On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his third and last will at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. When it was opened and read after his death, the will caused a lot of controversy.
Coming up
Alfred Nobel's will
Nobel Prize Conversations
Listen to a new and very unique podcast interview with literature laureate Wole Soyinka about his photographic memory, his creative process and the question of who he writes literature for.
Nobel Week 2021
Nobel Week 2021 takes place on 6–12 December in Stockholm and Oslo. This year’s festivities will be a mixture of digital and physical events. Many of the events will be streamed and possible to follow online. See the programme here.
Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Stockholm City Hall, 10 December 2020.
© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Dan Lepp
Nobel Prize Dialogue
Nobel Prize Dialogue Latin America and the Caribbean
United by Science brought science students from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean into conversation with Nobel Prize laureates to explore how science and scientists can most effectively make a positive impact on society.
Watch videos from the event in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
Watch videos from the event in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
Nobel Prizes 2021
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2021
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 was awarded “for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex systems” with one half jointly to Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann “for the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming” and the other half to Giorgio Parisi “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales.”
©Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021 was awarded jointly to Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.”
©Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021 was awarded jointly to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.”
© The Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2021
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 was awarded to Abdulrazak Gurnah “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”
Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach.
The Nobel Peace Prize 2021
The Nobel Peace Prize 2021 was awarded jointly to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”
Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach.
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2021
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2021 was divided, one half awarded to David Card “for his empirical contributions to labour economics”, the other half jointly to Joshua D. Angrist and Guido W. Imbens “for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships.”
©Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Discover Nobel Prize lessons
Discover more about the Nobel Prizes with the easy-to-use Nobel Prize lessons. Watch the videos, look through the manual and slides, print the texts for students and start the class.
© Nobel Media. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
News
It is now clear that the soloist at this year’s Nobel Prize concert, acclaimed Argentina-born cellist Sol Gabetta, will share the stage with American conductor Ryan Bancroft. Tickets to the 8 December concert in Stockholm are on sale at Konserthuset Stockholm.
Konserthuset Stockholm
Photo: Mats Lundqvist.
Nobel Prize facts
See the full list of all Nobel Prize laureates, awarded for “the greatest benefit to humankind”.
Twelve laureates were awarded Nobel Prizes in 2020. See a short presentation of them here.
See the list of all women awarded a Nobel Prize or a prize in economic sciences so far.
Youngest Nobel Prize laureate ever is Malala Yousafzai. She was 17 years old when she was awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
Explore prizes and laureates
Alfred Nobel – Established the Nobel Prizes
Chemist, engineer and industrialist Alfred Nobel left 31 million SEK (today about 342 million dollars) to fund the Nobel Prizes.
When Alfred was five years old his father Immanuel, an inventor and builder, moved to St. Petersburg. Alfred joined him a few years later.
Based on Alfred’s work and patents a whole new industry developed. Within ten years, 16 explosives producing factories had been founded in 14 countries.
In his will of 27 November 1895, signed in Paris, Alfred Nobel specified that the bulk of his fortune should be used for prizes.
Questions and answers
Do you have questions about the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Prize laureates? Find answers to the most commonly asked questions in the FAQ.
Nobel Prize nominations
No person can nominate herself/himself for a Nobel Prize. But who can? And how are these persons chosen?
In his last will and testament, Alfred Nobel specifically designated the institutions responsible for the prizes he wished to be established.
Search among the names of the nominees and nominators, as well as additional information about the nominations 1901-1966.
Mohandas Gandhi has become the strongest symbol of non-violence in the 20th century. He was nominated several times, but was never awarded the prize. Why?
Recently published
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Nobel destinations
Stockholm, Sweden
The museum showcases the discoveries and creativity of the Nobel Prize laureates.
Photo: Åke Eson Lindman
Oslo, Norway
The story of each peace laureate is told at the museum.
Photo: Johannes Granseth/Nobel Peace Center
In memoriam
Former South-African president Frederik Willem de Klerk was awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for
"work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa." 
Physics Laureate Antony Hewish passed away on 13 September, aged 97. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1974 for his pioneering research in radio astrophysics and the studies that led to detecting pulsars.
Edmond H. Fischer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1992 for discoveries concerning reversible phosphorylation, opening up novel insight into basic protein regulations in cells. He passed away on 27 August.
Toshihide Maskawa passed away on 23 July 2021. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2008 for “the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature.”
