Nobel Prize
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Nobel prize)
The
Nobel Prizes (
Swedish: sing.,
Nobelpriset; pl.,
Nobelprisen,
Norwegian:
Nobelprisen) are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. They were established in 1895 by the Swedish chemist
Alfred Nobel, the inventor of
dynamite. The prizes in
Physics,
Chemistry,
Physiology or Medicine,
Literature, and
Peace were first awarded in 1901. The
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was instituted by
Sveriges Riksbank in 1968 and first awarded in 1969. Although this is not technically a Nobel Prize, its announcements and presentations are made along with the other prizes. Each Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious award in its field.
[1]
The
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Nobel Prize in Physics, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The
Nobel Assembly at
Karolinska Institutet awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and the
Swedish Academy grants the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Peace Prize is not awarded by a Swedish organisation but by the
Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Each recipient, or laureate, is presented with a gold medal, a
diploma, and a sum of money which depends on the
Nobel Foundation's income that year. In 2009, each prize was worth 10 million
SEK (c.
US$1.4 million). The prize can not be awarded posthumously, nor may a prize be shared among more than three people. These strict rules have deprived worthy nominees of an award. The awarding committees have also been criticised for failing to award the Peace Prize to
Mahatma Gandhi and other high-profile candidates.
History
Alfred Nobel had the unpleasant surprise of reading his own obituary, titled
The merchant of death is dead, in a French newspaper.
Alfred Nobel (
listen (help·info)) was born on 21 October 1833 in
Stockholm, Sweden, into a family of engineers.
[2] He was a chemist, engineer, and inventor. In 1895 Nobel purchased the
Bofors iron and steel mill, which he converted into a major
armaments manufacturer. Nobel amassed a fortune during his lifetime, most of it from his 355 inventions, of which dynamite is the most famous.
[3] In 1888, Alfred had the unpleasant surprise of reading his own obituary, titled
‘The merchant of death is dead’, in a French newspaper. As it was Alfred's brother
Ludvig who had died, the obituary was eight years premature. Alfred was disappointed with what he read and concerned with how he would be remembered. This inspired him to change his will.
[4] On 10 December 1896 Alfred Nobel died in his villa in
San Remo, Italy, at the age of 63 from a
cerebral haemorrhage.
[5]
To the surprise of many, Nobel's last will requested that his fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in
physics,
chemistry,
peace,
physiology or
medicine, and
literature.
[6] Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime. The last was written over a year before he died, signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895.
[7][8] Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million SEK (c.
US$186 million in 2008), to establish the five Nobel Prizes.
[9] Because of the level of scepticism surrounding the will, it was not until 26 April 1897 that it was approved by the
Storting in Norway.
[10] The executors of his will were
Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, who formed the Nobel Foundation to take care of Nobel's fortune and organise the prizes.
[11]
The members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that were to award the Peace Prize were appointed shortly after the will was approved. The other prize-awarding organisations followed: the Karolinska Institutet on 7 June, the Swedish Academy on 9 June, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 11 June.
[12] The Nobel Foundation reached an agreement on guidelines for how the prizes should be awarded. In 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly created
statutes were promulgated by
King Oscar II.
[6] In 1905, the
Union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved, which meant the responsibility for awarding Nobel Prizes was split between the two countries. Norway's Nobel Committee became responsible for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize and Swedish institutions remained responsible for the other prizes.
[10]
Nobel Foundation
Alfred Nobel's will stated that 94% of his total assets should be used to establish the Nobel Prizes.
The Nobel Foundation was founded as a private organisation on 29 June 1900, to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes.
[13] In accordance with Nobel's will, the primary task of the Foundation is to manage the fortune Nobel left. Another important task of the Nobel Foundation is to market the prizes internationally and to oversee informal administration related to the prizes. The Foundation is not involved in the process of selecting the Nobel laureates.
[14][15] In many ways the Nobel Foundation is similar to an
investment company, in that it invests Nobel's money to create a solid funding base for the prize and the administrative activities. The Nobel Foundation is exempt from all taxes in Sweden (since 1946) and from investment taxes in the United States (since 1953).
[16] Since the 1980s, the Foundation's investments have become more profitable and as of 31 December 2007, the assets controlled by the Nobel Foundation amounted to 3.628 billion Swedish
kronor (c. US$560 million).
[17]
According to the statutes, the Foundation should consist of a board of five Swedish or Norwegian citizens, with its seat in Stockholm. The
Chairman of the Board should be appointed by the
King in Council, with the other four members appointed by the
trustees of the prize-awarding institutions. An
Executive Director is chosen from among the
board members, a Deputy Director is appointed by the King in Council, and two deputies are appointed by the trustees. However, since 1995 all the members of the board have been chosen by the trustees, and the Executive Director and the Deputy Director appointed by the board itself. As well as the board, the Nobel Foundation is made up of the prize-awarding institutions (the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Assembly, the Swedish Academy, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee), the trustees of these institutions, and
auditors.
[17]
First prizes
Once the Nobel Foundation and its guidelines were in place, the
Nobel Committee began collecting nominations for the inaugural prizes. When they had received all forms they sent a list of preliminary candidates to the prize-awarding institutions. The Norwegian Nobel Committee had appointed prominent figures including
Jørgen Løvland,
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and
Johannes Steen to give the Nobel Peace Prize credibility.
[18] The committee awarded the Peace Prize to two prominent figures in the growing peace movement around the end of the 19th century.
Frédéric Passy was co-founder of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union and
Henry Dunant was founder of the
International Committee of the Red Cross.
[19][20][21]
The Nobel Committee's Physics Prize shortlist cited
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen's discovery of
X-rays and
Philipp Lenard's work on
cathode rays. The Academy of Sciences selected Röntgen for the prize.
[22][23] In the last decades of the 19th century many chemists had made significant advances in their subject. Thus, with the Chemistry Prize, the Academy "was chiefly faced with merely deciding the order in which these scientists should be awarded the prize."
[24] For the first prize the Academy received 20 nominations, eleven of them for
Jacobus van't Hoff.
[25] Van't Hoff was awarded the prize for his contributions in chemical thermodynamics.
[26][27]
The Swedish Academy chose the poet
Sully Prudhomme for the first Nobel Prize in Literature. A group including 42 Swedish writers, artists and literary critics protested against this decision, having expected
Leo Tolstoy to win.
[28] Some, including Burton Feldman, have criticised this prize because they consider Prudhomme a mediocre poet. Feldman's explanation is that most of the Academy members preferred
Victorian literature and thus selected a Victorian poet.
[29] The first Physiology or Medicine Prize went to the German physicist and microbiologist
Emil von Behring. During the 1890s, von Behring developed an
antitoxin to treat
diphtheria, which until then was causing thousands of deaths each year.
[30][31]
World War II
In 1938 and 1939,
Adolf Hitler's
Third Reich forbade three laureates from Germany (
Richard Kuhn,
Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt, and
Gerhard Domagk) from accepting their prizes.
[32] Each man was later able to receive the diploma and medal.
[33] Even though Sweden was officially neutral during World War II, the prizes were awarded irregularly. In 1939 the Peace Prize was not awarded. No prize was awarded in any category from 1940–42, due to the
occupation of Norway by Germany. In the subsequent year, all prizes were awarded except those for literature and peace.
[34]
During the occupation of Norway, three members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee fled into exile. The remaining members escaped persecution from the
Nazis when the Nobel Foundation stated that the Committee building in
Oslo was Swedish property. Thus it was a safe haven from the German military, which was not at war with Sweden.
[35] These members kept the work of the Committee going but did not award any prizes. In 1944 the Nobel Foundation, together with the three members in exile, made sure that nominations were submitted for the Peace Prize and that the prize could be awarded once again.
[32]
Prize in Economic Sciences
Sveriges Riksbank celebrated its 300th anniversary in 1968 by donating a large sum of money to the Nobel Foundation. The following year, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded for the first time. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences became responsible for selecting laureates. The first laureates for the Economics Prize were
Jan Tinbergen and
Ragnar Frisch "for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes."
[36][37] Although not technically a Nobel Prize, it is identified with the award; its winners are announced with the Nobel Prize recipients, and the Prize in Economic Sciences is presented at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony.
[38] The Board of the Nobel Foundation decided that after this addition, it would allow no further new prizes.
[39]
Recent laureates
In 2008 the Physiology or Medicine Prize was shared among three
virologists. French team
Luc Montagnier and
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi together shared half the prize for discovering that the virus now known as
HIV causes
AIDS.
[40] Harald zur Hausen shared the prize for his discovery that the
human papilloma virus causes
cervical cancer.
[41][42] The Chemistry Prize was shared among three biologists;
[43] Osamu Shimomura,
Martin Chalfie and
Roger Tsien isolated and developed the
green fluorescent protein from a jellyfish.
[44] The GFP has important applications in many areas of cell biology and biotechnology.
[45] Martti Ahtisaari received the Peace Prize "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts."
[46][47] The Physics Prize was awarded to
Yoichiro Nambu,
Makoto Kobayashi and
Toshihide Maskawa for the discovery of the mechanism of
spontaneous broken symmetry in
subatomic physics.
[48][49] Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio received the Literature Prize and was described as an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilisation."
[50][51] The Economics Prize was awarded to
Paul Krugman for his work on international trade and
economic geography.
[52][53]
In 2009 the Chemistry Prize was awarded to
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan,
Thomas Steitz, and
Ada Yonath, for their work on the structure and function of the
ribosome.
[54] The Physics Prize was awarded to
Charles K. Kao for his research on the transmission of light through
optical fibres and to
Willard S. Boyle and
George E. Smith for inventing a sensor that turns light into electrical signals, which made inventions such as the digital camera possible.
[55][56] Elinor Ostrom and
Oliver E. Williamson were awarded the Economics Prize for "their work in economic governance, especially the commons." Ostrom was the first woman to receive the Economics Prize.
[57][58] The Physiology or Medicine Prize was awarded to
Elizabeth H. Blackburn,
Carol W. Greider, and
Jack W. Szostak for their research on
telomeres.
[59] The Literature Prize was awarded to
Herta Müller "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."
[60][61] The President of the United States,
Barack Obama, was awarded the Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
[62][63]
Jack W. Szostak who shared the Physiology or Medicine Prize with Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn
Charles K. Kao who won 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for his research in optical fibres
Award process
The award process is similar for each Nobel Prize, the main difference is the individuals who can make nominations for each prize.
[64]
The announcement of the laureates in Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009 by
Gunnar Öquist, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
2009 Nobel Prize in Literature announcement by
Peter Englund in Swedish, English and German
Nominations
Nomination forms are sent by the Nobel Committee to about 3000 individuals, usually in September the year before the prize is awarded. These individuals are often academics working in a relevant area. For the Peace Prize, inquiries are sent to governments, members of
international courts, professors and rectors, former Peace Prize laureates and current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The deadline for the return of the nomination forms is 31 January of the year of the award.
[64][65] The Nobel Committee nominates about 300 potential laureates from these forms and additional names.
[66] The nominees are not publicly named, nor are they told that they are being considered for the prize. All nomination records for a prize are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of the prize.
[67][68]
Selection
The Nobel Committee then prepares a report, drawn from the advice of experts in the relevant fields. This, along with the list of preliminary candidates, is submitted to the prize-awarding institutions.
[69] The institutions meet to choose the laureate or laureates in each field by a majority vote. Their decision, which cannot be appealed, is announced immediately after the vote.
[70] A maximum of three laureates and two different works may be selected per award. Except for the Peace Prize, which can be awarded to institutions, the awards can only be given to individuals.
[71] If the Peace Prize is not awarded, the money is split among the scientific prizes. This has happened 19 times so far.
[72]
Posthumous nominations
Although posthumous nominations are not permitted, individuals who died in the months between their nomination and the decision of the prize committee were originally eligible to receive the prize. This occurred twice: the 1931 Literature Prize awarded to
Erik Axel Karlfeldt, and the 1961 Peace Prize awarded to
UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. Since 1974, laureates must be alive at the time of the October announcement. There has been one laureate,
William Vickrey, who died after the prize was announced but before it could be presented.
[73]
Recognition time lag
Nobel's will provides for prizes to be awarded in recognition of discoveries made "during the preceding year". During the early years, the awards usually recognised recent discoveries.
[74] However, some of these early discoveries were later discredited.
[n 1] To avoid this embarrassment, the awards increasingly recognised scientific discoveries that had withstood the test of time.
[76][77][78] According to Ralf Pettersson, former chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology or Medicine, "the criterion ‘the previous year’ is interpreted by the Nobel Assembly as the year when the full impact of the discovery has become evident."
[77]
The committee room of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
The interval between the award and the accomplishment it recognises varies from discipline to discipline. The Literature Prize is typically awarded to recognise a cumulative lifetime body of work rather than a single achievement.
[79][80] The Peace Prize can also be awarded for a lifetime body of work. For example 2008 winner Martti Ahtisaari was awarded for his work to resolve international conflicts.
[81][82] However, they can also be awarded for specific recent events.
[83] For instance,
Kofi Annan was awarded the 2001 Peace Prize just four years after becoming the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
[84] Similarly
Yasser Arafat,
Yitzhak Rabin, and
Shimon Peres received the 1994 award, about a year after they successfully concluded the
Oslo Accords.
[85]
Awards for physics, chemistry, and medicine require that the significance of the achievement is "tested by time." In practice, the lag between the discovery and the award is typically 20 or more years. For example,
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar shared the 1983 Physics Prize for his 1930s work on stellar structure and evolution.
[86][87] Not all scientists live long enough for their work to be recognised. Some discoveries can never be considered for a prize if their impact is realised after the discoverers have died.
[88][89][90]
Award ceremonies
Left: Barack Obama after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo City Hall from the hands of Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman
Thorbjorn Jagland; Right:
Giovanni Jona-Lasinio presenting Yoichiro Nambu's Nobel Lecture at Aula Magna, Stockholm in 2008
Apart from the Peace Prize, the Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm, Sweden, at the annual Prize Award Ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The recipients' lectures are normally held in the days prior to the award ceremony. The Peace Prize and its recipients' lectures are presented at the annual Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, usually on 10 December. The award ceremonies and the associated banquets are typically major international events.
[91][92] The Prizes awarded in Sweden's ceremonies' are held at the
Stockholm Concert Hall, with the Nobel banquet following immediately at
Stockholm City Hall. The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has been held at the
Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905–1946); at the
auditorium of the
University of Oslo (1947–1989); and at
Oslo City Hall (1990–).
