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Nobel Prizes, annual monetary awards granted to individuals or institutions for outstanding contributions in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, international peace, and economic sciences. The Nobel prizes are internationally recognized as the most prestigious awards in each of these fields. The prizes were established by Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel, who set up a fund for them in his will. The first Nobel prizes were awarded on December 10, 1901, the fifth anniversary of Nobel’s death.

In his will, Nobel directed that most of his fortune be invested to form a fund, the interest of which was to be distributed annually "in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." He stipulated that the interest be divided into five equal parts, each to be awarded to the person who made the most important contribution in one of five different fields. In addition to the three scientific awards and the literature award, a prize would go to the person who had done "the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." Nobel also specified certain institutions that would select the prizewinners. The will indicated that "no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize.”

After his own experiments led him to the lucrative invention of dynamite, Alfred Nobel established a fund to reward other innovators "contributing most materially to the benefit of mankind.” The Nobel Prizes are awarded in the fields of chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature, international peace, and economic sciences. The awards reflect Nobel’s interests; in addition to performing valuable chemical research, he spoke several languages, traveled widely, and wrote poetry.

In 1968 the Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, created an economics prize to commemorate the bank's 300th anniversary. This prize, called the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, was first awarded in 1969. The bank provides a cash award equal to the other Nobel prizes.

In 1900 the Nobel Foundation was established to manage the fund and to administer the activities of the institutions charged with selecting winners. The fund is controlled by a board of directors, which serves for two-year periods and consists of six members: five elected by the trustees of the awarding bodies mentioned in the will, and the sixth appointed by the Swedish government. All six members are either Swedish or Norwegian citizens.

In his will, Nobel stated that the prizes for physics and chemistry would be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences, the prize for physiology or medicine by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, the literature prize by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, and the peace prize by a five-person committee elected by the Norwegian Storting (Parliament). After the economics prize was created in 1968, the Swedish Academy of Sciences has held the responsibility of selecting the winners of that award.

All the prize-awarding bodies have set up Nobel committees consisting of three to five people who make recommendations in the selection process. Additional specialists with expertise in relevant fields assist the committees. The Nobel committees examine nominations and make recommendations to the prize-awarding institutions. After deliberating various opinions and recommendations, the prize-awarding bodies vote on the final selection, and then they announce the winner. The deliberations and voting are secret, and prize decisions cannot be appealed.

         III      PRIZES  

A prize for achievement in a particular field may be awarded to an individual, divided equally between two people, or awarded jointly among two or three people. According to the Nobel Foundation’s statutes, the prize cannot be divided among more than three people, but it can go to an institution. A prize may go unawarded if no candidate is chosen for the year under consideration, but each of the prizes must be awarded at least once every five years. If the Nobel Foundation does not award a prize in a given year, the prize money remains in the trust. Likewise, if a prize is declined or not accepted before a specified date, the Nobel Foundation retains the prize money in its trust.

The prize amounts are based on the annual yield of the fund capital. In 1948 Nobel prizes were about $32,000 each; in 1997 they were about $1 million each. In addition to a cash award, each prizewinner also receives a gold medal and a diploma bearing the winner's name and field of achievement. Prizewinners are known as Nobel laureates.

         IV      SELECTION OF PRIZEWINNERS  

Nominations of candidates for the prizes can be made only by those who have received invitations to do so. In the fall of the year preceding the award, Nobel committees distribute invitations to members of the prize-awarding bodies, to previous Nobel prize winners, and to professors in relevant fields at certain colleges and universities. In addition, candidates for the prize in literature may be proposed by invited members of various literary academies, institutions, and societies. Upon invitation, members of governments or certain international organizations may nominate candidates for the peace prize. The Nobel Foundation’s statutes do not allow individuals to nominate themselves. Invitations to nominate candidates and the nominations themselves are both confidential.

Nominations of candidates are due on February 1 of the award year. Then, Nobel committee members and consultants meet several times to evaluate the qualifications of the nominees. The various committees cast their final votes in October and immediately notify the laureates that they have won.

        

The prizes are presented annually at ceremonies in Stockholm, Sweden, and in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. In Stockholm, the king of Sweden presents the awards in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and economic sciences. The peace prize ceremony takes place at the University of Oslo in the presence of the king of Norway. After the ceremonies, Nobel Prize winners give a lecture on a subject connected with their prize-winning work. The winner of the peace prize lectures in Oslo, the others in Stockholm. The lectures are later printed in the Nobel Foundation's annual publication, Les Prix Nobel (The Nobel Prizes)

 

Hayek, Friedrich August von (1899-1992), Austrian-born economist and Nobel laureate. Born in Vienna, von Hayek earned a doctorate at Vienna University in 1927 and spent some years in public service. He began a long academic career by holding the post of professor of economics and statistics at the University of London (1931-50); subsequently he was professor of moral and economic science at the University of Chicago (1950-62). An economic traditionalist, von Hayek won a wide reputation with The Road to Serfdom (1944), in which he argued that governments should not intervene in the control of inflation or other economic matters. He retired in 1962 but was later appointed professor of economics at the University of Freiburg, in West Germany (now part of Germany). Returning to Austria in 1969, he became visiting professor at the University of Salzburg. In 1974 he and the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal received the Nobel Prize in economic science for their "pioneering work in the theory of money and economic luctuations and for their pioneering analysis of the interdependence of economic, social, and institutional phenomena.