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Nobel Prize awarded discoveries

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1995

“If we work together we all end up having a better world”

Mario Molina was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for demonstrating that CFC gases were damaging the ozone layer.
After showing the damage that CFCs cause, Molina helped develop the Montreal Protocol which banned their use worldwide. Today, thanks to his work, we have managed to reverse this depletion and the ozone layer is recovering.

Mario Molina at Nobel Week Dialogue 2013.

© Nobelprize Outreach. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud

Featured Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020

"Science was my stability"

What do you need in order to become a scientist? How do you become creative? How is a scientist’s life affected by being awarded prizes? Meet 2020 chemistry laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier in an intimate and reflective podcast conversation

2020 chemistry laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier in the laboratory.

Copyright © Hallbauer und Fioretti

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2006

“You’ve got to break the rules”

During his career, Fraser Stoddart has broken rules and, on occasions, upset the research establishment. His journey started outside Edinburgh, Scotland, where he spent his early years working at the family farm, feeding the animals and later mending farm machinery.

Sir Fraser Stoddart in his lab. Copyright © Nobel Media AB 2017. Photo: Rasmus Lundgren — Sir Fraser Stoddart in his lab.

Photo: Rasmus Lundgren

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021

Their tools revolutionised the construction of molecules

Benjamin List and David MacMillan developed a new and ingenious tool for molecule building: organocatalysis. This has had a great impact on pharmaceutical research, and has made chemistry greener.

Benjamin List and David MacMillan at the Nobel Prize award ceremony — Chemistry laureates Benjamin List and David MacMillan.

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Nanaka Adachi

Who did what?

How many chemistry laureates can you match?

Can you match the right chemistry laureate with the right discovery? Have a try!

Nobel Prize laureates share their thoughts

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022

“If you learned something from it, it’s not a failure”

Karolinska Institutet student Sofia Iskrak met 2022 chemistry laureate Carolyn Bertozzi to ask her pressing questions, including what Bertozzi was like as a student, her favourite science-themed reads, and her advice for students who are thinking of pursuing science.

Truth, Trust and Hope

Nobel Prize Summit 2023

Join this years’ Nobel Prize Summit

We live in a world of interconnected crises: emerging pandemics and health emergencies, inflationary and monetary pressures, war, climate change and increased stresses on society and the environment. The volume, velocity and reach of disinformation in today’s world weaken public deliberation and undermine trust in scientists, the institutions and governments they serve – and democracy itself.

Join the Nobel Foundation and U.S. National Academy of Sciences online or in-person for the Nobel Prize Summit: Truth, Trust and Hope from 24-26 May 2023. Registration is now open.

News

2023 Nobel Prize announcements

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements will take place 2–9 October.

See the full schedule

Women who changed the world

Inspirational women

Literary mastery, pioneering science, life-saving discoveries and actions for peace and human rights – achievements of women around the world awarded the Nobel Prize.

Read more about the awarded women

Nobel Prize awarded work

Nobel Peace Prize 2022

"It just so happens that people who value freedom the most are often deprived of it"

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski has long advocated for fundamental human rights, democracy and freeing the political prisoners in Belarusian jails. Read his Nobel Peace Prize lecture here.

Portrait of Ales Bialiatski.

Foto: HRC Vesna

Watch the documentary series

Five documentaries inspired by the Nobel Peace Prize

A team of female Yazidi deminers in Iraq attempting to clear their land of mines left behind by ISIS. A team of scientists on an extraordinary mission in Mozambique to help better our understanding of climate change. A man building prosthetic legs to help victims of war walk again in South Sudan … All are inspired by Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

Questions and answers

What are the Nobel Prize categories?

The Nobel Prize categories are physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace and were laid out in the will of Alfred Nobel. Find out more in the FAQ.

The Nobel Prize medal.

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Clément Morin.

Nobel Prize nominations

2023 Nobel Peace Prize nominations

The Norwegian Nobel Committee received 305 candidates for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. 93 of these are organisations.

Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony 2021. — Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony 2021 in the Oslo City Hall in Norway.

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Geir Anders Rybakken Ørslien.

Are the nominations made public?

Did you know that there is no public list of the current year’s nominees for the peace prize? The complete list of nominees of any year’s prizes is not disclosed for 50 years. The same goes for all the prize categories. Learn more about the nomination process in a this Q&A.