[93]
The highlight of the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm occurs when each Nobel Laureate steps forward to receive the prize from the hands of the King of Sweden. In Oslo, the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway.
[92][94] Since 1902, the King of Sweden has presented all the prizes, except the Peace Prize, in Stockholm. At first King Oscar II did not approve of awarding grand prizes to foreigners, but is said to have changed his mind once his attention had been drawn to the publicity value of the prizes for Sweden.
[95]
Nobel banquet
At the Nobel Peace Prize banquet the 250 guests, including the laureate and the King and Queen of Norway, are treated to a five-course meal.
After the award ceremony in Sweden a banquet is held at the Stockholm City Hall, which is attended by the Swedish Royal Family and around 1,300 guests. The banquet features a three-course dinner, entertainment and dancing and is extensively covered by local and international media.
[92] Before 1930, the banquet in Sweden was held in the ballroom of Stockholm’s Grand Hotel.
[93]
The Nobel Peace Prize banquet is held in Oslo at the Grand Hotel after the award ceremony. As well as the laureate, other guests include the President of the Storting, the Prime Minister and (since 2006) the King and Queen of Norway. In total there are about 250 guests attending who all are treated a five-course meal.
[96] For the first time in its history, the banquet was cancelled in Oslo in 1979 because the laureate
Mother Teresa refused to attend, saying the money would be better spent on the poor. Mother Teresa used the US$7,000 that was to be spent on the banquet to hold a dinner for 2,000 homeless people on Christmas Day.
[97][98]
Nobel lectures
According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, each laureate is required to give a public lecture on a subject related to the topic of their prize.
[99][100] These lectures normally occur during Nobel Week
[n 2] before the award ceremony, but this is not mandatory. The laureate is only obliged to give the lecture within six months of receiving the prize. Some have happened even later. For example, US president
Theodore Roosevelt won the Peace Prize in 1906 but gave his lecture in 1910, after his term in office.
[101] The lectures are organised by the same association who selected the laureates.
[102]
Prizes
Medals
The Nobel Prize medals, minted by
Myntverket in Sweden and the Mint of Norway since 1902, are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation.
[103] Each medal features an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the
obverse. The medals for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature have identical obverses, showing the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death. Nobel's portrait also appears on the obverse of the Peace Prize medal and the medal for the Economics Prize, but with a slightly different design. For instance, the laureate's name is engraved on the rim of the Economics medal.
[104] The image on the reverse of a medal varies according to the institution awarding the prize. The reverse sides of the medals for chemistry and physics share the same design.
[105]
Laureates receive a heavily decorated diploma together with a gold medal and the prize money. Here
Fritz Haber's diploma is shown, which he received for the development of a method to synthesise ammonia.
All medals made before 1980 were struck in 23
carat gold. Since then they have been struck in 18 carat
green gold plated with 24 carat gold. The weight of each medal varies with the value of gold, but averages about 175 grams (0.39 lb) for each medal. The diameter is 66 millimetres (2.6 in) and the thickness varies between 5.2 millimetres (0.20 in) and 2.4 millimetres (0.094 in).
[106] Because of the high value of their gold content and tendency to be on public display, Nobel medals are subject to medal theft.
[107][108][109] During World War II, the medals of German scientists
Max von Laue and
James Franck were sent to Copenhagen for safekeeping. When Germany invaded Denmark, chemist
George de Hevesy dissolved them in
aqua regia, to prevent confiscation by
Nazi Germany and to prevent legal problems for the holders. After the war, the gold was recovered from solution, and the medals re-cast.
[110]
Diplomas
Nobel laureates receive a diploma directly from the hands of the King of Sweden or the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Each diploma is uniquely designed by the prize-awarding institutions for the laureate that receives it.
[104] The diploma contains a picture and text which states the name of the laureate and normally a citation of why they received the prize. None of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates has ever had a citation on their diplomas.
[111][112]
Award money
The laureate is given a sum of money when they receive the prize, in the form of a document confirming the amount awarded.
[104] The amount of prize money may differ depending on how much money the Nobel Foundation can award that year. The purse has increased since the 1980s, when the prize money was 880 000 SEK (c. 2.6 million SEK or US$350 000 today). In 2009, the monetary award was 10 million SEK (US$1.4 million).
[113][114] If there are two winners in a particular category, the award grant is divided equally between the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of dividing the grant equally, or awarding one-half to one recipient and one-quarter to each of the others.
[115][116][117] It is not uncommon for recipients to donate prize money to benefit scientific, cultural, or humanitarian causes.
[118][119]
Controversies and criticisms
Controversial recipients
Criticisms of the Nobel Prizes include cases where the Nobel Committees have been accused of having a political agenda, or of missing out more deserving candidates. They have also been accused of
Eurocentrism, especially in their award of the Literature Prize.
[120][121][122]
When
Henry Kissinger was announced to be awarded the Peace Prize two of the Norwegian Nobel Committee members resigned in protest.
One of the most controversial Peace Prizes was the
2009 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Barack Obama.
[123] Nominations had closed only eleven days after Obama took office as President.
[72] Obama himself stated that he did not feel he deserved the award,
[124][125] and that he did not feel worthy of the company the award would place him in.
[126] Past winners of the Peace Prize were divided, some saying that Obama deserved the award, and others saying he had not yet earned it. Obama's award, along with the previous Peace Prizes for
Jimmy Carter and
Al Gore, prompted accusations of a
left-wing bias.
[127]
Among the most criticised Nobel Peace Prizes was the one awarded to
Henry Kissinger and
Lê Ðức Thọ, who later declined the prize.
[128] This led to two Norwegian Nobel Committee members resigning. Kissinger and Thọ were awarded the prize for negotiating a ceasefire between
North Vietnam and the United States in January 1973. However, when the award was announced hostilities still occurred from both sides.
[129] Many critics were of the opinion that Kissinger was not a peace-maker but the opposite; responsible for widening the war.
[67][130]
Yasser Arafat,
Shimon Peres, and
Yitzhak Rabin received the Peace Prize in 1994 for their efforts in making peace between Israel and Palestine.
[67][131] According to journalist Caroline Frost many issues, such as the plight of Palestinian refugees, had not been addressed
[132] and no lasting peace was established between Israel and Palestine.
[133] Immediately after the award was announced one of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members denounced Arafat as a terrorist and resigned.
[134] Additional misgivings of Arafat were widely expressed in various newspapers.
[135]
The award of the 2004 Literature Prize to
Elfriede Jelinek drew a protest from a member of the Swedish Academy,
Knut Ahnlund. Ahnlund resigned, alleging that selecting Jelinek had caused "irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art." The reason he stated was that Jelinek's works were "a mass of text shovelled together without artistic structure."
[136][137] The 2009 Literature Prize to Herta Müller also generated criticism. According to
The Washington Post many US literary critics and professors had never heard of her before.
[138] This made many feel that the prizes were too Eurocentric.
[139]
In 1949, the Portuguese neurologist
Antonio Egas Moniz received the Physiology or Medicine Prize for his development of the
prefrontal leucotomy. The previous year
Dr. Walter Freeman had developed a
version of the procedure which was faster and easier to carry out. Due in part to the publicity surrounding the original procedure, Freeman's procedure was prescribed without due consideration or regard for modern
medical ethics. Endorsed by such influential publications as
The New England Journal of Medicine, lobotomy became so popular that about 5,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States in the three years immediately following Moniz's receipt of the Prize.
[140][141]
Overlooked achievements
James Joyce, one of the controversial omissions of the Literature Prize
The Norwegian Nobel Committee confirmed that Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Peace Prize in 1937–39, 1947 and a few days before he was assassinated in January 1948.
[142] Later members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee expressed regret that he was not given the prize.
[143] In 1948, the year of Gandhi's death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the Norwegian grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate" that year.
[143][144] Later, when the
Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi."
[145] Other high profile individuals with widely recognised contributions to peace have been missed out. As well as Gandhi,
Foreign Policy lists
Eleanor Roosevelt,
Václav Havel,
Ken Saro-Wiwa,
Sari Nusseibeh,
Corazon Aquino and
Liu Xiaobo as people who "never won the prize, but should have."
[146]
The Literature Prize also has criticised omissions.
Adam Kirsch has suggested that many notable writers have missed out on the award for political or extra-literary reasons. The heavy focus on European and Swedish authors has been a subject of criticism.
[147][148] The Eurocentric nature of the award was acknowledged by
Peter Englund, the 2009 Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, as a problem with the award and was attributed to the tendency for the academy to relate more to European authors.
[149] Notable writers that have been overlooked for the Literature Prize include;
Émile Zola,
Jorge Luis Borges,
Marcel Proust,
Ezra Pound,
James Joyce,
August Strindberg,
John Updike,
Arthur Miller,
Graham Greene and
Mark Twain.
[150][151][152]
The strict rule against awarding a prize to more than three people at once is also controversial.
[153] When a prize is awarded to recognise an achievement by a team of more than three collaborators one or more will miss out. For example, in 2002, the prize was awarded to
Koichi Tanaka and
John Fenn for the development of
mass spectrometry in
protein chemistry, an award that did not recognise the achievements of
Franz Hillenkamp and
Michael Karas of the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the
University of Frankfurt.
[154][155] Similarly, the prohibition of posthumous awards fails to recognise achievements by an individual or collaborator who dies before the prize is awarded. In 1962,
Francis Crick,
James D. Watson, and
Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Physiology or Medicine Prize for discovering the structure of
DNA.
Rosalind Franklin, a key contributor in that discovery, died of
ovarian cancer four years earlier.
[156]
Emphasis on discoveries over inventions and theories
Alfred Nobel left his fortune to finance annual prizes to be awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." He stated that the Nobel Prizes in Physics should be given "to the person who shall have made the most important 'discovery' or 'invention' within the field of physics." Nobel did not emphasise discoveries, but they have historically been held in higher respect by the Nobel Prize Committee than inventions: 77% of the Physics Prizes have been given to discoveries, compared with only 23% to inventions. Christoph Bartneck and Matthias Rauterberg, in papers published in
Nature and
Technoetic Arts, have argued this emphasis on discoveries has moved the Nobel Prize away from its original intention of rewarding the greatest contribution to society.
[157][158]
An example where discovery has been preferred over theory is
Albert Einstein's prize. His 1921 Physics prize recognised his discovery of the
photoelectric effect rather than his
Special Theory of Relativity.
[159][160][161] Historian Robert Friedman proposes that this may be due to the Nobel Prize Committee's discrimination against theoretical science.
[162]
Specially distinguished laureates
Multiple laureates
Four people have received two Nobel Prizes.
Maria Skłodowska-Curie received the Physics Prize in 1903 for the discovery of
radioactivity and the Chemistry Prize in 1911 for the isolation of
pure radium.
[163] Linus Pauling won the 1954 Chemistry Prize for his research into the
chemical bond and its application to the
structure of complex substances. Pauling also won the Peace Prize in 1962 for his anti-nuclear activism, making him the only winner of two unshared prizes.
John Bardeen received the Physics Prize twice: in 1956 for the invention of the
transistor and in 1972 for the theory of
superconductivity.
[164] Frederick Sanger received the prize twice in Chemistry: in 1958 for determining the structure of the
insulin molecule and in 1980 for inventing a method of determining base sequences in DNA.
[165][166]
Two organisations have received the Peace Prize multiple times. The International Committee of the Red Cross received it three times: in 1917 and 1944 for its work during the world wars, and in 1963 during the year of its centenary.
[167][168][169] The
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has won the Peace Prize twice for assisting refugees: in 1954 and 1981.
[170]
Family laureates
The
Curie family has received the most prizes, with five.
Maria Skłodowska-Curie received the prizes in Physics (in 1903) and Chemistry (in 1911). Her husband,
Pierre Curie, shared the 1903 Physics prize with her.
[171] Their daughter,
Irène Joliot-Curie, received the Chemistry Prize in 1935 together with her husband
Frederic Joliot-Curie. In addition, the husband of Maria Curie's second daughter,
Henry Labouisse, was the director of
UNICEF when it won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965.
[172]
Although no family matches the Curie family's record, there have been several with two laureates.
Gunnar Myrdal received the Economics Prize in 1974 and his wife,
Alva Myrdal, received the Peace Prize in 1982.
[173] J. J. Thomson was awarded the Physics Prize in 1906 for showing that
electrons are particles. His son,
George Paget Thomson, received the same prize in 1937 for showing that they
also have the properties of waves.
[174] William Henry Bragg together with his son,
William Lawrence Bragg, shared the Physics Prize in 1915.
Niels Bohr won the Physics prize in 1922, and his son,
Aage Bohr, won the same prize in 1975.
[175] Manne Siegbahn, who received the Physics Prize in 1924, was the father of
Kai Siegbahn, who received the Physics Prize in 1981.
[176] Hans von Euler-Chelpin, who received the Chemistry Prize in 1929, was the father of
Ulf von Euler, who was awarded the Physiology or Medicine Prize in 1970.
C.V. Raman won the Physics Prize in 1930 and was the uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who won the same prize in 1983.
[177][178] Arthur Kornberg received the Physiology or Medicine Prize in 1959. Kornberg's son,
Roger later received the Chemistry Prize in 2006.
[179] Jan Tinbergen, who won the first Economics Prize in 1969, was the brother of
Nikolaas Tinbergen, who received the 1973 Physiology or Medicine Prize.
[172]
Refusals and constraints
Richard Kuhn, who was forced to decline his Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Two laureates have voluntarily declined the Nobel Prize.
Jean Paul Sartre was awarded the Literature Prize in 1964 but refused, stating, "A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honourable form."
[180] The other is Lê Ðức Thọ, chosen for the 1973 Peace Prize for his role in the Paris Peace Accords. He declined, claiming there was no actual peace in Vietnam.
[181]
During the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler forbade Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt, and Gerhard Domagk from accepting their prizes. All of them were awarded their diploma and gold medal after World War II. In 1958,
Boris Pasternak declined his prize for literature due to fear of what the
Soviet Union government would do if he travelled to Stockholm to accept his prize. In return, the Swedish Academy refused his refusal, saying "this refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award."
[181] The Academy announced with regret that the presentation of the Literature Prize could not take place that year, holding it until 1989 when Pasternak's son accepted the prize on his behalf.
[182][183]
This is a
list of Ig Nobel Prize winners from 1991 to the present day.
A
parody of the
Nobel Prizes, the Ig Nobel Prizes are given each year in early October — around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced — for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think." Commenting on the 2006 awards, Marc Abrahams, editor of
Annals of Improbable Research, co-sponsor of the awards, said: "The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honour the imaginative - and spur people's interest in science, medicine and technology."
