27 January is an international memorial day for the victims of the Holocaust. Literature Laureate Imre Kertèsz survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and spoke about it in his Nobel Banquet speech.
Remembering the Holocaust
Chemistry Laureate Avram Hershko's grandparents perished in the Holocaust, but he and his parents had better luck.
Literature Laureate Nelly Sachs could escape from the concentration camp in 1940, thanks to her penfriend, Swedish author and Nobel Laureate Selma Lagerlöf, and Prince Eugen of Sweden.
In this interview, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel talks about his perspectives on the world after World War II and remembers his time in concentration camp.
Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent campaign against racism. "He is the first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence", said the Chairman of the Nobel Committee in his presentation speech.
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Martin Luther King Jr. held his acceptance speech in the auditorium of the University of Oslo in Norway on 10 December 1964. Watch or read the speech.
"Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it."
When was Martin Luther King, Jr. born? What sort of discrimination did he fight against?
Learn more about Martin Luther King.
Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, via Wikimedia Commons.
Nobel Prize Lessons
Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and work are a fascinating part of an important stage of 20th-century history. His ideas extend far beyond his own time and the society in which he lived. Discrimination and conflicts because of skin colour or ethnicity manifest themselves in a variety of contexts in our own world.
Check out this Nobel Prize Lesson - ready to use in the classroom.
Martin Luther King Jr. marching past Browns Chapel in Selma, Alabama.
Photo © Flip Schulke/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Nobel Minds 2019
Nobel Laureates in discussion
The 2019 Nobel Laureates met at the old Stockholm Stock Exchange Building (Börshuset) in Gamla stan, Stockholm for the traditional round-table discussion and TV program 'Nobel Minds'. The laureates talked about their research, what drives them and their visions for the future. The discussion was hosted by the BBC's Zeinab Badawi.
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
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.
'Lost and Found'
Watch the new documentary ‘Lost and Found’
The film follows Kamal Hussein, a Rohingya refugee in the world’s largest refugee camp who has dedicated his life to reuniting children with their parents, with the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This National Geographic Documentary Film is the result of a partnership between the Nobel Prize and Academy Award-winning director Orlando von Einsiedel (‘The White Helmets’).
The video is available all over the world, apart from in the following countries: Spain, Australia, India, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, South Sudan, Tunisia, Mauritania, all of the Middle East.
What are you looking for? Search the website.
Nobel destinations
Stockholm, Sweden
The museum showcases the discoveries and creativity of the Nobel Laureates.
Photo: Åke Eson Lindman
Oslo, Norway
The story of each Peace Laureate is told at the museum.
Photo: Johannes Granseth / Nobel Peace Center
In memoriam
Kary B. Mullis was awarded the 1993 Chemistry Prize for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. PCR has been of major importance in both medical research and forensic science.
Novelist and 1993 Literature Laureate Toni Morrison has passed away aged 88. Morrison's works revolve around African-Americans; both their history and their situation in our own time.
Physics Laureate Robert Schrieffer, awarded for the theoretical explanation of the phenomenon of superconductivity, passed away on 27 July, age 88.
Physics Laureate Murray Gell-Mann passed away on 24 May. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions.
