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.
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Nobel Prizes and Laureates
Between 1901 and 2019, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 597 times to 950 people and organizations.
See the list of all Nobel Prizes.
Twelve of the Nobel Laureates of 2019.
© Nobel Media. Photo: A. Mahmoud
Listen to Nobel Laureates
“I remember being told over and over again: Women, you can do anything, so it never entered my mind that I couldn’t”
In this interview 2018 Physics Laureate Donna Strickland talks about her early years, women in science, collaboration and about being awarded the Nobel Prize.
Esther Duflo: "People live in very different circumstances "
In 2019 Esther Duflo was awarded the Prize in Economic Sciences for her work fighting poverty. She was the second woman and youngest person to do so. In this interview she talks about how to increase the number of female economists, how economics and sustainability correlate and how India became her second home.
"I think sometimes of poems I have lost -
Maybe their loss it was that saved the world"
The 1986 Nobel Laureate in Literature Wole Soyinka reads his poem 'Lost Poems' from Samarkand and other markets I have known.
More about Wole Soyinka
Olga Tokarczuk: "The characters are coming from outside to my story"
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.
Nobel Prize conversations
Get the chance to know some of the individuals who have been awarded the Prize in Economic Sciences a little better. The Nobel Prize Conversations podcast series consists of ten programmes, easily-accessible conversations that delve into how these personalities found their research fields, how they view collaboration, curiosity and failure, and what keeps them going.
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
Discover more
According to Martin Chalfie his first experience with science ended badly because he was too afraid to ask for help.
Martin Chalfie addressing students at NPII Canada © Nobel Media. Photo: A. Mahmoud.
Throughout life we all rely on mentors to train us and guide us. It is a subject which many Nobel Laureates speak passionately about, pointing…
May-Britt Moser meeting students during a Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative event in partnership with AstraZeneca
© Nobel Media. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
Hard work has been part of every laureate’s journey towards the Nobel Prize. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi spent time in the lab on the morning of her…
Elizabeth Blackburn speaks at a Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative event
Coming up
This year’s Nobel Prize announcements will take place 5-12 October.
© Nobel Media AB. Photo: A. Mahmoud
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 ...
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.
Nobel Prize nominations
The Norwegian Nobel Committee received 318 candidates for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. 107 of these are organizations.
Olav Njølstad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, answers questions about the Nobel Peace Prize.
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.
Nobel Prizes 2019
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019 was awarded with one half to James Peebles “for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology” and the other half jointly to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.”
© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019 was awarded jointly to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino “for the development of lithium-ion batteries.”
© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2019 was awarded jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza “for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.”
© The Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén
The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018 is awarded to the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk “for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.”
Ill. Niklas Elmehed. © Nobel Media.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2019 was awarded to Peter Handke “for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience.”
Ill. Niklas Elmehed. © Nobel Media.
The Nobel Peace Prize 2019 was awarded to Abiy Ahmed Ali “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.”
Abiy Ahmed Ali.
Photo: Aron Simeneh, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019 was awarded jointly to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.”
© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Recently published
Nobel Prize Museum
On 2 July, the Nobel Prize Museum on Stortorget, the main square in Stockholm’s Old Town, will reopen under controlled conditions. New to the museum is a mini-exhibition about viruses, pandemics and the Nobel Prize. Visitors who cannot travel to the museum during the summer can also view the exhibition digitally.
© Nobel Media. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud.
Coming soon
Nobel Prize Concert 2020
The world-renowned pianist Igor Levit will be performing at this year's Nobel Prize Concert on 8 December. At his side, he will have conductor Stéphane Denève leading the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
Date for ticket release will be published later.
Igor Levit
Photo: Robbie Lawrence
News
Vidar Helgesen – Norway’s former State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister of European Affairs and Minister of Climate and the Environment – will become the new Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation at the beginning of 2021. He will thus assume the task of strengthening the long-term finances and position of the Nobel Prize as well as further developing public activities surrounding the Nobel Prize in Sweden, Norway and internationally.
Read an interview with Vidar Helgesen.
Vidar Helgesen
Photo: Bjørn Stuedal.
The Nobel Foundation is a private institution established in 1900. Tasked with a mission to manage Alfred Nobel's fortune, the foundation has ultimate responsibility for fulfilling the intentions of Nobel's will.
© Nobel Media. Photo: P. Frisk.
A new house for culture and science
The new center will be built at Slussen, with sweeping views of Stockholm harbour and the central city. For the past few years, Slussen has been undergoing a major renovation and reconfiguration. With its broad public activities, the Nobel Center will be an important piece of the puzzle in developing Slussen into a lively meeting place.
Slussen aerial
Image: Dbox/Foster and partner.
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Nobel destinations
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
In memoriam
Oliver E. Williamson passed away on 21 May. He was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2009 "for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm."
Theoretical physicists Philip W. Anderson has passed away aged 96. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems.
Betty Williams died on 17 March, age 76. She shared the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize with Mairead Corrigan for founding a peace organisation to bring an end to the bitter conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
Medicine Laureate Stanley Cohen passed away on 5 February. He shared the 1986 Medicine Prize for "discoveries of growth factors", discoveries which are of fundamental importance for our understanding of the mechanisms which regulate cell and organ growth.