[1] All prizes are awarded for real achievements (except for three in 1991 and one in 1994 due to an erroneous press release).
- Biology - Robert Klark Graham, selector of seeds and prophet of propagation, for his pioneering development of the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank that accepts donations only from Nobellians and Olympians.
- Chemistry - Jacques Benveniste, prolific proselytizer and dedicated correspondent of Nature, for his persistent discovery that water, H2O, is an intelligent liquid, and for demonstrating to his satisfaction that water is able to remember events long after all traces of those events have vanished (see water memory, his proposed explanation for homeopathy).
- Economics - Michael Milken, titan of Wall Street and father of the junk bond, to whom the world is indebted.
- Education - J. Danforth Quayle, consumer of time and occupier of space (as well as the U.S. Vice President from 1989-93), for demonstrating, better than anyone else, the need for science education.
- Literature - Erich von Däniken, visionary raconteur and author of Chariots of the Gods?, for explaining how human civilization was influenced by ancient astronauts from outer space.
- Medicine - Alan Kligerman, deviser of digestive deliverance, vanquisher of vapor, and inventor of Beano, for his pioneering work with anti-gas liquids that prevent bloat, gassiness, discomfort and embarrassment.
- Peace - Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb and first champion of the Star Wars weapons system, for his lifelong efforts to change the meaning of peace as we know it.
[edit] Apocryphal achievements
The first nomination also featured three fictional recipients for fictional achievements.
[2]
- Archaeology - Eclaireurs de France (a French Scouting organization), removers of graffiti, for damaging the prehistoric paintings of two Bisons in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel.
- Art - Presented jointly to Jim Knowlton, modern Renaissance man, for his classic anatomy poster "Penises of the Animal Kingdom," and to the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, for encouraging Mr. Knowlton to extend his work in the form of a pop-up book.
- Biology - Dr. Cecil Jacobson, relentlessly generous sperm donor, and prolific patriarch of sperm banking, for devising a simple, single-handed method of quality control.
- Chemistry - Ivette Bassa, constructor of colourful colloids, for her role in the crowning achievement of twentieth century chemistry, the synthesis of bright blue Jell-O.
- Economics - The investors of Lloyd's of London, heirs to 300 years of dull prudent management, for their bold attempt to insure disaster by refusing to pay for their company's losses.
- Literature - Yuri Struchkov,[3] unstoppable author from the Institute of Organoelement Compounds[4] in Moscow, for the 948 scientific papers he published between the years 1981 and 1990, averaging more than one every 3.9 days.
- Medicine - F. Kanda, E. Yagi, M. Fukuda, K. Nakajima, T. Ohta, and O. Nakata of the Shiseido Research Center in Yokohama, for their pioneering research study "Elucidation of Chemical Compounds Responsible for Foot Malodour," especially for their conclusion that people who think they have foot odor do, and those who don't, don't.
- Nutrition - The utilizers of SPAM, courageous consumers of canned comestibles, for 54 years of undiscriminating digestion.
- Peace - Daryl Gates, former police chief of the City of Los Angeles, for his uniquely compelling methods of bringing people together.
- Physics - David Chorley and Doug Bower, lions of low-energy physics, for their circular contributions to field theory based on the geometrical destruction of English crops.
- Biology - Presented jointly to Paul Williams Jr. of the Oregon State Health Division and Kenneth W. Newel of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, bold biological detectives, for their pioneering study, "Salmonella Excretion in Joy-Riding Pigs[5]".
- Chemistry - Presented jointly to James Campbell and Gaines Campbell of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, dedicated deliverers of fragrance, for inventing scent strips, the odious method by which perfume is applied to magazine pages.
- Consumer Engineering - Presented to Ron Popeil, incessant inventor and perpetual pitchman of late night television, for redefining the industrial revolution with such devices as the Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman, Mr. Microphone, and the Inside-the-Shell Egg Scrambler.
- Economics - Presented to Ravi Batra of Southern Methodist University, shrewd economist and best-selling author of The Great Depression of 1990 and Surviving the Great Depression of 1990, for selling enough copies of his books to single-handedly prevent worldwide economic collapse.
- Literature - Presented to E. Topol, R. Califf, F. Van de Werf, P. W. Armstrong, and their 972 co-authors[6], for publishing a medical research paper which has one hundred times as many authors as pages. The authors are from the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- Mathematics - Presented to Robert W. Faid of Greenville, South Carolina, farsighted and faithful seer of statistics, for calculating the exact odds (710,609,175,188,282,000 to 1) that Mikhail Gorbachev is the Antichrist.
- Medicine - Presented to James F. Nolan, Thomas J. Stillwell, and John P. Sands, Jr., medical men of mercy, for their painstaking research report, "Acute Management of the Zipper-Entrapped Penis" PubMed.
- Peace - The Pepsi-Cola Company of the Philippines, for sponsoring a contest to create a millionaire, and then announcing the wrong winning number, thereby inciting and uniting 800,000 riotously expectant winners, and bringing many warring factions together for the first time in their nation's history.
- Physics - Presented to Corentin Louis Kervran of France, ardent admirer of alchemy, for his conclusion that the calcium in chickens' eggshells is created by a process of cold fusion.
- Psychology - Presented jointly to John Edward Mack of Harvard Medical School and David M. Jacobs of Temple University, for their conclusion that people who believe they were kidnapped by aliens from outer space, probably were — and especially for their conclusion, "the focus of the abduction is the production of children".
- Visionary Technology - Presented jointly to Jay Schiffman of Farmington Hills, Michigan, crack inventor of AutoVision, an image projection device that makes it possible to drive a car and watch television at the same time, and to the Michigan State Legislature, for making it legal to do so.
- Biology - Presented to W. Brian Sweeney, Brian Krafte-Jacobs, Jeffrey W. Britton, and Wayne Hansen, for their breakthrough study, "The Constipated Serviceman: Prevalence Among Deployed US Troops," and especially for their numerical analysis of bowel movement frequency.
- Chemistry - Presented to Texas State Senator Bob Glasgow, wise writer of logical legislation, for sponsoring the 1989 drug control law which makes it illegal to purchase beakers, flasks, test tubes, or other laboratory glassware without a permit.
- Economics - Presented to Juan Pablo Davila of Chile, tireless trader of financial futures and former employee of the state-owned company Codelco, for instructing his computer to "buy" when he meant "sell". He subsequently attempted to recoup his losses by making increasingly unprofitable trades that ultimately lost 0.5 percent of Chile's gross national product. Davila's relentless achievement inspired his countrymen to coin a new verb, "davilar", meaning "to botch things up royally".
- Entomology - Presented to Robert A. Lopez of Westport, NY, valiant veterinarian and friend of all creatures great and small, for his series of experiments in obtaining ear mites from cats, inserting them into his own ear, and carefully observing and analyzing the results.
- Literature - Presented to L. Ron Hubbard, ardent author of science fiction and founding father of Scientology, for his crackling Good Book, Dianetics, which is highly profitable to mankind, or to a portion thereof.
- Mathematics - Presented to The Southern Baptist Church of Alabama, mathematical measurers of morality, for their county-by-county estimate of how many Alabama citizens will go to Hell if they don't repent.
- Medicine - Two prizes. First, to Patient X, formerly of the US Marine Corps, valiant victim of a venomous bite from his pet rattlesnake, for his determined use of electroshock therapy. At his own insistence, automobile spark plug wires were attached to his lip, and the car engine revved to 3,000 rpm for five minutes. Second, to Dr. Richard C. Dart of the Rocky Mountain Poison Center and Dr. Richard A. Gustafson of The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, for their well-grounded medical report, "Failure of Electric Shock Treatment for Rattlesnake Envenomation."[7]
- Peace - Presented to John Hagelin of Maharishi University and The Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, for his experimental conclusion that 4,000 trained meditators caused an 18 percent decrease in violent crime in Washington, D.C.
- Psychology - Presented to Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore, for his thirty-year study of the effects of punishing three million citizens of Singapore whenever they spat, chewed gum, or fed pigeons.
[edit] Apocryphal achievements, no longer officially listed
- Physics - Presented to The Japanese Meteorological Agency, for its seven-year study of whether earthquakes are caused by catfish wiggling their tails. This winner is not officially listed, as it was based on what turned out to be erroneous press accounts.
- Chemistry - Presented to Bijan Pakzad of Beverly Hills, for creating DNA Cologne and DNA Perfume, neither of which contain deoxyribonucleic acid, and both of which come in a triple helix bottle.
- Dentistry - Presented to Robert H. Beaumont, of Shoreview, Minnesota, for his incisive study "Patient Preference for Waxed or Unwaxed Dental Floss."
- Economics - Presented jointly to Nick Leeson and his superiors at Barings Bank and to Robert Citron of Orange County, California for using the calculus of derivatives to demonstrate that every financial institution has its limits.
- Literature - Presented to David B. Busch and James R. Starling, of Madison, Wisconsin, for their research report, "Rectal Foreign Bodies: Case Reports and a Comprehensive Review of the World's Literature." The citations include reports of, among other items: seven light bulbs; a knife sharpener; two flashlights; a wire spring; a snuff box; an oil can with potato stopper; eleven different forms of fruits, vegetables and other foodstuffs; a jeweler's saw; a frozen pig's tail; a tin cup; a beer glass; and one patient's remarkable ensemble collection consisting of spectacles, a suitcase key, a tobacco pouch and a magazine.
- Medicine - Presented to Marcia E. Buebel, David S. Shannahoff-Khalsa, and Michael R. Boyle, for their study entitled "The Effects of Unilateral Forced Nostril Breathing on Cognition."
- Nutrition - Presented to John Martinez of J. Martinez & Company in Atlanta, for Luak Coffee, the world's most expensive coffee, which is made from coffee beans ingested and excreted by the luak, a bobcat-like animal native to Indonesia.
- Peace - Presented to the Taiwan National Parliament, for demonstrating that politicians gain more by punching, kicking and gouging each other than by waging war against other nations.
- Physics - Presented to Dominique M.R. Georget, R. Parker, and Andrew C. Smith of Norwich, England, for their rigorous analysis of soggy breakfast cereal. It was published in the report entitled "A Study of the Effects of Water Content on the Compaction Behaviour of Breakfast Cereal Flakes."
- Psychology - Presented to Shigeru Watanabe, Junko Sakamoto, and Masumi Wakita, of Keio University, for their success in training pigeons to discriminate between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet.
- Public Health - Presented to Martha Kold Bakkevig of Sintef Unimed in Trondheim, Norway, and Ruth Nielsen of the Technical University of Denmark, for their exhaustive study, "Impact of Wet Underwear on Thermoregulatory Responses and Thermal Comfort in the Cold."
- Art - Presented to Don Featherstone of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, for his ornamentally evolutionary invention, the plastic pink flamingo. Featherstone was the first Ig Nobel Prize winner to appear in person at the awards ceremony to accept the award.
- Biodiversity - Presented to Chonosuke Okamura of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory in Nagoya, Japan, for discovering the fossils of dinosaurs, horses, dragons, and more than one thousand other extinct "mini-species", each of which is less than 0.25 mm in length.
- Biology - Presented jointly to Anders Barheim and Hogne Sandvik of the University of Bergen, Norway, for their report, "Effect of Ale, Garlic, and Soured Cream on the Appetite of Leeches."
- Chemistry - Presented to George Goble of Purdue University, for his blistering world record time for igniting a barbecue grill: three seconds, using charcoal and liquid oxygen.[8]
- Economics - Presented to Dr. Robert J. Genco of the University at Buffalo for his discovery that "financial strain is a risk indicator for destructive periodontal disease."
- Literature - Presented to the editors of the journal Social Text for eagerly publishing meaningless research that they could not understand, which claimed that reality does not exist. (See Sokal Affair for details).
- Medicine - Presented to James Johnston of R.J. Reynolds, Joseph Taddeo of U.S. Tobacco, Andrew Tisch of Lorillard, William Campbell of Philip Morris, Edward A. Horrigan of Liggett Group, Donald S. Johnston of American Tobacco Company, and Thomas E. Sandefur, Jr., chairman of Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company, for their unshakable discovery, as testified to the U.S. Congress, that nicotine is not addictive.
- Peace - Presented to Jacques Chirac, President of France, for commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Hiroshima with atomic bomb tests in the Pacific.
- Physics - Presented to Robert Matthews of Aston University, England, for his studies of Murphy's Law, and especially for demonstrating that toast often falls on the buttered side.
- Public Health - Presented to Ellen Kleist of Nuuk, Greenland and Harald Moi of Oslo, Norway, for their cautionary medical report "Transmission of Gonorrhea Through an Inflatable Doll."
- Astronomy - Presented to Richard C. Hoagland of New Jersey, for identifying artificial features on the moon and on Mars, including a human face on Mars and ten-mile high buildings on the far side of the moon.
- Biology - Presented to T. Yagyu and his colleagues from the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, the Kansai Medical University in Osaka, Japan, and the Neuroscience Technology Research in Prague, Czech Republic, for measuring people's brainwave patterns while they chewed different flavors of gum.[9]
- Communications - Presented to Sanford Wallace, president of Cyber Promotions of Philadelphia. Nothing has stopped this self-appointed courier from delivering electronic junk mail to all the world.
- Economics - Presented to Akihiro Yokoi of Wiz Company in Chiba, Japan, and Aki Maita of Bandai Company in Tokyo, for diverting millions of person-hours of work into the husbandry of virtual pets.
- Entomology - Presented to Mark Hostetler of the University of Florida, for his book, That Gunk on Your Car, which identifies the insect splats that appear on automobile windows.
- Literature - Presented to Doron Witztum, Eliyahu Rips, and Yoav Rosenberg of Israel, and to Michael Drosnin of the United States, for their statistical discovery that the Bible contains a secret, hidden code.
- Medicine - Presented to Carl J. Charnetski and Francis X. Brennan, Jr. of Wilkes University, and James F. Harrison of Muzak Ltd. in Seattle, Washington, for their discovery that listening to Muzak stimulates immunity system production and thus may help prevent the common cold.
- Meteorology - Presented to Bernard Vonnegut of the State University of New York at Albany, for his report, "Chicken Plucking as Measure of Tornado Wind Speed."
- Peace - Presented to Harold Hillman of the University of Surrey, England, for his report "The Possible Pain Experienced During Execution by Different Methods."
