Syrians crossing the border to Turkey. Photo: UNHCR/I. Pricket, via Wikimedia Commons.
Every year on 20 June, the United Nations highlights 'World Refugee Day' - to commemorate the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of refugees. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, works to protect the rights and well-being of refugees all over the world.
Read more about the UNHCR, twice awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
PEACE PRIZE 1958
Belgian Dominican friar Georges Pire supported Belgian resistance during World War II. He helped refugees to leave their camps and return to a life of freedom and dignity and later founded an organization to help refugee families.
More about Georges Pire
PEACE PRIZE 1922
Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen worked tirelessly on behalf of refugees and introduced the "Nansen passport" to help stateless refugees cross national borders.
Read more about Fridtjof Nansen and his work
CHEMISTRY PRIZE 1998
Walter Kohn recalls how his entire family was totally uprooted, destabilised and maltreated during the Nazi takeover in Austria.
Watch Walter Kohn tell his story
PHYSICS PRIZE 1988
Jack Steinberger remembers how he and his brother were sent to the US as German refugee children.
See the video clip with Jack Steinberger
ECONOMIC SCIENCES PRIZE 1994
Reinhard Selten and his family left Breslau on one of the last trains before all outbound railway traffic stopped.
Read Richard Selten's story
CHEMISTRY PRIZE 2013
After fleeing from the Nazis, young Martin Karplus and his family arrived to an interim home for refugee families in Boston, US.
Read Martin Karplus biography
MEDICINE PRIZE 2000
Austrian Eric Kandel had to flee to the United States in 1939.
Read Eric Kandel's storyNelly Sachs was helped by Nobel Prize awarded Selma Lagerlöf to flee from Nazi Germany to Sweden in 1940.
Read Nelly Sachs' speech at the Nobel Banquet
LITERATURE PRIZE 1966
This year's Nobel Prize announcements will take place 1-8 October. The Swedish Academy has decided to postpone the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, with the intention of awarding it in 2019.
PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE - Monday 1 October, 11:30 a.m. at the earliest
PHYSICS - Tuesday 2 October, 11:45 a.m. at the earliest
CHEMISTRY - Wednesday 3 October, 11:45 a.m. at the earliest
PEACE - Friday 5 October, 11:00 a.m.
ECONOMIC SCIENCES - Monday 8 October, 11:45 a.m. at the earliest
Times listed are local time in Sweden (CET).
More infomation
The Nobel Foundation supports the Swedish Academy's decision to postpone the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The awarding of the 2018 Nobel Prizes in other prize categories will not be impacted by this decision.
Read the press release
Photo: Sammy Hart
Lisa Batiashvili, praised for her virtuosity and profound sensitivity, will be this years soloist at the 2018 Nobel Prize Concert. Tickets go on sale on 16 May at konserthuset.se.
More about the concert
Between 1901 and 2017, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 585 times to 923 people and organizations.
The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 27 times to organizations.
See the list of awarded organizations
The Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to women 49 times between 1901 and 2017.
Youngest Nobel Laureate ever is Malala Yousafzai. She was 17 years old when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
All Nobel Laureates by age
Under the most dangerous circumstances, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education. She was awarded the 2014 Peace Prize.
Watch or read her Nobel Lecture
Fairly unknown in Europe at the time, Bengali poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore attracted western readers with his aura of mysticism.
Tagore and his India
Human blood groups were discovered in 1901 by Karl Landsteiner, later awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
More on Karl Landsteiner
Although famed for his theory of general relativity, it was his law about light that gave Albert Einstein the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Questions and answers about Albert Einstein
Marie Curie was a Nobel Laureate of many firsts: the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize, the first person to be awarded the Prize twice and still the only person to receive the Prize in two different scientific fields.
Watch a glimpse of her in this video
Frederick Sanger was awarded his first Nobel Prize in Chemistry for determining the structure of proteins, in particular, insulin. In 1980, he was another a second prize.
Watch a video about Frederick Sanger
© Nobel Media AB. Photo: Pi Frisk
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 both in Sweden and internationally, as Alfred Nobel had left much of his wealth for the establishment of a prize.
Learn more about Alfred Nobel
© David Chipperfield Architects
Nobel Center is to be built on Blasieholmen, on a wonderful site along Stockholm's central waterfront.
Read more about the Nobel Center
Pioneering genome scientist Sir John Sulston has passed away at the age of 75. He shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries which contributed to the understanding of how genes control cell division and cell death in organisms.
Biography
Richard E. Taylor passed away on 22 February, age 88. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1990 for investigations that found clear signs that there exists an inner structure in the protons and neutrons of the atomic nucleus.
Biography of Richard E. Taylor
Medicine Laureate and molecular biologist Günter Blobel passed away on 18 February. Blobel discovered that newly made proteins in living cells are provided with an "address tag" in order to be directed to the right location in the body.
Autobiograhy of Günter Blobel
Nicolaas Bloembergen shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics for the study of atomic systems using laser light. He passed away on 5 September at age 97.
Nicolaas Bloembergen's autobiography
