Hero Nobel will quote

Nobel Prize awarded discoveries

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017
“The most enjoyable part of science is doing it. It is sometimes very hard, sometimes very frustrating but extremely rewarding when you suddenly understand something.”

In the 1970s astrophysicist Kip Thorne was one of the pioneering scientists who believed that gravitational waves – ripples in space-time caused by massive events like two black holes colliding – could be detected. Achieving that goal took almost five decades, a collaboration of more than 1,000 scientists and a lot of hard – and fun – work. But their detection, on 14 September 2015, opened up a whole new way to see, and understand our universe.
Kip Thorne, Ron Drever and Robbie Vogt, the first director of LIGO in 1990

Kip Thorne, Ron Drever and Robbie Vogt, the first director of LIGO, in 1990.

Credit: Caltech Archives

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1981
Medicine laureate Torsten Wiesel studied the visual process and disclosed the most well guarded secret of the brain: the way brain cells decode messages from the eyes. Listen to Torsten Wiesel explaining his research
Torsten N. Wiesel during the interview

Podcast series

Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022
“As an economist, I’m looking at that number and trying to think about how it fits into a broader economic picture. But on the other hand, having grown up in a small town, not a very rich town, economically very stressed place I could think about the real families, real people that those numbers represented. That was important to me.”

Meet economist Ben Bernanke in this new podcast episode. Bernanke tells us about his childhood and how he took part in spelling competitions in school.
Ben Bernanke

Photo: Stefan Bladh

Nobel Prize Summit 2023

How can we build trust in truth, facts and scientific evidence so that we can create a hopeful future for all?

Nobel Prize Summit brought together laureates, leading experts and the general public in a conversation on how we can combat disinformation, restore trust in science and create a hopeful future.

Read more and watch the recorded events here
Iluustration

Laureates share their stories

Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1994
“In that November the Nazi authorities finally decided to deport my labour unit from Budapest to an Austrian concentration camp, where most of my comrades eventually perished”.

Read John Harsanyi’s inspiring life story in which he fled from Hungary during the Nazi occupation and started a new life in Australia. Harsanyi was awarded the prize in economic sciences in 1994 for his work in game theory and its application to economics.
John C. Harsanyi

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009
“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
“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
“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

Enjoy some poetry

Nobel Prize in Literature 2020

"The great thing is not having a mind …"

Literature laureate Louise Glück reads her poem ‘The Red Poppy’ from her book The Wild Iris. Glück was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”

Read more poems by Louise Glück
‘The Red Poppy’ from THE WILD IRIS by Louise Glück
Copyright © 1992, Louise Glück. All rights reserved.

Nobel Prizes 2022

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022
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
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.

Nobel Peace Prize

News

Watch the documentary series

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.

Into the fire - image

Nobel 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.

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

Questions and answers

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.

The Nobel Prize medal.

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Clément Morin.

Discover Nobel Prize lessons

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.
2022 Nobel Prizes

Illustrations: Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, The Nobel Committe for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén and Niklas Elmehed. © Nobel Prize Outreach

Explore prizes and laureates

Alfred Nobel – Established the Nobel Prize

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

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.

Play a game!

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1930
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
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

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Nobel destinations

Stockholm, Sweden
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
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

Harald zur Hausen passed away on 28 May, age 87. In the 1970s, he went against current dogma and postulated that oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) caused cervical cancer. His work led to the development of a vaccine against the disease. In 2008, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Harald zur Hausen
Robert Lucas Jr. passed away on 15 May 2023, age 85. He was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1995 in 1995 for having developed and applied the hypothesis of rational expectations, and thereby having transformed macroeconomic analysis and deepened our understanding of economic policy.
Robert E. Lucas Jr.
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.”
Kenzaburo Oe