- Physics - Presented to John Bockris of Texas A&M University, for his achievements in cold fusion, in the transmutation of base elements into gold, and in the electrochemical incineration of domestic rubbish.
- Chemistry - Presented to Jacques Benveniste of France, for his homeopathic discovery that not only does water have memory, but that the information can be transmitted over telephone lines and the Internet.
- Biology - Presented to Peter Fong of Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for contributing to the happiness of clams by giving them Prozac.
- Economics - Presented to Richard Seed of Chicago for his efforts to stoke up the world economy by cloning himself and other human beings.
- Literature - Presented to Dr. Mara Sidoli of Washington, DC, for her illuminating report, "Farting as a Defence Against Unspeakable Dread".
- Medicine - Presented to Patient Y and to his doctors, Caroline Mills, Meirion Llewelyn, David Kelly, and Peter Holt, of Royal Gwent Hospital, in Newport for the cautionary medical report, "A Man Who Pricked His Finger and Smelled Putrid for 5 Years."
- Peace - Presented to Prime Minister of India, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, for their aggressively peaceful detonations of atomic bombs.
- Physics - Presented to Deepak Chopra of The Chopra Center for Well Being, La Jolla, California, for his unique interpretation of quantum physics as it applies to life, liberty, and the pursuit of economic happiness.
- Safety Engineering - Presented to Troy Hurtubise, of North Bay, Ontario, for developing and personally testing a suit of armor that is impervious to grizzly bears.
- Science Education - Presented to Dolores Krieger, Professor Emerita, New York University, for demonstrating the merits of therapeutic touch, a method by which nurses manipulate the energy fields of ailing patients by carefully avoiding physical contact with those patients.
- Statistics - Presented to Jerald Bain of Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto and Kerry Siminoski of the University of Alberta, for their carefully measured report, "The Relationship Among Height, Penile Length, and Foot Size"[10].
- Biology - Presented to Dr. Paul Bosland, director of The Chili Pepper Institute, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, for breeding a spiceless jalapeño chili pepper.
- Chemistry - Presented to Takeshi Makino, president of The Safety Detective Agency in Osaka, Japan, for his involvement with S-Check, an infidelity detection spray that wives can apply to their husbands' underwear.
- Environmental Protection - Presented to Hyuk-ho Kwon of Kolon Company of Seoul, South Korea, for inventing the self-perfuming business suit.
- Literature - Presented to the British Standards Institution for its six-page specification (BS 6008) of the proper way to make a cup of tea.
- Managed Health Care - Presented to George Blonsky and Charlotte Blonsky of New York City and San Jose, California, for inventing a device (U.S. Patent 3,216,423) to aid women in giving birth: the woman is strapped onto a circular table, and the table is then rotated at high speed.
- Medicine - Presented to Dr. Arvid Vatle of Stord, Norway, for carefully collecting, classifying, and contemplating which kinds of containers his patients chose when submitting urine samples.
- Peace - Presented to Charl Fourie and Michelle Wong of Johannesburg, South Africa, for inventing the Blaster, a foot-pedal activated flamethrower that motorists can use against carjackers.
- Physics - Presented to Dr. Len Fisher of Bath, England and Sydney, Australia for calculating the optimal way to dunk a biscuit. Also, to Professor Jean-Marc Vanden-Broeck of the University of East Anglia, England, and Belgium, for calculating how to make a teapot spout that does not drip.
- Science Education - Presented to the Kansas State Board of Education and the Colorado State Board of Education, for mandating that children should not believe in Darwin's theory of evolution any more than they believe in Newton's theory of gravitation, Faraday's and Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism, or Pasteur's theory that germs cause disease.
- Sociology - Presented to Steve Penfold, of York University in Toronto, for doing his Ph.D. thesis on the history of Canadian doughnut shops.
- Biology - Presented to Richard Wassersug of Dalhousie University, for his firsthand report, "On the Comparative Palatability of Some Dry-Season Tadpoles from Costa Rica".
- Chemistry - Presented to Donatella Marazziti, Alessandra Rossi, and Giovanni B. Cassano of the University of Pisa, Italy, and Hagop S. Akiskal of the University of California, San Diego, for their discovery that, biochemically, romantic love may be indistinguishable from having severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
- Computer Science - Presented to Chris Niswander of Tucson, Arizona, for inventing PawSense, software that detects when a cat is walking across your computer keyboard.
- Economics - Presented to The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, for bringing efficiency and steady growth to the mass marriage industry, with, according to his reports, a 36-couple wedding in 1960, a 430-couple wedding in 1968, an 1800-couple wedding in 1975, a 6000-couple wedding in 1982, a 30,000-couple wedding in 1992, a 360,000-couple wedding in 1995, and a 36,000,000-couple wedding in 1997.
- Literature - Presented to Jasmuheen (formerly known as Ellen Greve) of Australia, first lady of Breatharianism, for her book Living on Light, which explains that although some people do eat food, they don't ever really need to.
- Medicine - Presented to Willibrord Weijmar Schultz, Pek van Andel, and Eduard Mooyaart of Groningen, the Netherlands, and Ida Sabelis of Amsterdam, for their illuminating report "Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal."
- Peace - Presented to The Royal Navy, for ordering its sailors to stop using live cannon shells, and to instead just shout "Bang!"
- Physics - Presented to Andre Geim of the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and Michael Berry of Bristol University, England, for using magnets to levitate a frog.
- Psychology - Presented to David Dunning of Cornell University and Justin Kruger of the University of Illinois, for their modest report, "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments".
- Public Health - Presented to Jonathan Wyatt, Gordon McNaughton, and William Tullet of Glasgow, for their alarming report, "The Collapse of Toilets in Glasgow".
- Astrophysics - Presented to Jack Van Impe and Rexella Van Impe of Jack Van Impe Ministries, Rochester Hills, Michigan, for their discovery that black holes fulfill all the technical requirements for the location of Hell.
- Biology - Presented to Buck Weimer of Pueblo, Colorado for inventing Under-Ease, airtight underwear with a replaceable charcoal filter that removes bad-smelling gases before they escape.
- Economics - Presented to Joel Slemrod, of the University of Michigan Business School, and Wojciech Kopczuk, of the University of British Columbia, for their conclusion that people find a way to postpone their deaths if that would qualify them for a lower rate on the inheritance tax.
- Literature - Presented to John Richards of Boston, England, founder of The Apostrophe Protection Society, for his efforts to protect, promote, and defend the differences between the plural and the possessive.
- Medicine - Presented to Peter Barss of McGill University, Canada, for his impactful medical report "Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts".
- Peace - Presented to Viliumas Malinauskas of Grutas, Lithuania, for creating the amusement park known as "Stalin World".
- Physics - Presented to David Schmidt of the University of Massachusetts, for his partial explanation of the shower-curtain effect: a shower curtain tends to billow inwards while a shower is being taken.
- Psychology - Presented to Lawrence W. Sherman of Miami University, Ohio, for his influential research report "An Ecological Study of Glee in Small Groups of Preschool Children".
- Public Health - Presented to Chittaranjan Andrade and B.S. Srihari of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India, for their probing medical discovery that nose picking is a common activity among adolescents.
- Technology - Presented jointly to John Keogh of Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia, for patenting the wheel in the year 2001, and to the Australian Patent Office (IP Australia) for granting him Innovation Patent #2001100012
- Biology - Presented to Norma E. Bubier, Charles G.M. Paxton, Phil Bowers, and D. Charles Deeming of the United Kingdom, for their report "Courtship Behaviour of Ostriches Towards Humans Under Farming Conditions in Britain".
- Chemistry - Presented to Theodore Gray of Wolfram Research, in Champaign, Illinois, for gathering many elements of the periodic table, and assembling them into the form of a four-legged periodic table table.
- Economics - Presented to the executives, corporate directors, and auditors of Enron, Lernaut & Hauspie (Belgium), Adelphia, Bank of Commerce and Credit International (Pakistan), Cendant, CMS Energy, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Gazprom (Russia), Global Crossing, HIH Insurance (Australia), Informix, Kmart, Maxwell Communications (UK), McKessonHBOC, Merrill Lynch, Merck, Peregrine Systems, Qwest Communications, Reliant Resources, Rent-Way, Rite Aid, Sunbeam, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom, Xerox, and Arthur Andersen, for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world. (All companies except for Arthur Andersen were forced to restate their financial reports due to false or incorrect accounting. Andersen was the accounting firm most identified with the scandals, having been indicted on criminal charges stemming from its actions as auditor of Enron. All companies are U.S.-based unless otherwise noted.)
- Hygiene - Presented to Eduardo Segura, of Lavakan de Aste, in Tarragona, Spain, for inventing a washing machine for cats and dogs.
- Interdisciplinary Research - Presented to Karl Kruszelnicki of The University of Sydney, Australia, for performing a comprehensive survey of human belly button fluff - who gets it, when, what color, and how much.
- Literature - Presented jointly to Vicki L. Silvers of the University of Nevada-Reno and David S. Kreiner of Central Missouri State University, for their colorful report "The Effects of Pre-Existing Inappropriate Highlighting on Reading Comprehension".
- Mathematics - Presented to K.P. Sreekumar and G. Nirmalan of Kerala Agricultural University, India, for their analytical report "Estimation of the Total Surface Area in Indian Elephants".
- Medicine - Presented to Chris McManus of University College London, for his excruciatingly balanced report, "Scrotal Asymmetry in Man and in Ancient Sculpture".
- Peace - Presented to Keita Sato, President of Takara Co., Dr. Matsumi Suzuki, President of Japan Acoustic Lab, and Dr. Norio Kogure, Executive Director, Kogure Veterinary Hospital, for promoting peace and harmony between the species by inventing Bow-Lingual, a computer-based automatic dog-to-human language translation device.
- Physics - Presented to Arnd Leike of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, for demonstrating that beer froth obeys the mathematical law of exponential decay.
- Biology - Presented to C.W. Moeliker, of Natuurmuseum Rotterdam, for documenting the first scientifically recorded case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck.
- Chemistry - Presented to Yukio Hirose of Kanazawa University, for his chemical investigation of a bronze statue, in the city of Kanazawa, that fails to attract pigeons.
- Economics - Presented to Karl Schwärzler and the nation of Liechtenstein, for making it possible to rent the entire country for corporate conventions, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other gatherings.
- Engineering - Presented to John Paul Stapp, Edward A. Murphy, Jr., and George Nichols, for jointly giving birth in 1949 to Murphy's Law, the basic engineering principle that "If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, someone will do it" (or, in other words: "If anything can go wrong, it will").
- Interdisciplinary Research - Presented to Stefano Ghirlanda, Liselotte Jansson, and Magnus Enquis of Stockholm University, for their inevitable report "Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans."
- Literature - Presented to John Trinkaus, of the Zicklin School of Business, New York City, for meticulously collecting data and publishing more than 80 detailed academic reports about things that annoyed him, such as:
- What percentage of young people wear baseball caps with the peak facing to the rear rather than to the front;
- What percentage of pedestrians wear sport shoes that are white rather than some other color;
- What percentage of swimmers swim laps in the shallow end of a pool rather than the deep end;
- What percentage of automobile drivers almost, but not completely, come to a stop at one particular stop-sign;
- What percentage of commuters carry attaché cases;
- What percentage of shoppers exceed the number of items permitted in a supermarket's express checkout lane;
- What percentage of students dislike the taste of Brussels sprouts.
- Medicine - Presented to Eleanor Maguire, David Gadian, Ingrid Johnsrude, Catriona Good, John Ashburner, Richard Frackowiak, and Christopher Frith of University College London, for presenting evidence that the hippocampi of London taxi drivers are more highly developed than those of their fellow citizens.[11]
- Peace - Presented to Lal Bihari, of Uttar Pradesh, India, for a triple accomplishment: First, for leading an active life even though he has been declared legally dead; second, for waging a lively posthumous campaign against bureaucratic inertia and greedy relatives; and third, for creating the Association of Dead People. Lal Bihari overcame the handicap of being dead, and managed to obtain a passport from the Indian government so that he could travel to Harvard to accept his Prize. However, the U.S. government refused to allow him into the country. His friend Madhu Kapoor therefore came to the Ig Nobel Ceremony and accepted the Prize on behalf of Lal Bihari. Several weeks later, the Prize was presented to Lal Bihari himself in a special ceremony in India.
- Physics - Presented to Jack Harvey, John Culvenor, Warren Payne, Steve Cowle, Michael Lawrance, David Stuart, and Robyn Williams of Australia, for their irresistible report "An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces".[12]
- Psychology - Presented to Gian Vittorio Caprara and Claudio Barbaranelli of the University of Rome La Sapienza, and to Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University, for their discerning report "Politicians' Uniquely Simple Personalities".
- Biology - Presented to Ben Wilson of the University of British Columbia, Lawrence Dill of Simon Fraser University, Canada, Robert Batty of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Magnus Whalberg of the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and Håkan Westerberg of Sweden's National Board of Fisheries, for showing that herrings apparently communicate by farting.
- Chemistry - Presented to The Coca-Cola Company of Great Britain, for using advanced technology to convert liquid from the River Thames into Dasani, a brand of bottled water, which for precautionary reasons has been made unavailable to consumers.
- Economics - Presented to the Vatican, for outsourcing prayers to India.
- Engineering - Presented jointly to Donald J. Smith and his father, Frank J. Smith, of Orlando, Florida, for patenting the comb over (U.S. Patent 4,022,227).
- Literature - Presented to The American Nudist Research Library of Kissimmee, Florida, for preserving nudist history so that everyone can see it.
- Medicine - Presented jointly to Steven Stack of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, and James Gundlach of Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, for their published report "The Effect of Country Music on Suicide".[13]
- Peace - Presented to Daisuke Inoue of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, for inventing karaoke, thereby providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.
- Physics - Presented jointly to Ramesh Balasubramaniam of the University of Ottawa, and Michael Turvey of the University of Connecticut and Haskins Laboratory, for exploring and explaining the dynamics of hula-hooping.
- Psychology - Presented jointly to Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Christopher Chabris of Harvard University, for demonstrating that when people pay close attention to something, it's all too easy to overlook anything else - even a woman in a gorilla suit. (See inattentional blindness).
- Public Health - Presented to Jillian Clarke of the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, and then Howard University, for investigating the scientific validity of the five-second rule about whether it's safe to eat food that's been dropped on the floor.
- Agricultural History - Presented to James Watson of Massey University, New Zealand, for his scholarly study, "The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers".
