How do you deal with failure?
In this new podcast episode Chemistry Laureate Robert Lefkowitz speaks about the inevitable part of doing science. He shares his experience of being a top student that all of sudden needed to deal with failure. He also speaks about the importance of mentoring and how crucial collaboration is for scientific development.
In 2016 Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."
Listen to Bob Dylan's full Nobel Lecture, recorded on 4 June 2017
Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature "for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life." In this interview she talks about her childhood, the road to becoming a Nobel Prize-awarded author, her love of fairytales and the process of writing.
Emmanuelle Charpentier shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Jennifer Doudna for discovering one of gene technology’s sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. Using these genetic scissors, researchers can edit the genome of practically all living things.
2020 Chemistry Laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier in the laboratory.
Copyright © Hallbauer und Fioretti
With an ingenious idea and years of subsequent work, Frances Arnold turned bioengineering upside down. She pioneered the use of directed evolution to design enzymes, with applications as broad as they are essential, from drugs to renewable fuels.
Chemistry Laureate Frances Arnold in the laboratory
Photo kindly provided by Caltech
“Captured for life by chemistry and by crystals,” as she described it, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin turned a childhood interest in crystals into the ground-breaking use of X-ray crystallography to “see” the molecules of penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin. Explore the life of this remarkable woman.
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Andrea Ghez was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.” Get to know her in this podcast episode.
Photo: Andrea Ghez
Many Nobel Laureates have often faced times of enormous disruption. Rita Levi-Montalcini faced many challenges on her road to the Nobel Prize. Born in Italy in 1909, her father did not believe in professional careers for women and did not let his daughters enroll at university. But Levi-Montalcini insisted on studying. The long road to the Nobel Prize included having to build a laboratory in her bedroom during World War II.
Rita Levi-Montalcini
© Nobel Media
“I was not always the best student with the highest grades, but my teachers saw something in me and tried to encourage me.” Medicine Laureate May-Britt Moser grew up in a small town on the west coast of Norway. Later, she would uncover one of the biggest mysteries of our brain - how we know where we are and how we navigate from one place to another.
Laureate May-Britt Moser in the laboratory
Photo: Geir Mo
Here is a digital resource to encourage the next generation of women into science. The remarkable scientists represented in this experience are each as unique as her contribution to scientific knowledge, but all possess common traits: creativity, vision, passion and – perhaps most importantly – persistence.
Read the statement here.
Aung San Suu Kyi
Photo: Sara Johannessen
Any person or organization can be nominated by anyone eligible to nominate for a Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has no say in submissions that arrives according to the criteria, strictly in who is actually awarded the prize in October.
Learn more about the nomination process of the Nobel Peace Prize in a Q&A with Olav Njølstad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute.
The nomination process for Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.
© Nobel Media. Ill. Niklas Elmehed
Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s Nobel Lecture.
Martin Luther King Jr. held his acceptance speech in the auditorium of the University of Oslo in Norway on 10 December 1964.
The first nomination arrived to the Norwegian Nobel Committee in January 1963. Not until 2014, the nominators were revealed.
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.
The 2020 Nobel Laureates talk about their research and careers in a unique roundtable discussion, 'Nobel Minds', moderated by Cecilia Gralde. They are discussing the theories, discoveries and research behind their awards, and the value of science in dealing with the global pandemic.
Participating Nobel Laureates: Physics laureate Andrea Ghez, Chemistry laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier, Medicine laureate Michael Houghton, Assistant Executive-Director Valerie Guarnieri representing Peace Prize laureate World Food Programme and laureate in Economic Sciences Paul Milgrom.
The world-renowned pianist Igor Levit performed at the 2020 Nobel Prize Concert on 8 December. At his side, he had conductor Stéphane Denève leading the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
Igor Levit and Stéphane Denève at Konsterthuset Stockholm, Sweden, on 8 December 2020.
© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Niklas Elmehed
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 was awarded with one half to Roger Penrose “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity" and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy".
© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing”.
© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020 was awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus”.
© The Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 was awarded to the American poet Louise Glück “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal”.
© Nobel Media. Ill. Niklas Elmehed.
The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 was awarded to the World Food Programme (WFP) for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.
© Nobel Media. Ill. Niklas Elmehed.
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2020 was awarded to Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats”.
© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
From genetic editing to combatting world hunger. An unmistakable poetic voice to black holes. New treatments for hepatitis C to the quest for the perfect auction. Now you can bring the discoveries and achievements made by the 2020 Nobel Laureates into the classroom.
The lessons are free and so easy to use that a teacher can look through the manual, watch the slides, print the texts for students and then start the class.
The Nobel Prize Medal
Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
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 ...
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.
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.
What are you looking for? Search the website.
The museum showcases the discoveries and creativity of the Nobel Laureates.
Photo: Åke Eson Lindman
The story of each Peace Laureate is told at the museum.
Photo: Johannes Granseth / Nobel Peace Center
Chemistry Laureate Paul J. Crutzen passed away on 28 January. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for work in atmospheric chemistry, a work that led to extensive limitations on the release of ozone-damaging substances.
Martinus J.G. Veltman, was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics for contributions concerning electromagnetic and weak interactions of the building blocks of matter. He passed away on 4 January at age 89.
Physicist Jack Steinberger passed away on 12 December. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988 after managing to create a beam of neutrinos using a high-energy accelerator.
Masatoshi Koshiba passed away on 12 November. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2002 "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos."
