Hero Nobel will quote

Happy birthday!

Nobel Peace Prize 2008

"Wars and conflicts are not inevitable"

“Wars and conflicts are not inevitable. They are caused by human beings. There are always interests that are furthered by war. Therefore those who have power and influence can also stop them”.

Martti Ahtisaari, 85 years today, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his great efforts to resolve international conflicts.

Ahtisaari in negotiations. — Martti Ahtisaari takes part in negotiations in Namibia, 1989.

© Eeva and Martti Ahtisaari

Nobel Prize Conversations

Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2021

”It is very good at developing good work habits”

What can you learn from playing chess? In this podcast episode, Guido Imbens tells us about the beauty of chess and what he learnt from the game as a young boy. Furthermore, he tells us about how playing helped him shut the world out and so he could just sink into one problem: “It is very good at developing good work habits.”

Portrait of Guido W. Imbens. — Portrait of Guido W. Imbens.

Photo: Andrew Brodhead, Stanford University.

Nobel Prize laureates share their stories

Nobel Prize in Literature 2021

“There are certain moments I think that never, never go away”

2021 literature laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah’s literature often focuses on the journeys and lives of refugees and people whose countries were occupied by colonialists. In this interview he tells us more about his literature and his own journey to the Nobel Prize.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009

Ada Yonath: "Already at five, I was actively investigating the world"

“In one of my experiments I tried to measure the height of our tiny balcony using the furniture from inside the apartment. I put a table on another table, and a stool on top …”

Ada Yonath with dishes used for crystallization experiments — Ada E. Yonath with dishes used for crystallization experiments.

Credits: Micheline Pelletier/Corbis,

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2018

James P. Allison: "I can’t help but cry whenever I tell this story"

“I can’t help but cry whenever I tell this story. My meeting with Sharon was my first experience of how years of research as a basic scientist could have an impact on patients.”

Honjo and Allison's meeting with cancer survivors (2) — Tasuku Honjo and James P. Allison's meeting with cancer survivors

© Nobel Media. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud

Nobel Prize in Physics 2018

Donna Strickland: “I have always loved going to school"

“I have always loved going to school. I was one of those rare kids who was happy to have summer vacation over so I could go back to school. I started this love affair with school at Victory Public School.”

Donna Strickland in the laboratory — Donna Strickland in the laboratory.

Courtesy of University of Waterloo

Artefacts that help tell the stories of the Nobel Prize laureates

Physics laureate Syukuro Manabe donates one of his ties, decorated with penguins and polar bears

Swipe left and right to see more photos

1 (of 5) Syukuro Manabe presenting his gift to the Nobel Prize Museum’s collection when visiting Stockholm, Sweden, on 14 June 2022: one of his ties, decorated with penguins and polar bears − animals that are greatly affected by climate change.

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Clément Morin

Economic sciences laureate David Card donates a magnetic tape to the Nobel Prize Musuem

Swipe left and right to see more photos

2 (of 5) David Card presenting his gift to the Nobel Prize Museum’s collection when visiting Stockholm, Sweden, on 14 June 2022: a magnetic tape that he had used in his prize-awarded research.

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Clément Morin

Chemistry laureate David W.C. MacMillan signs a chair

Swipe left and right to see more photos

3 (of 5) Like many Nobel Prize laureates before him, David MacMillan autographed a chair at the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, on 14 June 2022.

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Clément Morin

Economic sciences laureate Christopher A. Sims donate a book

Swipe left and right to see more photos

4 (of 5) Christopher A. Sims presenting his gift to the Nobel Prize Museum’s collection when visiting Stockholm, Sweden, on 14 June 2022: a book containing a collection of lectures that his grandfather delivered at Columbia University.

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Clément Morin

David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) signed a chair to the Nobel Prize Musuem

Swipe left and right to see more photos

5 (of 5) As is tradition, David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), signed a chair at the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, on 14 June 2022.

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Clément Morin

The Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, has a growing collection of donated artefacts related to the laureates. A tie, a book and a magnetic tape were donated when five Nobel Prize laureates paid a visit on 14 June 2022. Those laureates who had not been to the museum before also took the opportunity to sign a chair for the museum’s Bistro Nobel.

Watch the documentary ‘Lost and Found’

“If they lose a child, it is like a double persecution”

In the chaos of the world’s largest refugee camp, Kamal Hussein is a beacon of hope. From his small ramshackle hut, and armed only with a microphone, he has taken it upon himself to try and reunite the thousands of Rohingya families who have been torn apart by violence and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. However, in finding lost family members and bringing them back together, he is not just helping them. He is also finding peace for himself.

Kamal’s work is funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1981.