- Biology - Presented jointly to Benjamin Smith of the University of Adelaide, Australia and the University of Toronto, Canada and the Firmenich perfume company, Geneva, Switzerland, and ChemComm Enterprises, Archamps, France; Craig Williams of James Cook University and the University of South Australia; Michael Tyler of the University of Adelaide; Brian Williams of the University of Adelaide; and Yoji Hayasaka of the Australian Wine Research Institute; for painstakingly smelling and cataloging the peculiar odors produced by 131 different species of frogs when the frogs were feeling stressed.
- Chemistry - Presented jointly to Edward Cussler of the University of Minnesota and Brian Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, for conducting a careful experiment to settle the longstanding scientific question: can people swim faster in syrup or in water? It was found that swimmers in the experiment reach comparable velocity in both media.[14]
- Economics - Presented to Gauri Nanda of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for inventing Clocky, an alarm clock that runs away and hides, repeatedly, thus ensuring that people get out of bed, and thus theoretically adding many productive hours to the workday.
- Fluid Dynamics - Presented jointly to Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow of International University Bremen, Germany and the University of Oulu, Finland; and József Gál of Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary, for using basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up inside a penguin, as detailed in their report "Pressures Produced When Penguins Poo — Calculations on Avian Defecation".
- Literature - Presented to the Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters — General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others — each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them. (See advance fee fraud.)
- Medicine - Presented to Gregg A. Miller of Oak Grove, Missouri, for inventing Neuticles — artificial replacement testicles for dogs, which are available in three sizes, and three degrees of firmness.
- Nutrition - Presented to Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu of Tokyo, Japan, for photographing and retrospectively analyzing every meal he has consumed during a period of 34 years (and counting).
- Peace - Presented jointly to Claire Rind and Peter Simmons of University of Newcastle, in the UK, for electrically monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a locust while that locust was watching selected highlights from the movie Star Wars.
- Physics - Presented jointly to John Mainstone and Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland, Australia, for patiently conducting the so-called pitch drop experiment that began in the year 1927 — in which a glob of congealed black tar pitch has been slowly dripping through a funnel, at a rate of approximately one drop every nine years.
- Acoustics: D. Lynn Halpern of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, and Brandeis University, and Northwestern University, Randolph Blake of Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University and James Hillenbrand of Western Michigan University and Northwestern University for conducting experiments to learn why people dislike the sound of fingernails scraping chalkboard.
- Biology: Bart Knols of Wageningen Agricultural University, in Wageningen, the Netherlands; and of the National Institute for Medical Research / Ifakara Centre, Tanzania, and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna, Austria) and Ruurd de Jong of Wageningen Agricultural University and of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Italy for showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet.
- Chemistry: Antonio Mulet, José Javier Benedito and José Bon of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, and Carmen Rosselló of the University of Illes Balears, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, for their study "Ultrasonic Velocity in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature".[15]
- Literature: Daniel M. Oppenheimer of Princeton University for his report "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly".[16]
- Mathematics: Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, for calculating the number of photographs that must be taken to (almost) ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed.
- Medicine: Francis M. Fesmire of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, for his medical case report "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage";[17] and Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan, and Arie Oliven of Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, for their subsequent medical case report also titled "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage".[18]
- Nutrition: Wasmia Al-Houty of Kuwait University and Faten Al-Mussalam of the Kuwait Environment Public Authority, for showing that dung beetles are finicky eaters.[19]
- Ornithology: Ivan R. Schwab, of the University of California Davis, and Philip R.A. May of the University of California Los Angeles, for exploring and explaining why woodpeckers don't get headaches.[20]
- Peace: Howard Stapleton of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, for inventing an electromechanical teenager repellant -- a device that makes annoying high-pitched noise designed to be audible to teenagers but not to adults; and for later using that same technology to make telephone ringtones that are audible to teenagers but probably not to their teachers.
- Physics: Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, for their analysis that explains why uncooked spaghetti breaks into several pieces when it is bent.[21]
- Aviation: Patricia V. Agostino, Santiago A. Plano and Diego A. Golombek, for discovering that hamsters recover from jetlag more quickly when given Viagra.[22][23]
- Biology: Johanna E.M.H. van Bronswijk, for taking a census of all the mites and other life forms that live in people's beds.[24]
- Chemistry: Mayu Yamamoto for extracting vanilla flavour from cow dung.[25]
- Economics: Kuo Cheng Hsieh, for patenting a device to catch bank robbers by ensnaring them in a net.[26]
- Linguistics: Juan Manuel Toro, Josep B. Trobalon and Nuria Sebastian-Galles, for determining that rats sometimes can't distinguish between recordings of Japanese and Dutch played backward.[27]
- Literature: Glenda Browne, for her study into indexing entries that start with the word "the".[28]
- Medicine: Dan Meyer and Brian Witcombe, for investigating the side-effects of swallowing swords.[29]
- Nutrition: Brian Wansink, for investigating people's appetite for mindless eating by secretly feeding them a self-refilling bowl of soup.[30]
- Peace: The United States Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, for suggesting the research and development of a "gay bomb," which would cause enemy troops to become sexually attracted to each other.
- Physics: L. Mahadevan and Enrique Cerda Villablanca for their theoretical study of how sheets become wrinkled.[31]
The "18th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony" was held on 2 October 2008 at
Harvard University's Sanders Theatre.
[32]
- Archaeology: Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo and Jose Carlos Marcelino, for showing that armadillos can mix up the contents of an archaeological site.[33][34]
- Biology: Marie-Christine Cadiergues, Christel Joubert, and Michel Franc, for discovering that fleas that live on dogs jump higher than fleas that live on cats.[35]
- Chemistry: Sheree Umpierre, Joseph Hill, and Deborah Anderson, for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide,[36] and C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu, and B.N. Chiang for accidentally proving it is not.[37][38]
- Cognitive science: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Hiroyasu Yamada, Ryo Kobayashi, Atsushi Tero, Akio Ishiguro, and Ágota Tóth, for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles.[39][40]
- Economics: Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tyber, and Brent Jordan, for discovering that exotic dancers earn more when at peak fertility.[41]
- Literature: David Sims, for his study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations".[42][43]
- Medicine: Rebecca Waber and Dan Ariely for demonstrating that expensive placebos are more effective than inexpensive placebos.[44][45]
- Nutrition: Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence, for demonstrating that food tastes better when it sounds more appealing.[46][47]
- Peace: The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology and the citizens of Switzerland, for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.[48]
- Physics: Dorian Raymer and Douglas Smith, for proving that heaps of string or hair will inevitably tangle.[49]
- Biology: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the feces of giant pandas.
- Chemistry: Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor M. Castano of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, for creating diamond film from tequila.[50]
- Economics: The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks — Kaupthing Bank, Landsbanki, Glitnir Bank, and Central Bank of Iceland — for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa (and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy).
- Literature: Ireland's police service for writing and presenting more than 50 traffic tickets to a Polish individual, by the name of Prawo Jazdy. Mr Jazdy was widely thought to be the most frequent driving offender in Ireland, until an investigation uncovered the fact that Prawo Jazdy is the polish term for "Driving License". [51]
- Mathematics: Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers by having his bank print notes with denominations ranging from one cent to one hundred trillion dollars.
- Medicine: Donald L. Unger of Thousand Oaks, California, US, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand but not his right hand every day for 50 years.[52]
- Peace: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining whether it is better to be hit on the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.[53]
- Physics: Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, Daniel E Lieberman of Harvard University and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, all in the US, for analytically determining why pregnant women do not tip over.[54]
- Public Health: Elena N. Bodnar, Raphael C. Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, US, for inventing a bra that can be quickly converted into a pair of gas masks - one for the wearer and one to be given to a needy bystander.[55]
- Veterinary medicine: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, for showing that cows with names give more milk than cows that are nameless.[56]
List of female Nobel laureates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
All Nobel Prizes won by women
The Nobel Prizes are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institute, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals who make outstanding contributions in the fields of Chemistry, Physics, Literature, Peace, Physiology or Medicine and Economics.[1] All but the economics prize were established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel, which dictates that the awards should be administered by the Nobel Foundation. The Nobel prize in Economics, or the The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968 by the Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, for outstanding contributions in the field of Economics.[2] Each prize is awarded by a separate committee; the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, and Economics, the Swedish Academy awards the Prize in Literature, the Karolinska Institute awards the Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Prize in Peace.[3] Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma and a cash prize that has varied throughout the years.[2] In 1901, the winners of the first Nobel Prizes were given 150,782 SEK, which is equal to 7,731,004 SEK in December 2007. In 2008, the winners were awarded a prize amount of 10,000,000 SEK.[4] The awards are presented in Stockholm (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Economics) and Oslo (Peace) in an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.[5]
