14 facts you should know about the Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, and it is based on the fortune of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor and entrepreneur. 

Discussed in this article are 14 facts that you should know about the Nobel prize.

1. It was established by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor, entrepreneur, scientist and businessman who also wrote poetry and drama. 
2. Alfred Nobel stated in his will that his fortune was to be used to reward “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.” This gave birth to the Nobel Prize.
3. The Nobel Prize is awarded by the Nobel Foundation, which is the organization with the sole responsibility of fulfilling the intentions of Alfred Nobel’s will. The Foundation was established in 1900.
4. The Nobel Prize rewards outstanding efforts in the fields that Alfred Nobel, the founder, was most involved in during his lifetime: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.
5. In 1969, a new prize was established – the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Its addition was an exception to celebrate the tercentenary of Sweden’s central bank.
6. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901.
7. Every September, people who fulfill the criteria set out by the prize-awarding institutions are allowed to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prize.
8. As stipulated in Nobel’s will, the Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and Literature are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, while the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway.
9. The new Nobel Prizes and laureates are announced in October every year, and the award ceremonies are held on December 10th every year.
10. As this article was written, each prize consists of a medal, a personal diploma, and a cash award of SEK 11 million. 
11. A Nobel Prize can be awarded to up to three laureates who share the prize sum.
12. The youngest laureate to receive the Nobel prize was Malala Yousafzai, who was 17 in 2014, while the oldest was John B. Goodenough, who was 97 in 2019. 
13. Between 1901 and 2024, the Nobel Prizes and the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel were awarded 627 times to 1,012 people and organizations. Some received the Nobel Prize more than once, for a total of 976 individuals and 28 organizations.

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The list of the 2024 Nobel Prize awardees and their categories are:

Physics: Geoffrey Hinton and John J. Hopfield

The duo was awarded the Nobel Prize for their foundational discoveries and inventions, which enabled machine learning with artificial neural networks.

Chemistry: David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper

The prize was awarded to David Baker for computational protein design and to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for protein structure prediction.

Physiology or Medicine: Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun

The award was given to the duo for discovering microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.

Literature: Han Kang

The award was given for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.

Peace: Nihon Hidankyo

The award was given for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again

Economic Sciences: Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson

The award was given for their studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.

The Nobel Prizes, widely regarded as the most prestigious awards available in their respective fields, are six prizes awarded to those who have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind, as established by Alfred Nobel’s 1895 will. Each laureate’s contributions highlight how the various fields are interconnected in addressing major global challenges.