Nobel Prize

Short biography Tranmæl, Martin Olsen 1879 -1967 Politician, Newspaper EditorLabour Martin Tranmæl had little formal education, but he took great interest in reading, especially history. He became a member of a trade union that was associated with the Labour Party in 1896. Three years later, he was one of the founders of the newspaper Ny…

by Frank Fenner and Suzanne Cory Medical research in Australia in the early 20th century Although politically independent since 1901, in the 1920s Australia was still culturally, scientifically and industrially a dependency of the United Kingdom. The total population then was some 7 million and there were three medical schools, in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.…

Short biography Horst, Hans Jacob 1848 – 1931 Educationist and politician Liberal Hans Jacob Horst received his M.A. (Cand. Philol.) in 1874. He first became a teacher and later, Headmaster. From 1881 he was engaged in ‘The Liberal Union’ (Venstreforeningen) and ‘The Workers’ Union’ (Arbeiderforeningen) in Tromsø. He soon became engaged in the local government…

Short biography Nordli, Odvar 1927 – 2018 Auditor and politician Labour Odvar, Nordli worked as an auditor in Hedmark county (fylke) in 1949-1957 and District Auditor from 1957. He became engaged in politics as a young man and was elected chairman of the regional branch of the Labour Party’s youth organisation in 1951-1961. Nordli was…

by 1962 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Haphazard growth On a summer day in the late fifties a delegation from the Soviet Union appeared in Cambridge demanding to see the “Institute of Molecular Biology”. When I took them to our shabby prefabricated hut in front of the University Physics Department, called Cavendish Laboratory after its nineteenth…

Frederick Grinnell UT Southwestern Medical Center In early 1985, when philanthropist Ralph Rogers spoke with Texas billionaire Ross Perot to ask for a “considerable” amount of money for UT Southwestern Medical School, he anticipated no great difficulty. Rogers, who recently had led the $80 million campaign to modernize Parkland Memorial Hospital, was friends with Perot…

Short biography Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Martinus 1832 – 1910 Dramatist, author, poet, prominent Norwegian patriot Liberal Bjørnson finished Upper Secondary School in 1852 and then became a journalist. He wrote literary reviews and short stories. In 1857 he made his literary debut with the peasant tale Synnøve Solbakken. He was instructor and artistic leader at the…

Short biography Lange, Christian Lous 1869-1938 Teacher, Historian and Organiser in the peace movement. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1921 Labour Lange graduated in the humanities 1893, and got a Ph.D. in 1919. He was originally educated as a teacher in language (English and French), history and geography. Primarily because he spoke several languages fluently, he…

by Øyvind Tønnesson Nobelprize.org Peace Editor, 1998-2000 1 December 1999 The Norwegian Nobel Institute building in Oslo, bought by the Nobel Foundation in 1903. The building (inset) as it looks today. Copyright © The Norwegian Nobel Institute The Norwegian Nobel Institute was established in 1904, and moved into its present building in central Oslo, close…

by John N. Bahcall What makes the sun shine? How does the sun produce the vast amount of energy necessary to support life on earth? These questions challenged scientists for a hundred and fifty years, beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century. Theoretical physicists battled geologists and evolutionary biologists in a heated controversy over…