Following the awards of 2009, the Nobel Prize has been awarded 765 times to men and 41 times to women (there have also been 23 awards to organizations).[6][7][8] The first woman to win a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband, Pierre Curie, and Henri Becquerel.[9][10] Curie is also the only woman to have won multiple Nobel Prizes; in 1911, she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (and is accordingly included twice in the total figure of 41 for female laureates). Curie's daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, making the two the only mother-daughter pair to have won Nobel Prizes.[7] Twelve women have won the Nobel Peace Prize, twelve have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, ten have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, four have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, two have won the Nobel Prize in Physics and only one woman (in 2009) has won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.[11] The most Nobel Prizes awarded to women in a single year was in 2009, when five women became laureates.
[edit] Laureates
| Year | Image | Laureate | Country | Category | Rationale |
| 1903 |  | Curie, MarieMarie Curie
(shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel) | Poland and France | Physics | "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel"[10] |
| 1905 |  | Suttner, Bertha vonBertha von Suttner | Austria–Hungary | Peace | Honorary President of Permanent International Peace Bureau, Bern, Switzerland; Author of Lay Down Your Arms.[12] |
| 1909 |  | Lagerlof, SelmaSelma Lagerlöf | Sweden | Literature | "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings"[13] |
| 1911 | | Curie, MarieMarie Curie | Poland and France | Chemistry | "for her discovery of radium and polonium"[14] |
| 1926 |  | Deledda, GraziaGrazia Deledda | Italy | Literature | "for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general"[15] |
| 1928 |  | Undset, SigridSigrid Undset | Norway | Literature | "principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages"[16] |
| 1931 |  | Addams, JaneJane Addams
(shared with Nicholas Murray Butler) | United States | Peace | Sociologist; International President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.[17] |
| 1935 |  | Joliot-Curie, IreneIrène Joliot-Curie
(shared with Frédéric Joliot-Curie) | France | Chemistry | "for their synthesis of new radioactive elements"[18] |
| 1938 |  | Buck, Pearl S.Pearl S. Buck | United States | Literature | "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces"[19] |
| 1945 |  | Mistral, GabrielaGabriela Mistral | Chile | Literature | "for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world"[20] |
| 1946 |  | Balch, Emily GreeneEmily Greene Balch
(shared with John Raleigh Mott) | United States | Peace | Formerly Professor of History and Sociology; Honorary International President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.[21] |
| 1947 |  | Cori, Gerty TheresaGerty Theresa Cori
(shared with Carl Ferdinand Cori and Bernardo Houssay) | United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen"[22] |
| 1963 |  | Goeppert-Mayer, MariaMaria Goeppert-Mayer
(shared with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner) | United States | Physics | "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure"[23] |
| 1964 |  | Hodgkin, Dorothy CrowfootDorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin | United Kingdom | Chemistry | "for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances"[24] |
| 1966 |  | Sachs, NellyNelly Sachs
(shared with Samuel Agnon) | Sweden | Literature | "for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength"[25] |
| 1976 |  | Williams, BettyBetty Williams | United Kingdom | Peace | Founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (later renamed Community of Peace People)[26] |
| 1976 |
| Corrigan, MaireadMairead Corrigan | United Kingdom | Peace | Founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (later renamed Community of Peace People)[26] |
| 1977 |
| Sussman Yalow, RosalynRosalyn Sussman Yalow
(shared with Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally) | United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones"[27] |
| 1979 |  | Teresa, MotherMother Teresa | India and
Macedonia | Peace | Leader of Missionaries of Charity, Calcutta.[28] |
| 1982 |  | Myrdal, AlvaAlva Myrdal
(shared with Alfonso García Robles) | Sweden | Peace | Former Cabinet Minister; Diplomat; Writer.[29] |
| 1983 |
| McClintock, BarbaraBarbara McClintock | United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for her discovery of mobile genetic elements"[30] |
| 1986 |  | Levi-Montalcini, RitaRita Levi-Montalcini
(shared with Stanley Cohen) | Italy and
United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discoveries of growth factors"[31] |
| 1988 |
| Elion, Gertrude B.Gertrude B. Elion
(shared with James W. Black and George H. Hitchings) | United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment"[32] |
| 1991 |
| Gordimer, NadineNadine Gordimer | South Africa | Literature | "who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity"[33] |
| 1991 |  | Suu Kyi, Aung SanAung San Suu Kyi | Burma | Peace | "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights"[34] |
| 1992 |  | Menchu, RigobertaRigoberta Menchú | Guatemala | Peace | "in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples"[35] |
| 1993 |  | Morrison, ToniToni Morrison | United States | Literature | "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality"[36] |
| 1995 |  | Nusslein-Volhard, ChristianeChristiane Nüsslein-Volhard
(shared with Edward B. Lewis and Eric F. Wieschaus) | Germany | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development"[37] |
| 1996 |  | Szymborska, WislawaWisława Szymborska | Poland | Literature | "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality"[38] |
| 1997 |  | Williams, JodyJody Williams
(shared with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines) | United States | Peace | "for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines"[39] |
| 2003 |  | Ebadi, ShirinShirin Ebadi | Iran | Peace | "for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children"[40] |
| 2004 |  | Jelinek, ElfriedeElfriede Jelinek | Austria | Literature | "for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power"[41] |
| 2004 |  | Maathai, WangariWangari Maathai | Kenya | Peace | "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace"[42] |
| 2004 |  | Buck, Linda B.Linda B. Buck
(shared with Richard Axel) | United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system"[43] |
| 2007 |  | Lessing, DorisDoris Lessing | United Kingdom | Literature | "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny"[44] |
| 2008 |  | Barre-Sinoussi, FrancoiseFrançoise Barré-Sinoussi
(shared with Harald zur Hausen and Luc Montagnier) | France | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus"[45] |
| 2009 |  | Blackburn, ElizabethElizabeth Blackburn
(shared with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak) | Australia and United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"[46] |
| 2009 |  | Greider, Carol W.Carol W. Greider
(shared with Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak) | United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"[46] |
| 2009 |  | Yonath, Ada E.Ada E. Yonath
(shared with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz) | Israel | Chemistry | "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome"[47] |
| 2009 |  | Muller, HertaHerta Müller | Germany and Romania | Literature | "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed"[48] |
| 2009 |
| Elinor OstromElinor Ostrom
(shared with Oliver E. Williamson) | United States | Economics | "for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons"[49] |
| Year | Physics | Chemistry | Physiology
or Medicine | Literature | Peace | Economics |
|---|
| 1901 | Röntgen, Wilhelm ConradWilhelm Conrad Röntgen | van 't Hoff, Jacobus H.Jacobus H. van 't Hoff | von Behring, EmilEmil von Behring | Prudhomme, SullySully Prudhomme | Dunant, HenryHenry Dunant;
Passy, FrédéricFrédéric Passy | — |
| 1902 | Lorentz, Hendrik A.Hendrik A. Lorentz;
Zeeman, PieterPieter Zeeman | Fischer, Hermann EmilHermann Emil Fischer | Ross, RonaldRonald Ross | Mommsen, TheodorTheodor Mommsen | Ducommun, ÉlieÉlie Ducommun;
Gobat, AlbertAlbert Gobat | — |
| 1903 | Becquerel, HenriHenri Becquerel;
Curie, PierrePierre Curie;
Curie, MarieMarie Curie | Arrhenius, SvanteSvante Arrhenius | Finsen, Niels RybergNiels Ryberg Finsen | Bjørnson, BjørnstjerneBjørnstjerne Bjørnson | Cremer, RandalRandal Cremer | — |
| 1904 | Rayleigh, LordLord Rayleigh | Ramsay, WilliamWilliam Ramsay | Pavlov, Ivan PetrovichIvan Petrovich Pavlov | Mistral, FrédéricFrédéric Mistral;
Echegaray, JoséJosé Echegaray | Institut de Droit International | — |
| 1905 | Lenard, PhilippPhilipp Lenard | von Baeyer, AdolfAdolf von Baeyer | Koch, RobertRobert Koch | Sienkiewicz, HenrykHenryk Sienkiewicz | von Suttner, BerthaBertha von Suttner | — |
| 1906 | Thomson, J. J.J. J. Thomson | Moissan, HenriHenri Moissan | Golgi, CamilloCamillo Golgi;
Ramón y Cajal, SantiagoSantiago Ramón y Cajal | Carducci, GiosuèGiosuè Carducci | Roosevelt, TheodoreTheodore Roosevelt | — |
| 1907 | Michelson, Albert A.Albert A. Michelson | Buchner, EduardEduard Buchner | Laveran, Charles Louis AlphonseCharles Louis Alphonse Laveran | Kipling, RudyardRudyard Kipling | Moneta, Ernesto TeodoroErnesto Teodoro Moneta;
Renault, LouisLouis Renault | — |
| 1908 | Lippmann, GabrielGabriel Lippmann | Rutherford, ErnestErnest Rutherford | Mechnikov, Ilya IlyichIlya Ilyich Mechnikov;
Ehrlich, PaulPaul Ehrlich | Eucken, Rudolf ChristophRudolf Christoph Eucken | Arnoldson, Klas PontusKlas Pontus Arnoldson;
Bajer, FredrikFredrik Bajer | — |
| 1909 | Braun, FerdinandFerdinand Braun;
Marconi, GuglielmoGuglielmo Marconi | Ostwald, WilhelmWilhelm Ostwald | Kocher, Emil TheodorEmil Theodor Kocher | Lagerlöf, SelmaSelma Lagerlöf | Beernaert, Auguste Marie FrançoisAuguste Marie François Beernaert;
d'Estournelles de Constant, Paul-Henri-BenjaminPaul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant | — |
| 1910 | van der Waals, Johannes DiderikJohannes Diderik van der Waals | Wallach, OttoOtto Wallach | Kossel, AlbrechtAlbrecht Kossel | Heyse, PaulPaul Heyse | International Peace Bureau | — |
| 1911 | Wien, WilhelmWilhelm Wien | Curie, MarieMarie Curie | Gullstrand, AllvarAllvar Gullstrand | Maeterlinck, MauriceMaurice Maeterlinck | Asser, Tobias Michael CarelTobias Michael Carel Asser;
Fried, Alfred HermannAlfred Hermann Fried | — |
| 1912 | Dalén, GustafGustaf Dalén | Grignard, VictorVictor Grignard;
Sabatier, PaulPaul Sabatier | Carrel, AlexisAlexis Carrel | Hauptmann, GerhartGerhart Hauptmann | Root, ElihuElihu Root | — |
| 1913 | Onnes, Heike KamerlinghHeike Kamerlingh Onnes | Werner, AlfredAlfred Werner | Richet, CharlesCharles Richet | Tagore, RabindranathRabindranath Tagore | La Fontaine, HenriHenri La Fontaine | — |
| 1914 | von Laue, MaxMax von Laue | Richards, Theodore WilliamTheodore William Richards | Bárány, RobertRobert Bárány | None | None | — |
| 1915 | Bragg, William HenryWilliam Henry Bragg;
Bragg, William LawrenceWilliam Lawrence Bragg | Willstätter, Richard MartinRichard Martin Willstätter | None | Rolland, RomainRomain Rolland | None | — |
| 1916 | None | None | None | von Heidenstam, VernerVerner von Heidenstam | None | — |
| 1917 | Barkla, Charles GloverCharles Glover Barkla | None | None | Gjellerup, Karl AdolphKarl Adolph Gjellerup;
Pontoppidan, HenrikHenrik Pontoppidan | International Committee of the Red Cross | — |
| 1918 | Planck, MaxMax Planck | Haber, FritzFritz Haber | None | None | None | — |
| 1919 | Stark, JohannesJohannes Stark | None | Bordet, JulesJules Bordet | Spitteler, CarlCarl Spitteler | Wilson, WoodrowWoodrow Wilson | — |
| 1920 | Guillaume, Charles EdouardCharles Edouard Guillaume | Nernst, Walther HermannWalther Hermann Nernst | Krogh, AugustAugust Krogh | Hamsun, KnutKnut Hamsun | Bourgeois, LéonLéon Bourgeois | — |
| 1921 | Einstein, AlbertAlbert Einstein | Soddy, FrederickFrederick Soddy | None | France, AnatoleAnatole France | Branting, HjalmarHjalmar Branting;
Lange, Christian LousChristian Lous Lange | — |
| 1922 | Bohr, NielsNiels Bohr | Aston, Francis WilliamFrancis William Aston | Hill, ArchibaldArchibald Hill;
Meyerhof, Otto FritzOtto Fritz Meyerhof | Benavente, JacintoJacinto Benavente | Nansen, FridtjofFridtjof Nansen | — |
| 1923 | Millikan, Robert A.Robert A. Millikan | Pregl, FritzFritz Pregl | Banting, FrederickFrederick Banting;
Macleod, John James RichardJohn James Richard Macleod | Yeats, William ButlerWilliam Butler Yeats | None | — |
| 1924 | Siegbahn, ManneManne Siegbahn | None | Einthoven, WillemWillem Einthoven | Reymont, WładysławWładysław Reymont | None | — |
| 1925 | Franck, JamesJames Franck;
Hertz, GustavGustav Hertz | Zsigmondy, Richard AdolfRichard Adolf Zsigmondy | None | Shaw, George BernardGeorge Bernard Shaw | Chamberlain, AustenAusten Chamberlain;
Dawes, Charles G.Charles G. Dawes | — |
| 1926 | Perrin, Jean BaptisteJean Baptiste Perrin | Svedberg, TheodorTheodor Svedberg | Fibiger, Johannes Andreas GribJohannes Andreas Grib Fibiger | Deledda, GraziaGrazia Deledda | Briand, AristideAristide Briand;
