Hailed as the most prestigious accolade that celebrates the contributions of exceptional people to the betterment of mankind, the Nobel Prize has been around for more than a century now. It is named after Alfred Nobel, a Swedish scientist and philanthropist who held 355 different patents throughout his lifetime. The Nobel Prize is awarded almost every year, to individuals who outshine their peers in their respective fields and whose research sets amazing precedents for their successors to follow or surpass.
Each year, thousands of recommendations come pouring in from around the world from professors, scientists, researchers, economists and former Nobel laureates. They submit the names of their candidates of choice to the Nobel Committees, who then compile the final list of winners based on their achievements and to ensure that people from all corners of the world enjoy fair and equal representation.
According to the Nobel Foundation, not all nominations are considered valid. The nominators have to fall into certain categories and satisfy certain criteria to be eligible to submit a nomination. The nomination processes start in September each year. People are not allowed to nominate themselves for a Nobel Prize, and the names of the nominees are not permitted to be revealed to the general populace until at least 50 years have passed.
WHAT ARE THE CATEGORIES RECOGNIZED BY THE NOBEL PRIZE?
The Nobel Prize recognizes outstanding achievements in six fields – Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economic Sciences. These are the six categories, five of which are mentioned by Alfred Nobel in his will (except the Economic Sciences), in which the prize is awarded annually. Between its inception in 1901 and the current year, 2020, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to 934 people and 28 organizations. The winners of the Nobel Prize are referred to as Nobel laureates.
The word “laureate” refers to being signified by the laurel wreath. In ancient Greece, laurel wreaths were awarded to victors as a sign of honour. According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, a prize for a shared achievement can include up to a maximum of three people and no more.
THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS
Alfred Nobel mentioned Physics as a category that he considered worthy of the Nobel Prize in his will, in 1895. He mentioned this category first in his will. By the advent of the twentieth century, Physics was a subject of much focus and interest throughout the world, Nobel’s own works and achievements being tied closely to the field of Physics. The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded 114 times to 216 awardees since 1901.
The first person to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics was Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen for his discovery of X-rays. In 2020, Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez shared the award, for their work on black holes. Roger Penrose received one half of the prestigious award for his work on the discovery of black hole formation as a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity. Genzel and Ghez jointly received the other half for their work on the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of the Milky Way.
THE NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY
Being primarily a chemist himself, this category was especially important to Alfred Nobel. After Physics, this was the second category mentioned in his will. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded 112 times to 186 awardees between 1901 and 2020.
The first winner was Jacobus Henricus van’t Hoff, a Dutch chemist, for his discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna shared the Nobel Prize in 2020, for their discovery of a method for genome editing. Charpentier and Doudna discovered the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors in 2012. The usage of these techniques has gone up significantly since then, benefiting mankind everyday.
THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE
Pursuing an avid interest in the field of the medical sciences, Alfred Nobel came across with Swedish physiologist Jöns Johansson via the Karolinska Institutet. Johansson worked in Nobel’s laboratory in Sevran, France for a short period of time in 1890. This was the third category mentioned by Nobel in his will. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.Emil von Behring, a German physiologist, won the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on serum therapy.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded 111 times to 222 awardees since then. Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice are the recipients of this year’s award for their discovery of the Hepatitis-C virus. Their groundbreaking work led to the availability of highly sensitive blood tests for the virus, effectively eliminating post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world.
THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
Literature was the fourth category that Alfred Nobel mentioned in his will. Nobel always had a soft spot in his heart for the pursuit of literature. He kept a well-stocked library and even tried his hand at writing fiction in the twilight years of his life. The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded by The Swedish Academy, Stockholm, Sweden. There have been a total of 113 Nobel Prizes awarded in this category to 117 recipients till date. Sully Prudhomme received the first Nobel Prize for Literature, in the year 1901. In 2020, Louise Glück won this award.
THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
The fifth and the last category for awarding the Nobel Prize mentioned by Alfred Nobel was the Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel took an active interest in social issues and participated in the peace movement. Bertha von Suttner, a dynamic force in the international peace movement in Europe and later a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, held significant sway over Nobel’s outlook on peace through her association with him.
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. A total of 101 Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded over the course of the last century to 135 laureates. Henry Dunant was the first recipient in this category in 1901. In 2020, the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Programme (WFP), the world’s largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security.
THE NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES – THE SVERIGES RIKSBANK PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES IN MEMORY OF ALFRED NOBEL
This category was not mentioned by Nobel himself in his will, but was added much later in the year 1968 by the Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) established the Prize in Economic Sciences in his memory. The Nobel Foundation received a donation from the Riksbank in 1968 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the bank. This formed the basis of this category of the Nobel Prize.
The Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden. They follow the same protocols and traditions for awarding the Nobel Prize in this category, as they do for the other categories. The first Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen in 1969. Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson, the winners of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for 2020, studied how auctions work. They utilized their research and extensive economic insight to to design new auction formats for goods and services that are conventionally difficult to sell, like radio frequencies.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A NOBEL LAUREATE?
Winning the most prestigious award in the world is no small feat. Nobel Laureates are extremely talented and exceptional individuals who rise above their peers. They are held in high regard everywhere, and with good reason.
Each Nobel Prize is comprised of a medal, a personal diploma, and a monetary award of almost USD 1 million. However, it does not come with any kind of title, which is in accordance with the laws of some countries. For example, in India, Article 18 of the Constitution states that “No citizen of India shall accept any title from any foreign State” and that “No title, not being a military or academic distinction, shall be conferred by the State”. This effectively eliminates any Indian citizen from receiving any kind of award or honor which has a title attached to it.
However, apart from the fame, glory and wealth that comes with winning a Nobel Prize, there are some negative aspects to it as well. There is something called the “Nobel Prize Effect”. It is a series of adverse effects of winning the prize on people. These effects include reduced productivity, constraints in areas of work, and public perception of expertise in areas unrelated to the laureate’s work. Public perception of a person after they win a Nobel Prize is vastly elevated and often leads to unrealistically high expectations from them, which in turn leads to undue stress on the person.
All things said and considered, it is a tremendous honor to win the Nobel Prize and the ultimate recognition of one’s talent and labor, making it worth the trouble to carry this mantle.