Peace Prize nomination process — The nomination process for Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

© Nobel Media. Ill. Niklas Elmehed

Nobel Prizes 2022

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022

How entanglement has become a powerful tool

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 was awarded jointly to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.”

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022

Their functional chemistry works wonders

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 was awarded jointly to Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.”

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022

Sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022 was awarded to Svante Pääbo “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.”

Denisova, Neanderthal and H. sapiens — © The Nobel Committe for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2022

Exploring the role of memory in our lives

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2022 was awarded to Annie Ernaux “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory.”

Annie Ernaux.jpg — Credit: Annie Ernaux/ Photo: Catherine Hélie, Gallimard.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2022

Documenting war crimes, human rights abuses and the abuse of power

The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties.

Nobel Peace Prize 2022 — Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022

Their discoveries improved how society deals with financial crises

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022 was awarded jointly to Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig “for research on banks and financial crises.”

Discover Nobel Prize lessons

Reliable and easy to use

Bring the 2022 Nobel Prizes into the classroom! The lessons are free and easy to use right away with ready-made slide shows, a speaker’s manuscripts and student assignments.

The 2022 prizes range from research on quantum mechanics and research on human evolution to documenting war crimes and the role of banks in financial crises.

Alfred Nobel – Established the Nobel Prize

Alfred Nobel's last will

On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will in Paris, France. The Swedish dynamite millionaire, who thought that his invention would end all wars, had now realised that it was a very deadly product. Wanting to make amends, he did what no man of such wealth had done before …

The very first Nobel Prizes

On 10 December 1901 the first Nobel Prizes were awarded, in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. Read more about the first prizes.

The first Nobel Prize Award Ceremony was held in 1901 at the Royal Academy of Music, Stockholm.

Alfred Nobel – scientist and inventor

Chemist, engineer and industrialist Alfred Nobel left 31 million SEK (today about 265 million dollar) to fund the Nobel Prizes. Read more about his life and work.

A bust of Alfred Nobel, surrounded by a beautiful wall of flowers

Play a game!

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1930

The Blood Typing Game

How much do you know about blood types? Did you know that human blood groups were discovered by Nobel Prize laureate Karl Landsteiner in 1901?

Learn more about the way to find out about the human blood groups, blood typing and the importance of safe blood transfusions. See if you can save the lives of the patients in the game!

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1904

Pavlov's Dog

Is it possible to train a dog to drool on command? Learn about conditioned reflexes in this interactive game!

With this animated game, teachers are able to illustrate classical conditioning in the classroom. The object of the game is to train Pavlov’s dog to respond to a signal that it will associate with being fed.

In 1904, Ivan Pavlov was awarded with Nobel Prize for his pioneering studies of how the digestive system works.

Try a puzzle

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019

What did they discover?

The discovery of the 2019 chemistry laureates have a huge everyday impact for us. But what did they discover?

Try the puzzle and find out

Nobel destinations

Stockholm, Sweden

Nobel Prize Museum

The Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, illustrates a century of creativity, where visitors can follow the changes of the 20th century through the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Prize laureates.

The Nobel Prize: Ideas Changing the World (3) — The museum showcases the discoveries and creativity of the Nobel Prize laureates.

Photo: Åke Eson Lindman

Oslo, Norway

Nobel Peace Center

Located in the heart of Oslo, Norway, the Nobel Peace Center is a place where you can experience and learn about the various Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

NPC Nye Nobels Hage 10 — The story of each peace laureate is told at the museum.

Photo: Johannes Granseth/Nobel Peace Center

In memoriam

Kenzaburo Oe passes away at 88

Japanese author Kenzaburo Oe passed away on 3 March 2023. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1994 with the motivation “who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today.”

Paul Berg, first constructor of a recombinant-DNA molecule, dies

Paul Berg passed away on 15 February, age 96. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1980 “for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA”.

Physicist K. Alex Müller dies

K. Alexander Müller was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1987 for the discovery of new superconducting materials He passed away on 9 January, age 95.

Edward C. Prescott 1940‒2022

Edward C. Prescott passed away on 6 November 2022, age 81. He was awarded the 2004 prize in economic sciences for his contributions to dynamic macroeconomics. The work influenced the monetary and fiscal policies of governments and laid the basis for the increased independence of many central banks.

“The court case and verdict against Belarus human rights activist Ales Bialiatski are a tragedy"

Truth, Trust and Hope

Watch the Nobel Prize lectures

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