 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100817/https://books.google.com/books?id=CNnZKHxQpO4C |url-status=live }}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book |last=Pais |first=Abraham |author-link=Abraham Pais |year=1983 |title=Subtle Is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein |title-link=Subtle Is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein |edition=Third |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-520438-4 |oclc=8195995 |ref=Pais69}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{Spoken Wikipedia|Nobel Prize by Dimitri O Ledenyov and Viktor O Ledenyov.ogg|date=2 November 2016}}
* {{Official website}}
* [https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/universities.html Nobel Prizes by universities and institutes]
*{{IMDb event|id=0002882}}

{{Nobel Prizes|state=expanded}}
{{2025 Nobel Prize winners}}
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