Albert Einstein with his violin 'Lina'.

Photo: Public domain

In-depth

Podcast series

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022
“The first thing I did to see if it at all would have a chance was to buy a piece of liver in the food store close to the institute and just dry it in the laboratory.”
 
Listen in on this new podcast conversation with 2022 medicine laureate Svante Pääbo who describes the start of his scientific career. He also speaks warmly about his mother and how she encouraged him to pursue his childhood interest, archeology. Eventually that interest would put him on the path to a Nobel Prize for sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of present-day humans.
Svante Pääbo

Photo: Stefan Bladh

Nobel Prize laureates share their thoughts

In four videos 16 Nobel Prize laureates discuss new frontiers in their field and explore what life as a chemist entails. They also describe the beauty inherent in chemistry and recall the eureka moments when they discovered ‘a little of nature’s logic’.
Hand with test tube

Podcast series

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022
“Your purpose as a scientist is not to achieve fame or money, that is not your purpose, those might be side effects and good for you, that could be wonderful for you but it is a side effect, it is not the main goal. The main goal is to make discoveries and gift them to humanity. And those discoveries and that knowledge stays with humanity long after you are gone.”

Meet chemist and 2022 Nobel Prize laureate Carolyn Bertozzi in this new podcast episode where she speaks about her two life-long loves: organic chemistry and music.
Illustration with a photo of Carolyn Bertozzi
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022
“My daughter was sitting on the second or third row and I could see that she was crying. And tears actually are contagious. So I was almost crying when I had to go up and receive the prize because of that.” – This is how Morten Meldal recalled the moment he crossed the stage in Stockholm to receive his Nobel Prize medal.

2022 chemistry laureate Morten Meldal also talks about his interests outside science, such as painting, books, music, and even building his own guitars.
Morten Meldal in the laboratory

Morten Meldal at the University of Copenhagen laboratory.

Photo: University of Copenhagen

Marie and Pierre Curie’s pioneering research led to not one, but two Nobel Prizes, the first for the couple, the second for Marie.

Pierre and Marie Curie

Pierre and Marie Curie in the "hangar" at l'Ecole de physique et chimie industrielles in Paris, France, where they made their discovery. (Photo taken 1898.)

Copyright © Association Curie Joliot-Curie, Photographer unknown

Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022
“I think economics is getting closer and closer to being a respectable science. Even when we were not the most respectable science, we still needed to keep pushing forward because the topic actually matters to the planet, to the humans on the planet, and to the animals on the planet.” Douglas Diamond is a strong advocate for economics as a scientific field. His passion for economics was sparked at a young age when he accidentally took an undergraduate course in the topic.

Listen to Douglas Diamond in this new podcast conversation.
Illustration with a photo of Douglas Diamond

Photo: Stefan Bladh.

Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022
”I was just curious about everything. Everything was interesting and I always felt like I didn’t have enough time to learn all the interesting things. And I think that was a big strength that I had.”

In this podcast episode, economist Philip Dybvig tells us how his parents encouraged his interest in the world. He shared the 2022 economic sciences prize “for research on banks and financial crises.” Together with co-laureate Douglas Diamond, he developed theoretical models that explain why banks exist, how their role in society makes them vulnerable to rumours about their impending collapse, and how society can lessen this vulnerability. These insights form the foundation of modern bank regulation.
Illustration with a photo of Philip Dybvig

Photo: Clément Morin

Nobel Peace Prize awarded work

Nobel Peace Prize 1917, 1944 and 1963

The International Committee of the Red Cross has a unique position in the history of the Nobel Peace Prize: no recipient has been awarded the Peace Prize as often as this organisation. World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day is celebrated annually on the birthday of Henry Dunant, the founder of the organisation, but it all began in Solferino 1859 …

Red Cross - Armband

Armlet for the Red Cross.

Photo: Nobel Prize Museum

Nobel Peace Prize 1901

The first Nobel Peace Prize ever was awarded half to Henry Dunant and half to Frédéric Passy for their peace work. Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, was born into a wealthy home, but he died alone in a hospice. He never ceased to work for peace and against the taking up of arms.