Stresemann, GustavGustav Stresemann | — |
| 1927 | Compton, Arthur H.Arthur H. Compton;
Wilson, Charles Thomson ReesCharles Thomson Rees Wilson | Wieland, Heinrich OttoHeinrich Otto Wieland | Wagner-Jauregg, JuliusJulius Wagner-Jauregg | Bergson, HenriHenri Bergson | Buisson, FerdinandFerdinand Buisson;
Quidde, LudwigLudwig Quidde | — |
| 1928 | Richardson, Owen WillansOwen Willans Richardson | Windaus, Adolf Otto ReinholdAdolf Otto Reinhold Windaus | Nicolle, CharlesCharles Nicolle | Undset, SigridSigrid Undset | None | — |
| 1929 | de Broglie, LouisLouis de Broglie | Harden, ArthurArthur Harden;
von Euler-Chelpin, HansHans von Euler-Chelpin | Eijkman, ChristiaanChristiaan Eijkman;
Hopkins, Frederick GowlandFrederick Gowland Hopkins | Mann, ThomasThomas Mann | Kellogg, Frank B.Frank B. Kellogg | — |
| 1930 | Raman, VenkataVenkata Raman | Fischer, HansHans Fischer | Landsteiner, KarlKarl Landsteiner | Lewis, SinclairSinclair Lewis | Söderblom, NathanNathan Söderblom | — |
| 1931 | None | Bosch, CarlCarl Bosch;
Bergius, FriedrichFriedrich Bergius | Warburg, Otto HeinrichOtto Heinrich Warburg | Karlfeldt, Erik AxelErik Axel Karlfeldt | Addams, JaneJane Addams;
Butler, Nicholas MurrayNicholas Murray Butler | — |
| 1932 | Heisenberg, WernerWerner Heisenberg | Langmuir, IrvingIrving Langmuir | Sherrington, Charles ScottCharles Scott Sherrington;
Adrian, Edgar DouglasEdgar Douglas Adrian | Galsworthy, JohnJohn Galsworthy | None | — |
| 1933 | Schrödinger, ErwinErwin Schrödinger;
Dirac, Paul A.M.Paul A.M. Dirac | None | Morgan, Thomas HuntThomas Hunt Morgan | Bunin, IvanIvan Bunin | Angell, NormanNorman Angell | — |
| 1934 | None | Urey, Harold ClaytonHarold Clayton Urey | Whipple, GeorgeGeorge Whipple;
Minot, GeorgeGeorge Minot;
Murphy, William P.William P. Murphy | Pirandello, LuigiLuigi Pirandello | Henderson, ArthurArthur Henderson | — |
| 1935 | Chadwick, JamesJames Chadwick | Joliot-Curie, FrédéricFrédéric Joliot-Curie;
Joliot-Curie, IrèneIrène Joliot-Curie | Spemann, HansHans Spemann | None | von Ossietzky, CarlCarl von Ossietzky | — |
| 1936 | Hess, Victor F.Victor F. Hess;
Anderson, Carl D.Carl D. Anderson | Debye, PeterPeter Debye | Dale, Henry HallettHenry Hallett Dale;
Loewi, OttoOtto Loewi | O'Neill, EugeneEugene O'Neill | Lamas, Carlos SaavedraCarlos Saavedra Lamas | — |
| 1937 | Davisson, ClintonClinton Davisson;
Thomson, George PagetGeorge Paget Thomson | Haworth, WalterWalter Haworth;
Karrer, PaulPaul Karrer | Szent-Györgyi, AlbertAlbert Szent-Györgyi | du Gard, Roger MartinRoger Martin du Gard | Chelwood, Viscount, Cecil ofCecil of Chelwood, Viscount | — |
| 1938 | Fermi, EnricoEnrico Fermi | Kuhn, RichardRichard Kuhn[A] | Heymans, CorneilleCorneille Heymans | Buck, Pearl S.Pearl S. Buck | Nansen International Office For Refugees | — |
| 1939 | Lawrence, ErnestErnest Lawrence | Butenandt, AdolfAdolf Butenandt;[A]
Ružička, LavoslavLavoslav Ružička | Domagk, GerhardGerhard Domagk[A] | Sillanpää, Frans EemilFrans Eemil Sillanpää | None | — |
| 1940 | None | None | None | None | None | — |
| 1941 | None | None | None | None | None | — |
| 1942 | None | None | None | None | None | — |
| 1943 | Stern, OttoOtto Stern | de Hevesy, GeorgeGeorge de Hevesy | Dam, HenrikHenrik Dam;
Doisy, Edward AdelbertEdward Adelbert Doisy | None | None | — |
| 1944 | Rabi, Isidor IsaacIsidor Isaac Rabi | Hahn, OttoOtto Hahn | Erlanger, JosephJoseph Erlanger;
Gasser, Herbert SpencerHerbert Spencer Gasser | Jensen, Johannes VilhelmJohannes Vilhelm Jensen | International Committee of the Red Cross | — |
| 1945 | Pauli, WolfgangWolfgang Pauli | Virtanen, Artturi IlmariArtturi Ilmari Virtanen | Fleming, AlexanderAlexander Fleming;
Chain, Ernst BorisErnst Boris Chain;
Florey, Howard WalterHoward Walter Florey | Mistral, GabrielaGabriela Mistral | Hull, CordellCordell Hull | — |
| 1946 | Bridgman, Percy W.Percy W. Bridgman | Sumner, James B.James B. Sumner;
Northrop, John HowardJohn Howard Northrop;
Stanley, Wendell MeredithWendell Meredith Stanley | Muller, Hermann JosephHermann Joseph Muller | Hesse, HermannHermann Hesse | Balch, Emily GreeneEmily Greene Balch;
Mott, JohnJohn Mott | — |
| 1947 | Appleton, Edward V.Edward V. Appleton | Robinson, RobertRobert Robinson | Cori, Carl FerdinandCarl Ferdinand Cori;
Cori, Gerty TheresaGerty Theresa Cori;
Houssay, BernardoBernardo Houssay | Gide, AndréAndré Gide | Friends Service Council;
American Friends Service Committee | — |
| 1948 | Blackett, Patrick M.S.Patrick M.S. Blackett | Tiselius, ArneArne Tiselius | Müller, Paul HermannPaul Hermann Müller | Eliot, T. S.T. S. Eliot | None[B] | — |
| 1949 | Yukawa, HidekiHideki Yukawa | Giauque, WilliamWilliam Giauque | Hess, Walter RudolfWalter Rudolf Hess;
Moniz, António EgasAntónio Egas Moniz | Faulkner, WilliamWilliam Faulkner | Orr, John BoydJohn Boyd Orr | — |
| 1950 | Powell, CecilCecil Powell | Diels, OttoOtto Diels;
Alder, KurtKurt Alder | Hench, Philip ShowalterPhilip Showalter Hench;
Kendall, Edward CalvinEdward Calvin Kendall;
Reichstein, TadeusTadeus Reichstein | Russell, BertrandBertrand Russell | Bunche, RalphRalph Bunche | — |
| 1951 | Cockcroft, JohnJohn Cockcroft;
Walton, Ernest T.S.Ernest T.S. Walton | McMillan, EdwinEdwin McMillan;
Seaborg, Glenn T.Glenn T. Seaborg | Theiler, MaxMax Theiler | Lagerkvist, PärPär Lagerkvist | Jouhaux, LéonLéon Jouhaux | — |
| 1952 | Bloch, FelixFelix Bloch;
Purcell, Edward M.Edward M. Purcell | Martin, Archer John PorterArcher John Porter Martin;
Synge, Richard Laurence MillingtonRichard Laurence Millington Synge | Waksman, SelmanSelman Waksman | Mauriac, FrançoisFrançois Mauriac | Schweitzer, AlbertAlbert Schweitzer | — |
| 1953 | Zernike, FritsFrits Zernike | Staudinger, HermannHermann Staudinger | Krebs, Hans AdolfHans Adolf Krebs;
Lipmann, Fritz AlbertFritz Albert Lipmann | Churchill, WinstonWinston Churchill | Marshall, GeorgeGeorge Marshall | — |
| 1954 | Born, MaxMax Born;
Bothe, WaltherWalther Bothe | Pauling, LinusLinus Pauling | Enders, John FranklinJohn Franklin Enders;
Robbins, Frederick ChapmanFrederick Chapman Robbins;
Weller, Thomas HuckleThomas Huckle Weller | Hemingway, ErnestErnest Hemingway | United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees | — |
| 1955 | Lamb, Willis E.Willis E. Lamb;
Kusch, PolykarpPolykarp Kusch | du Vigneaud, VincentVincent du Vigneaud | Theorell, HugoHugo Theorell | Laxness, HalldórHalldór Laxness | None | — |
| 1956 | Bardeen, JohnJohn Bardeen;
Brattain, Walter H.Walter H. Brattain;
Shockley, William B.William B. Shockley | Hinshelwood, Cyril NormanCyril Norman Hinshelwood;
Semenov, Nikolay NikolaevichNikolay Nikolaevich Semenov | Cournand, André FrédéricAndré Frédéric Cournand;
Forssmann, WernerWerner Forssmann;
Richards, Dickinson W.Dickinson W. Richards | Jiménez, Juan RamónJuan Ramón Jiménez | None | — |
| 1957 | Yang, Chen NingChen Ning Yang;
Lee, Tsung-DaoTsung-Dao Lee | Todd, Lord (Alexander R.)Lord (Alexander R.) Todd | Bovet, DanielDaniel Bovet | Camus, AlbertAlbert Camus | Pearson, Lester B.Lester B. Pearson | — |
| 1958 | Cherenkov, Pavel A.Pavel A. Cherenkov;
Frank, Il´ja M.Il´ja M. Frank;
Tamm, Igor Y.Igor Y. Tamm | Sanger, FrederickFrederick Sanger | Beadle, George WellsGeorge Wells Beadle;
Tatum, Edward LawrieEdward Lawrie Tatum;
Lederberg, JoshuaJoshua Lederberg | Pasternak, BorisBoris Pasternak[C] | Pire, GeorgesGeorges Pire | — |
| 1959 | Segrè, EmilioEmilio Segrè;
Chamberlain, OwenOwen Chamberlain | Heyrovský, JaroslavJaroslav Heyrovský | Kornberg, ArthurArthur Kornberg;
Ochoa, SeveroSevero Ochoa | Quasimodo, SalvatoreSalvatore Quasimodo | Noel-Baker, Philip J.Philip J. Noel-Baker | — |
| 1960 | Glaser, Donald A.Donald A. Glaser | Libby, WillardWillard Libby | Burnet, Frank MacfarlaneFrank Macfarlane Burnet;
Medawar, PeterPeter Medawar | Perse, Saint-JohnSaint-John Perse | Lutuli, AlbertAlbert Lutuli | — |
| 1961 | Hofstadter, RobertRobert Hofstadter;
Mössbauer, RudolfRudolf Mössbauer | Calvin, MelvinMelvin Calvin | von Békésy, GeorgGeorg von Békésy | Andrić, IvoIvo Andrić | Hammarskjöld, DagDag Hammarskjöld | — |
| 1962 | Landau, LevLev Landau | Perutz, MaxMax Perutz;
Kendrew, JohnJohn Kendrew | Crick, FrancisFrancis Crick;
Watson, James D.James D. Watson;
Wilkins, MauriceMaurice Wilkins | Steinbeck, JohnJohn Steinbeck | Pauling, LinusLinus Pauling | — |
| 1963 | Wigner, EugeneEugene Wigner;
Goeppert-Mayer, MariaMaria Goeppert-Mayer;
Jensen, J. Hans D.J. Hans D. Jensen | Ziegler, KarlKarl Ziegler;
Natta, GiulioGiulio Natta | Eccles, John CarewJohn Carew Eccles;
Hodgkin, Alan LloydAlan Lloyd Hodgkin;
Huxley, AndrewAndrew Huxley | Seferis, GiorgosGiorgos Seferis | International Committee of the Red Cross;
League of Red Cross societies | — |
| 1964 | Townes, Charles H.Charles H. Townes;
Basov, Nicolay G.Nicolay G. Basov;
Prokhorov, Aleksandr M.Aleksandr M. Prokhorov | Hodgkin, Dorothy CrowfootDorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin | Bloch, Konrad EmilKonrad Emil Bloch;
Lynen, Feodor Felix KonradFeodor Felix Konrad Lynen | Sartre, Jean-PaulJean-Paul Sartre[D] | King, Jr., Martin LutherMartin Luther King, Jr. | — |
| 1965 | Tomonaga, Sin-ItiroSin-Itiro Tomonaga;
Schwinger, JulianJulian Schwinger;
Feynman, Richard P.Richard P. Feynman | Woodward, Robert BurnsRobert Burns Woodward | Jacob, FrançoisFrançois Jacob;
Lwoff, André MichelAndré Michel Lwoff;
Monod, JacquesJacques Monod | Sholokhov, Michail AleksandrovichMichail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov | United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) | — |
| 1966 | Kastler, AlfredAlfred Kastler | Mulliken, Robert S.Robert S. Mulliken | Rous, Francis PeytonFrancis Peyton Rous;
Huggins, Charles BrentonCharles Brenton Huggins | Agnon, Shmuel YosefShmuel Yosef Agnon;
Sachs, NellyNelly Sachs | None | — |
| 1967 | Bethe, HansHans Bethe | Eigen, ManfredManfred Eigen;
Norrish, Ronald George WreyfordRonald George Wreyford Norrish;
Porter, GeorgeGeorge Porter | Granit, RagnarRagnar Granit;
Hartline, Haldan KefferHaldan Keffer Hartline;
Wald, GeorgeGeorge Wald | Asturias, Miguel ÁngelMiguel Ángel Asturias | None | — |
| 1968 | Alvarez, LuisLuis Alvarez | Onsager, LarsLars Onsager | Holley, Robert W.Robert W. Holley;
Khorana, Har GobindHar Gobind Khorana;
Nirenberg, Marshall WarrenMarshall Warren Nirenberg | Kawabata, YasunariYasunari Kawabata | Cassin, RenéRené Cassin | — |
| 1969 | Gell-Mann, MurrayMurray Gell-Mann | Barton, DerekDerek Barton;
Hassel, OddOdd Hassel | Delbrück, MaxMax Delbrück;
Hershey, AlfredAlfred Hershey;
Luria, SalvadorSalvador Luria | Beckett, SamuelSamuel Beckett | International Labour Organization | Frisch, Ragnar Anton KittilRagnar Anton Kittil Frisch;
Tinbergen, JanJan Tinbergen |
| 1970 | Alfvén, HannesHannes Alfvén;
Néel, LouisLouis Néel | Leloir, Luis F.Luis F. Leloir | Axelrod, JuliusJulius Axelrod;
von Euler, UlfUlf von Euler;
Katz, BernardBernard Katz | Solzhenitsyn, AleksandrAleksandr Solzhenitsyn | Borlaug, NormanNorman Borlaug | Samuelson, PaulPaul Samuelson |
| 1971 | Gabor, DennisDennis Gabor | Herzberg, GerhardGerhard Herzberg | Sutherland, Jr., Earl WilburEarl Wilbur Sutherland, Jr. | Neruda, PabloPablo Neruda | Brandt, WillyWilly Brandt | Kuznets, SimonSimon Kuznets |
| 1972 | Bardeen, JohnJohn Bardeen;
Cooper, Leon NeilLeon Neil Cooper;
Schrieffer, RobertRobert Schrieffer | Anfinsen, Christian B.Christian B. Anfinsen;
Moore, StanfordStanford Moore;
Stein, William HowardWilliam Howard Stein | Edelman, GeraldGerald Edelman;
Porter, Rodney RobertRodney Robert Porter | Böll, HeinrichHeinrich Böll | None | Hicks, JohnJohn Hicks;
Arrow, KennethKenneth Arrow |
| 1973 | Esaki, LeoLeo Esaki;
Giaever, IvarIvar Giaever;
Josephson, Brian DavidBrian David Josephson | Fischer, Ernst OttoErnst Otto Fischer;
Wilkinson, GeoffreyGeoffrey Wilkinson | von Frisch, KarlKarl von Frisch;
Lorenz, KonradKonrad Lorenz;
Tinbergen, NikolaasNikolaas Tinbergen | White, PatrickPatrick White | Kissinger, HenryHenry Kissinger;
Thọ, Lê ÐứcLê Ðức Thọ[E] | Leontief, WassilyWassily Leontief |
| 1974 | Ryle, MartinMartin Ryle;
Hewish, AntonyAntony Hewish | Flory, PaulPaul Flory | Claude, AlbertAlbert Claude;
de Duve, ChristianChristian de Duve;
Palade, George EmilGeorge Emil Palade | Johnson, EyvindEyvind Johnson;
Martinson, HarryHarry Martinson | MacBride, SeánSeán MacBride;
Satō, EisakuEisaku Satō | Myrdal, GunnarGunnar Myrdal;
Hayek, FriedrichFriedrich Hayek |
| 1975 | Bohr, AageAage Bohr;
Mottelson, Ben R.Ben R. Mottelson;
Rainwater, JamesJames Rainwater | Cornforth, JohnJohn Cornforth;
Prelog, VladimirVladimir Prelog | Baltimore, DavidDavid Baltimore;
Dulbecco, RenatoRenato Dulbecco;
Temin, Howard MartinHoward Martin Temin | Montale, EugenioEugenio Montale | Sakharov, AndreiAndrei Sakharov | Kantorovich, LeonidLeonid Kantorovich;
Koopmans, TjallingTjalling Koopmans |
| 1976 | Richter, BurtonBurton Richter;
