The Nobel Prize

Will signed 1895; first awarded 1901

Prizes and honours — the world's most prestigious awards

Six annual awards funded from the fortune of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist who invented dynamite. His will of 27 November 1895 endowed prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace; a sixth, in economic sciences, was added in 1968 by Sweden's central bank and is therefore not a Nobel Prize in the strict sense. They were first awarded in 1901 and are presented every 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death — five in Stockholm by the King of Sweden, and the peace prize in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

How to spot them

▸Five prizes named in an 1895 will, plus a sixth endowed by a central bank in 1968
▸Presented on 10 December, with the peace prize alone awarded in Oslo
▸No more than three people may share one, and they are not awarded posthumously
▸Refused by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1964 and by Lê Đức Thọ in 1973

Key facts

Five fields named in a will signed at the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895 (1895)

Physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace

The sixth award, in economic sciences, endowed by Sveriges Riksbank in 1968 (1968)

First given in 1969, to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen; it is not in the founder's will

Awarded every 10 December, the anniversary of a Swedish chemist's death (1901)

First awarded in 1901, five years after he died at San Remo

Five are handed over in Stockholm; one alone is presented in Oslo

The founder's will gave the peace award to a committee chosen by the Norwegian Storting

Declined by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1964 and by Lê Đức Thọ in 1973

Sartre refused to be 'transformed into an institution'; Thọ said there was no peace in Vietnam

Marie Curie's two, in 1903 and 1911, in two different sciences

The only person to have won in two separate scientific fields

Never shared by more than three people, and, since 1974, not given posthumously

Ralph Steinman in 2011 was an accidental exception — the committee did not know he had died

Quick-fire facts

•Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), the inventor of dynamite, signed his final will in Paris on 27 November 1895 and died at San Remo on 10 December 1896
•He left about 94 per cent of his fortune, some 31 million Swedish kronor, to fund the prizes
•The prize in economic sciences was created in 1968 by Sveriges Riksbank for its 300th anniversary — it is the one award not named in Nobel's will
•Physics and chemistry are awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, medicine by the Karolinska Institute, literature by the Swedish Academy, and peace by a Norwegian committee
•The legend that Nobel was spurred on by reading his own obituary — headed 'The Merchant of Death Is Dead', after his brother Ludvig died in 1888 — is unverified
•Marie Curie is the only person with Nobel Prizes in two different sciences (physics 1903, chemistry 1911)
•Linus Pauling is the only person to have won two unshared prizes (chemistry 1954, peace 1962)
•John Bardeen won physics twice, Frederick Sanger chemistry twice, and Karl Barry Sharpless chemistry twice
•Malala Yousafzai, aged 17 in 2014, is the youngest laureate of any Nobel Prize
•The Stockholm ceremony is held at the Concert Hall with a banquet in the Blue Hall of the City Hall; Oslo's has been at the City Hall since 1990

Drill it — 9 cards

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Sources

The Nobel Foundation — The will of Alfred Nobel
Nobel Prize Outreach — Nobel Prize facts