Henry Dunant

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Peace was the fifth and final prize area that Alfred Nobel outlined in his will. See all Nobel Peace Prize laureates and why they were awarded the prize.

Kofi Annan receiving his Nobel Peace Prize

Kofi Annan receiving his Nobel Peace Prize from Gunnar Berge, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

© Pressens Bild AB 2001.

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

Learn more

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) has become the strongest symbol of non-violence in the 20th century. It is widely held – in retrospect – that the Indian national leader should have been selected for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was nominated several times, but was never awarded the prize. Why?

Mahatma Gandhi laughing

Mahatma Gandhi laughing.

Photo: Public domain.

Watch Nobel Minds

2022 Nobel Prize laureates in discussion

Watch the laureates in a discussion about their discoveries and achievements, and how these might find a practical application. Nobel Minds is hosted by the BBC’s Zeinab Badawi.

Event insights

Perspectives
What will the future look like? For many Nobel Prize laureates, this is the type of question that keeps them up at night and drives their research. 
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© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Anna Svanberg

Featured Nobel Peace Prize laureates

Nobel Peace Prize 1975
“Peace, progress, human rights – these three goals are insolubly linked to one another: it is impossible to achieve one of these goals if the other two are ignored.”
Read Andrei Sakharov’s peace lecture.
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Nobel Peace Prize 2001
Kofi Annan was awarded for his work for a better organized and more peaceful world as Secretary-General for the United Nations.
Read Kofi Annan’s Nobel Prize lecture.
Kofi Annan giving his Nobel Prize lecture

Kofi Annan giving his Nobel Prize lecture

© Pressens Bild AB. Photo: Heiko Junge

Featured Nobel Prize laureates in physics

Nobel Prize in Physics 1903
Marie and Pierre Curie made pioneering research together for many years. They came upon a very active substance they later called radium. Read their story.
Pierre and Marie Curie

Pierre and Marie Curie.

© Association Curie Joliot-Curie, Photographer unknown

Nobel Prize in Physics 2018
Learn why physics laureate Donna Strickland thinks it’s so important to maintain an element of wonder when doing science.
Donna Strickland in the laboratory

Donna Strickland in the laboratory.

Courtesy of University of Waterloo

Nobel Prize in Physics 2021
The 2021 physics laureates laid the foundation of our knowledge of the Earth’s climate and how humanity influences it, as well as revolutionized the theory of disordered materials and random processes.
Globe

©Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Featured Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020
What do you need in order to become a scientist? How do you become creative? How is a scientist’s life affected by being awarded prizes? Meet 2020 chemistry laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier in an intimate and reflective podcast conversation
Emmanuelle Charpentier in the laboratory

2020 chemistry laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier in the laboratory.

Copyright © Hallbauer und Fioretti

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2006
During his career, Fraser Stoddart has broken rules and, on occasions, upset the research establishment. His journey started outside Edinburgh, Scotland, where he spent his early years working at the family farm, feeding the animals and later mending farm machinery.
Sir Fraser Stoddart in his lab. Copyright © Nobel Media AB 2017. Photo: Rasmus Lundgren

Sir Fraser Stoddart in his lab.

Photo: Rasmus Lundgren

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021
Benjamin List and David MacMillan developed a new and ingenious tool for molecule building: organocatalysis. This has had a great impact on pharmaceutical research, and has made chemistry greener.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021

©Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Discover more

Every laureate faces failures and set-backs on their path to the Nobel Prize. It is a topic they are frequently asked about at events, and, given…

2017_NPII_Scandinavia (1)

Shinya Yamanaka addresses the University of Oslo

Photo: Terje Heiestad

Nobel Laureates speaking at events are united in the belief that they could not have achieved great things alone. They thank their family, friends, mentors,…

2018_NPII_China

Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative in Hefei, China, with Michael W. Young

© Nobel Media

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