Ting, Samuel C.C.Samuel C.C. Ting | Lipscomb, WilliamWilliam Lipscomb | Blumberg, Baruch SamuelBaruch Samuel Blumberg;
Gajdusek, Daniel CarletonDaniel Carleton Gajdusek | Bellow, SaulSaul Bellow | Williams, BettyBetty Williams;
Corrigan, MaireadMairead Corrigan | Friedman, MiltonMilton Friedman |
| 1977 | Anderson, Philip WarrenPhilip Warren Anderson;
Mott, Sir Nevill F.Sir Nevill F. Mott;
van Vleck, John H.John H. van Vleck | Prigogine, IlyaIlya Prigogine | Guillemin, RogerRoger Guillemin;
Schally, AndrewAndrew Schally;
Yalow, Rosalyn SussmanRosalyn Sussman Yalow | Aleixandre, VicenteVicente Aleixandre | Amnesty International | Ohlin, BertilBertil Ohlin;
Meade, JamesJames Meade |
| 1978 | Kapitsa, PyotrPyotr Kapitsa;
Penzias, ArnoArno Penzias;
Wilson, Robert WoodrowRobert Woodrow Wilson | Mitchell, Peter D.Peter D. Mitchell | Arber, WernerWerner Arber;
Nathans, DanielDaniel Nathans;
Smith, Hamilton O.Hamilton O. Smith | Singer, Isaac BashevisIsaac Bashevis Singer | Sadat, Anwar ElAnwar El Sadat;
Begin, MenachemMenachem Begin | Simon, HerbertHerbert Simon |
| 1979 | Glashow, SheldonSheldon Glashow;
Salam, AbdusAbdus Salam;
Weinberg, StevenSteven Weinberg | Brown, Herbert C.Herbert C. Brown;
Wittig, GeorgGeorg Wittig | Cormack, Allan McLeodAllan McLeod Cormack;
Hounsfield, GodfreyGodfrey Hounsfield | Elytis, OdysseasOdysseas Elytis | Teresa, MotherMother Teresa | Schultz, TheodoreTheodore Schultz;
Lewis, ArthurArthur Lewis |
| 1980 | Cronin, JamesJames Cronin;
Fitch, ValVal Fitch | Berg, PaulPaul Berg;
Gilbert, WalterWalter Gilbert;
Sanger, FrederickFrederick Sanger | Benacerraf, BarujBaruj Benacerraf;
Dausset, JeanJean Dausset;
Snell, George DavisGeorge Davis Snell | Miłosz, CzesławCzesław Miłosz | Esquivel, Adolfo PérezAdolfo Pérez Esquivel | Klein, LawrenceLawrence Klein |
| 1981 | Bloembergen, NicolaasNicolaas Bloembergen;
Schawlow, Arthur L.Arthur L. Schawlow;
Siegbahn, Kai M.Kai M. Siegbahn | Fukui, KenichiKenichi Fukui;
Hoffmann, RoaldRoald Hoffmann | Sperry, Roger W.Roger W. Sperry;
Hubel, David H.David H. Hubel;
Wiesel, Torsten N.Torsten N. Wiesel | Canetti, EliasElias Canetti | United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees | Tobin, JamesJames Tobin |
| 1982 | Wilson, Kenneth G.Kenneth G. Wilson | Klug, AaronAaron Klug | Bergström, SuneSune Bergström;
Samuelsson, Bengt I.Bengt I. Samuelsson;
Vane, John RobertJohn Robert Vane | Márquez, Gabriel GarcíaGabriel García Márquez | Myrdal, AlvaAlva Myrdal;
Robles, Alfonso GarcíaAlfonso García Robles | Stigler, GeorgeGeorge Stigler |
| 1983 | Chandrasekhar, SubramanyanSubramanyan Chandrasekhar;
Fowler, William A.William A. Fowler | Taube, HenryHenry Taube | McClintock, BarbaraBarbara McClintock | Golding, WilliamWilliam Golding | Wałęsa, LechLech Wałęsa | Debreu, GérardGérard Debreu |
| 1984 | Rubbia, CarloCarlo Rubbia;
van der Meer, SimonSimon van der Meer | Merrifield, Robert BruceRobert Bruce Merrifield | Jerne, Niels KajNiels Kaj Jerne;
Köhler, Georges J. F.Georges J. F. Köhler;
Milstein, CésarCésar Milstein | Seifert, JaroslavJaroslav Seifert | Tutu, DesmondDesmond Tutu | Stone, RichardRichard Stone |
| 1985 | von Klitzing, KlausKlaus von Klitzing | Hauptman, Herbert A.Herbert A. Hauptman;
Karle, JeromeJerome Karle | Brown, Michael StuartMichael Stuart Brown;
Goldstein, Joseph L.Joseph L. Goldstein | Simon, ClaudeClaude Simon | International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War | Modigliani, FrancoFranco Modigliani |
| 1986 | Ruska, ErnstErnst Ruska;
Binnig, GerdGerd Binnig;
Rohrer, HeinrichHeinrich Rohrer | Herschbach, Dudley R.Dudley R. Herschbach;
Lee, Yuan T.Yuan T. Lee;
Polanyi, John C.John C. Polanyi | Cohen, StanleyStanley Cohen;
Levi-Montalcini, RitaRita Levi-Montalcini | Soyinka, WoleWole Soyinka | Wiesel, ElieElie Wiesel | Buchanan, James M.James M. Buchanan |
| 1987 | Bednorz, J. GeorgJ. Georg Bednorz;
Müller, K. AlexK. Alex Müller | Cram, Donald J.Donald J. Cram;
Lehn, Jean-MarieJean-Marie Lehn;
Pedersen, Charles J.Charles J. Pedersen | Tonegawa, SusumuSusumu Tonegawa | Brodsky, JosephJoseph Brodsky | Arias, ÓscarÓscar Arias | Solow, RobertRobert Solow |
| 1988 | Lederman, Leon M.Leon M. Lederman;
Schwartz, MelvinMelvin Schwartz;
Steinberger, JackJack Steinberger | Deisenhofer, JohannJohann Deisenhofer;
Huber, RobertRobert Huber;
Michel, HartmutHartmut Michel | Black, James W.James W. Black;
Elion, Gertrude B.Gertrude B. Elion;
Hitchings, George H.George H. Hitchings | Mahfouz, NaguibNaguib Mahfouz | United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces | Allais, MauriceMaurice Allais |
| 1989 | Ramsey, Norman F.Norman F. Ramsey;
Dehmelt, Hans G.Hans G. Dehmelt;
Paul, WolfgangWolfgang Paul | Altman, SidneySidney Altman;
Cech, ThomasThomas Cech | Bishop, J. MichaelJ. Michael Bishop;
Varmus, Harold E.Harold E. Varmus | Cela, Camilo JoséCamilo José Cela | Gyatso, TenzinTenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama | Haavelmo, TrygveTrygve Haavelmo |
| 1990 | Friedman, Jerome I.Jerome I. Friedman;
Kendall, Henry W.Henry W. Kendall;
Taylor, Richard E.Richard E. Taylor | Corey, Elias JamesElias James Corey | Murray, JosephJoseph Murray;
Thomas, E. DonnallE. Donnall Thomas | Paz, OctavioOctavio Paz | Gorbachev, MikhailMikhail Gorbachev | Markowitz, HarryHarry Markowitz;
Miller, MertonMerton Miller;
Sharpe, William ForsythWilliam Forsyth Sharpe |
| 1991 | de Gennes, Pierre-GillesPierre-Gilles de Gennes | Ernst, Richard R.Richard R. Ernst | Neher, ErwinErwin Neher;
Sakmann, BertBert Sakmann | Gordimer, NadineNadine Gordimer | Suu Kyi, Aung SanAung San Suu Kyi | Coase, RonaldRonald Coase |
| 1992 | Charpak, GeorgesGeorges Charpak | Marcus, Rudolph A.Rudolph A. Marcus | Fischer, Edmond H.Edmond H. Fischer;
Krebs, Edwin G.Edwin G. Krebs | Walcott, DerekDerek Walcott | Menchú, RigobertaRigoberta Menchú | Becker, GaryGary Becker |
| 1993 | Hulse, Russell A.Russell A. Hulse;
Taylor, Jr., Joseph H.Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. | Mullis, KaryKary Mullis;
Smith, MichaelMichael Smith | Roberts, Richard J.Richard J. Roberts;
Sharp, Phillip AllenPhillip Allen Sharp | Morrison, ToniToni Morrison | Mandela, NelsonNelson Mandela;
de Klerk, Frederik WillemFrederik Willem de Klerk | Fogel, RobertRobert Fogel;
North, DouglassDouglass North |
| 1994 | Brockhouse, Bertram N.Bertram N. Brockhouse;
Shull, Clifford G.Clifford G. Shull | Olah, George AndrewGeorge Andrew Olah | Gilman, Alfred G.Alfred G. Gilman;
Rodbell, MartinMartin Rodbell | Oe, KenzaburoKenzaburo Oe | Arafat, YasserYasser Arafat;
Peres, ShimonShimon Peres;
Rabin, YitzhakYitzhak Rabin | Harsanyi, JohnJohn Harsanyi;
Nash, John ForbesJohn Forbes Nash;
Selten, ReinhardReinhard Selten |
| 1995 | Perl, Martin L.Martin L. Perl;
Reines, FrederickFrederick Reines | Crutzen, Paul J.Paul J. Crutzen;
Molina, Mario J.Mario J. Molina;
Rowland, Frank SherwoodFrank Sherwood Rowland | Lewis, Edward B.Edward B. Lewis;
Nüsslein-Volhard, ChristianeChristiane Nüsslein-Volhard;
Wieschaus, Eric F.Eric F. Wieschaus | Heaney, SeamusSeamus Heaney | Rotblat, JosephJoseph Rotblat;
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs | Lucas, Jr., RobertRobert Lucas, Jr. |
| 1996 | Lee, David M.David M. Lee;
Osheroff, Douglas D.Douglas D. Osheroff;
Richardson, Robert ColemanRobert Coleman Richardson | Curl Jr., Robert F.Robert F. Curl Jr.;
Kroto, HaroldHarold Kroto;
Smalley, RichardRichard Smalley | Doherty, Peter C.Peter C. Doherty;
Zinkernagel, Rolf M.Rolf M. Zinkernagel | Szymborska, WisławaWisława Szymborska | Belo, Carlos Filipe XimenesCarlos Filipe Ximenes Belo;
Ramos-Horta, JoséJosé Ramos-Horta | Mirrlees, JamesJames Mirrlees;
Vickrey, WilliamWilliam Vickrey |
| 1997 | Chu, StevenSteven Chu;
Cohen-Tannoudji, ClaudeClaude Cohen-Tannoudji;
Phillips, William D.William D. Phillips | Boyer, Paul D.Paul D. Boyer;
Walker, John E.John E. Walker;
Skou, Jens ChristianJens Christian Skou | Prusiner, Stanley B.Stanley B. Prusiner | Fo, DarioDario Fo | International Campaign to Ban Landmines;
Williams, JodyJody Williams | Merton, Robert C.Robert C. Merton;
Scholes, MyronMyron Scholes |
| 1998 | Laughlin, Robert B.Robert B. Laughlin;
Störmer, Horst L.Horst L. Störmer;
Tsui, Daniel C.Daniel C. Tsui | Kohn, WalterWalter Kohn;
Pople, JohnJohn Pople | Furchgott, Robert F.Robert F. Furchgott;
Ignarro, Louis J.Louis J. Ignarro;
Murad, FeridFerid Murad | Saramago, JoséJosé Saramago | Hume, JohnJohn Hume;
Trimble, DavidDavid Trimble | Sen, AmartyaAmartya Sen |
| 1999 | Hooft, Gerardus 'tGerardus 't Hooft;
Veltman, Martinus J.G.Martinus J.G. Veltman | Zewail, AhmedAhmed Zewail | Blobel, GünterGünter Blobel | Grass, GünterGünter Grass | Médecins Sans Frontières | Mundell, RobertRobert Mundell |
| 2000 | Alferov, Zhores I.Zhores I. Alferov;
Kroemer, HerbertHerbert Kroemer;
Kilby, JackJack Kilby | Heeger, Alan J.Alan J. Heeger;
MacDiarmid, AlanAlan MacDiarmid;
Shirakawa, HidekiHideki Shirakawa | Carlsson, ArvidArvid Carlsson;
Greengard, PaulPaul Greengard;
Kandel, EricEric Kandel | Xingjian, GaoGao Xingjian | Jung, Kim DaeKim Dae Jung | Heckman, JamesJames Heckman;
McFadden, DanielDaniel McFadden |
| 2001 | Cornell, Eric A.Eric A. Cornell;
Ketterle, WolfgangWolfgang Ketterle;
Wieman, Carl E.Carl E. Wieman | Knowles, William S.William S. Knowles;
Noyori, RyojiRyoji Noyori;
Sharpless, Karl BarryKarl Barry Sharpless | Hartwell, Leland H.Leland H. Hartwell;
Hunt, TimTim Hunt;
Nurse, PaulPaul Nurse | Naipaul, V. S.V. S. Naipaul | United Nations;
Annan, KofiKofi Annan | Akerlof, GeorgeGeorge Akerlof;
Spence, MichaelMichael Spence;
Stiglitz, Joseph E.Joseph E. Stiglitz |
| 2002 | Davis, Jr., RaymondRaymond Davis, Jr.;
Koshiba, MasatoshiMasatoshi Koshiba;
Giacconi, RiccardoRiccardo Giacconi | Fenn, John BennettJohn Bennett Fenn;
Tanaka, KoichiKoichi Tanaka;
Wüthrich, KurtKurt Wüthrich | Brenner, SydneySydney Brenner;
Horvitz, H. RobertH. Robert Horvitz;
Sulston, John E.John E. Sulston | Kertész, ImreImre Kertész | Carter, JimmyJimmy Carter | Kahneman, DanielDaniel Kahneman;
Smith, Vernon L.Vernon L. Smith |
| 2003 | Abrikosov, Alexei A.Alexei A. Abrikosov;
Ginzburg, Vitaly L.Vitaly L. Ginzburg;
Leggett, Anthony J.Anthony J. Leggett | Agre, PeterPeter Agre;
MacKinnon, RoderickRoderick MacKinnon | Lauterbur, PaulPaul Lauterbur;
Mansfield, PeterPeter Mansfield | Coetzee, J. M.J. M. Coetzee | Ebadi, ShirinShirin Ebadi | Engle, Robert F.Robert F. Engle;
Granger, CliveClive Granger |
| 2004 | Gross, David J.David J. Gross;
Politzer, H. DavidH. David Politzer;
Wilczek, FrankFrank Wilczek | Ciechanover, AaronAaron Ciechanover;
Hershko, AvramAvram Hershko;
Rose, IrwinIrwin Rose | Axel, RichardRichard Axel;
Buck, Linda B.Linda B. Buck | Jelinek, ElfriedeElfriede Jelinek | Maathai, WangariWangari Maathai | Kydland, Finn E.Finn E. Kydland;
Prescott, Edward C.Edward C. Prescott |
| 2005 | Glauber, Roy J.Roy J. Glauber;
Hall, John L.John L. Hall;
Hänsch, Theodor W.Theodor W. Hänsch | Chauvin, YvesYves Chauvin;
Grubbs, Robert H.Robert H. Grubbs;
Schrock, Richard R.Richard R. Schrock | Marshall, BarryBarry Marshall;
Warren, RobinRobin Warren | Pinter, HaroldHarold Pinter | International Atomic Energy Agency;
ElBaradei, MohamedMohamed ElBaradei | Aumann, RobertRobert Aumann;
Schelling, ThomasThomas Schelling |
| 2006 | Mather, John C.John C. Mather;
Smoot, George F.George F. Smoot | Kornberg, Roger D.Roger D. Kornberg | Fire, AndrewAndrew Fire;
Mello, CraigCraig Mello | Pamuk, OrhanOrhan Pamuk | Yunus, MuhammadMuhammad Yunus;
Grameen Bank | Phelps, EdmundEdmund Phelps |
| 2007 | Fert, AlbertAlbert Fert;
Grünberg, PeterPeter Grünberg | Ertl, GerhardGerhard Ertl | Capecchi, MarioMario Capecchi;
Evans, MartinMartin Evans;
Smithies, OliverOliver Smithies | Lessing, DorisDoris Lessing | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change;
Gore, AlAl Gore | Hurwicz, LeonidLeonid Hurwicz;
Maskin, EricEric Maskin;
Myerson, RogerRoger Myerson |
| 2008 | Nambu, YoichiroYoichiro Nambu;
Kobayashi, MakotoMakoto Kobayashi;
Maskawa, ToshihideToshihide Maskawa | Shimomura, OsamuOsamu Shimomura;
Chalfie, MartinMartin Chalfie;
Tsien, Roger Y.Roger Y. Tsien | zur Hausen, HaraldHarald zur Hausen;
Barré-Sinoussi, FrançoiseFrançoise Barré-Sinoussi;
Montagnier, LucLuc Montagnier | Le Clézio, Jean-Marie GustaveJean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio | Ahtisaari, MarttiMartti Ahtisaari | Krugman, PaulPaul Krugman |
| 2009 | Kao, Charles K.Charles K. Kao;
Boyle, Willard S.Willard S. Boyle;
Smith, George E.George E. Smith | Ramakrishnan, VenkatramanVenkatraman Ramakrishnan;
Steitz, Thomas A.Thomas A. Steitz;
Yonath, Ada E.Ada E. Yonath | Blackburn, ElizabethElizabeth Blackburn;
Greider, Carol W.Carol W. Greider;
Szostak, Jack W.Jack W. Szostak | Müller, HertaHerta Müller | Obama II, Barack HusseinBarack Hussein Obama II | Ostrom, ElinorElinor Ostrom;
Williamson, Oliver E.Oliver E. Williamson |
| Year | Physics | Chemistry | Physiology
or Medicine | Literature | Peace | Economics |
See also
