The Story Of The Noble Prize

The Noble Prize has acquired the tag of being the most prestigious prize in whatever field it is awarded in the fields of Peace, Literature, Physics, Chemistry , Physiology or Medicine and Economics. The first award were presented in 1901 but not in all the categories. The Prize is named after the Swedish scientist, Alfred Nobel.

Alfred Nobel: A Brief Bio

Alfred Nobel was born on 21st October 1833 in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. Born into a relatively well-heeled family, Nobel had informal education , having been tutored at home until the age of 16.

In 1866-67, Nobel invented dynamite and won a patent for it. Other than the patent for dynamite, he held a little over 350 patent to his credit After the invention of dynamite, Nobel set up a large number of companies and labs in over 20 countries and ammased a fortune. On 27th November, 1895, Nobel signed his final will at the Swedish-Norwegian Club , Paris .

Prior to this in 1888,when Novel's brother Ludwig died , a French newspaper erroneously ran an obituary for Nobel; the orbit called him " a merchant of death". This epitaph hurt Nobel deeply as he was a committed pacifist. He created a will, which beaquethed a very large part of his estate to a trust. He specified that the trust would use the money to establish the Nobel Prize. Nobel had declared that the bequeathed fund should be used to endow "prizes to those who, during the preceding year shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind".

About the Prize.

On the 5th anniversary of Novel's death, on 10th December 1901, the first Nobel prizes were awarded. The inaugural Nobel Prizes were awarded in the fields of Chemistry, Physics, Medicine or Physiology, Literature and Peace. The nobel prize in Economics was instituted in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden in celebration of its 300th anniversary and in memory of Alfred Nobel

While the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences administers the Prizes in Physics and Chemistry, the Royal Caroline Medical Institute awards the Prize in Medicine(or physiology) . The Prize in Literature is decided by the Swedish Academy. Only the nobel peace prize is awarded by a Non-Swedish Body, it is awarded by the Parliament of Norway.

Currently , the Nobel Prize cannot be awarded posthumously. From 1974, the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation stipulate that a prize cannot be awarded posthumously, unless death has occured after the announcement of the Nobel Prize.