The video is available all over the world, apart from in Australia, New Zealand and India.

Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize 1905

"One of the eternal truths is that happiness is created and developed in peace"

Baroness Bertha von Suttner, the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, wrote one of the nineteenth century’s most influential books, the anti-war novel Lay Down Your Arms (1889). She became a close friend of Alfred Nobel’s in the 1870s, and they corresponded for years on the subject of peace.

Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner, née Countess Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau — Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Nobel Peace Prize 2021

"We are journalists, and our mission is clear – to distinguish between facts and fiction"

In his Nobel Prize lecture, Dmitry Muratov spoke about journalists’ role in society. Muratov received the award for his efforts to to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.

Dmitry Muratov delivers his Nobel Lecture — Dmitry Muratov delivers his Nobel Prize lecture.

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Jo Straube.

Coming up

Nobel Prize Conversations – in dialogue

IMAGINATION AT WORK

Madrid, 7 July 2022

Book excerpts

Enjoy some reading

On nobelprize.org, you can find excerpts from many of our literature laureates’ literary works such as Olga Tokarczuk’s book Flights, Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude and Wisława Szymborska’s poem ‘The Three Oddest Words’.

Enjoy some excerpts from books or poems written by literature laureates. Discover all the excerpts here.

Books — © Nobel Media. Photo: A. Mahmoud

Recently published

News

2022 Nobel Prize Concert

Soprano Diana Damrau soloist at the Nobel Prize Concert

Bringing extra star power to this year’s Nobel Prize Concert on 8 December will be German soprano Diana Damrau. Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck will lead the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the concert.

German soprano Diana Damrau — Soprano Diana Damrau

Photo: Jürgen Frank

New Nobel Center takes the next step

The Nobel Foundation has announced that funding has been secured to build the Nobel Center − a home for science, culture and dialogue to be located at Slussen in central Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Center will offer a broad range of public activities including exhibitions, school programmes, lectures and conversations about the major issues of the future.

Read more here

Illustration of the view from inside the Nobel Center — Illustration of the view from inside the Nobel Center.

Illustration: TMRW.inc

2022 Nobel Prizes

2022 Nobel Prize announcements

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements will take place 3–10 October.

See the full schedule

Announcement dates

Nobel Prize nominations

2022 Nobel Peace Prize nominations

The Norwegian Nobel Committee received 343 candidates for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. 92 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 Q&A with Olav Njølstad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

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

© Nobel Media. Ill. Niklas Elmehed

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!

Blood typing 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.

Pavlov's Dog Game

Play a game!

Meet Nobel Peace Prize laureates in Minecraft

Discover the stories of four peace laureates – Malala Yousafzai, Wangari Maathai, Dalai Lama and Fridtjof Nansen – in the new Minecraft universe ‘Active Citizen’.

The game is available in 29 languages and has been created in partnership with Nobel Peace Center, Minecraft: Education Edition and Games for Change. Play the game at Nobel Peace Center

Active citizen game

Nobel Prizes 2021

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2021

They found hidden patterns in the climate and in other complex phenomena

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.”

Globe — ©Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021

Their tools revolutionised the construction of molecules

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021 was awarded jointly to Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.”

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021 — ©Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021

Discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch

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

An unending exploration driven by intellectual passion

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.”

Abdulrazak Gurnah — Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2021

For their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression

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

Natural experiments help answer important questions

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

Nobel Prize lessons

Easy to use lessons about the 2021 Nobel Prizes

Now you can bring the achievements made by the 2021 Nobel Prize laureates into the classroom! The lessons are so easy to use that a teacher can look through the guide, watch the slides, print the texts for students and then start the class.

Nobel Medal — The Nobel Prize medal

Photo: Alexander Mahmoud

Explore prizes and laureates

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 …

Alfred Nobel Will

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

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

Ben R. Mottelson 1926‒2022

Physics laureate Ben R. Mottelson passed away on 13 May, age 95. He was awarded the Nobel Prize “for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection”.

Ben Roy Mottelson

Sidney Altman passes away at 82

Molecular biologist Sidney Altman passed away on 5 April. He was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the the unexpected discovery that RNA is not only a molecule of heredity in living cells, but also can serve as a biocatalyst.

Sidney Altman

Discoverer of HIV virus Luc Montagnier dies

Virologist Luc Montagnier was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008 for the discovery of human immunodeficiency virus. He passed away on 8 February, age 89.

Luc Montagnier

Former archbishop Desmond Tutu passes away

Desmond Tutu, awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize “for his role as a unifying leader figure in the non-violent campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa”, passed away on 26 December aged 90.

Desmond Tutu