Nobel Prize facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded in 1950 to researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota
Presented by	Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Economic Sciences) Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute (Physiology or Medicine) Swedish Academy (Literature) Norwegian Nobel Committee (Peace)
Country	Sweden (all prizes except the Peace Prize) Norway (Peace Prize only)
Reward	A gold-plated green gold medal, a diploma, and a monetary award of 11 million SEK
First awarded	10 December 1901; 123 years ago (1901-12-10)
Currently held by	621 prizes to 992 laureates (as of 2024[update])

The Nobel Prizes are super important awards given each year. They honor people who have done amazing things to help humanity. These prizes were created by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor. He wanted his money to be used to celebrate great achievements.

The first Nobel Prizes were given out in 1901. They cover five main areas:

• Physics (for discoveries about how the world works)
• Chemistry (for breakthroughs in materials and reactions)
• Physiology or Medicine (for advances in health and the human body)
• Literature (for outstanding writing)
• Peace (for efforts to bring peace to the world)

Later, in 1969, a sixth prize for Economic Sciences was added. It is also managed by the Nobel Foundation. Winning a Nobel Prize is considered one of the highest honors in these fields.

Each winner, called a laureate, receives a special gold medal, a fancy diploma, and a large sum of money. As of 2023, the prize money is about 11 million Swedish Krona, which is over a million US dollars! A prize can be shared by up to three people. The Peace Prize can even be given to organizations. Prizes are not usually given after someone has died. However, if a winner dies after being announced, they still receive the prize.

Since 1901, the Nobel Prizes have been awarded over 600 times to nearly 1000 people and 25 organizations. Some people and organizations have even won more than once!

The Story of Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel was an inventor who wanted to be remembered for good things.

Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1833. He came from a family of engineers and grew up to be a chemist, engineer, and inventor. He invented many things, but his most famous invention was dynamite. This invention made him very wealthy.

There's a famous story that in 1888, Alfred Nobel read his own obituary (a death notice) in a French newspaper! The headline supposedly called him "The Merchant of Death." It was actually his brother, Ludvig, who had died, but the newspaper made a mistake. This made Alfred think about how he would be remembered after he died. He didn't want to be known only for explosives. This thought inspired him to change his will. Alfred Nobel died in Italy in 1896, at the age of 63.

Nobel wrote his last will a year before he died. He surprised everyone by saying that most of his huge fortune should be used to create prizes. These prizes would honor those who brought the "greatest benefit on mankind." He set aside about 94% of his money to start the five Nobel Prizes. It took some time for his will to be approved, but eventually, the Nobel Foundation was created to manage the money and organize the awards.

The Nobel Foundation

Alfred Nobel's will, which set up the Nobel Prizes.

The Nobel Foundation was officially started in 1900. Its main job is to manage the money Alfred Nobel left behind. This money helps make sure there's always enough to pay for the prizes and the events. The foundation also promotes the prizes around the world. It's important to know that the foundation does not choose the winners. That job belongs to other special groups.

The foundation invests Nobel's money, much like an investment company. This helps the money grow over time. The Nobel Foundation doesn't have to pay taxes in Sweden or the United States. This helps it keep more money for the prizes.

How Winners Are Chosen

The process for choosing Nobel Prize winners is very careful. It's similar for all the prizes, but different groups handle the nominations.

Nominations

Every September, the Nobel Committees send out forms to about 3,000 experts. These experts are usually important professors or scientists in their fields. For the Peace Prize, nominations also come from governments and past Peace Prize winners. People have until January 31st to send in their nominations.

The Nobel Committee then creates a list of about 300 possible winners. The names of these nominees are kept secret for 50 years! This means you won't know who was considered but didn't win until many decades later.

Selection Process

After getting the nominations, the Nobel Committee gets advice from experts. They then send a list of candidates to the groups that actually award the prizes. There are four main groups that choose the winners:

• Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences – for Chemistry, Physics, and Economics
• Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute – for Physiology or Medicine
• Swedish Academy – for Literature
• Norwegian Nobel Committee – for Peace

These groups meet and vote to choose the winners. Their decision is final and cannot be changed. They announce the winners during the first two weeks of October. A maximum of three people can share one prize. Only individuals can win, except for the Peace Prize, which can be given to organizations.

When Prizes Are Awarded

Alfred Nobel's will said prizes should be for discoveries made "during the preceding year." But over time, this rule changed. Now, prizes often recognize discoveries that have been proven important over many years. This helps avoid giving prizes for ideas that might later be found incorrect.

For example, the Literature Prize often honors a writer's entire body of work, not just one book. The Peace Prize can be for a lifetime of work or for recent peace efforts. For science prizes (Physics, Chemistry, Medicine), the discovery usually needs to be widely accepted and its importance fully understood. This can sometimes take decades. Sadly, this means some scientists might not live long enough to see their work recognized with a Nobel Prize.

Award Ceremonies

Barack Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.

The Nobel Prizes are presented each year on December 10th. This date is special because it's the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.

All the prizes, except the Peace Prize, are given out in Stockholm, Sweden. The winners give their lectures a few days before the ceremony. The Peace Prize ceremony and lecture happen in Oslo, Norway.

These ceremonies are big international events! In Stockholm, the King of Sweden hands out the prizes. In Oslo, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Peace Prize, with the King of Norway present.

Nobel Banquet

After the ceremony in Sweden, there's a fancy banquet at the Stockholm City Hall. About 1,300 guests attend, including the Swedish Royal Family. The Nobel Peace Prize banquet is held in Oslo at the Grand Hotel, with about 250 guests.

Nobel Lecture

Every Nobel winner must give a public lecture about their prize-winning work. These lectures usually happen during Nobel Week. This is the week leading up to the award ceremony and banquet. It's a chance for the laureates to share their knowledge with the world.

The Prizes Themselves

Medals

Fritz Haber's Nobel diploma. Winners get a medal, diploma, and money.

Each Nobel Prize winner receives a beautiful gold medal. The medals for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature all have Alfred Nobel's image on the front. The Peace Prize and Economics Prize medals have slightly different designs. The back of each medal has a unique design depending on which institution awarded the prize.

Before 1980, the medals were made of 23-carat gold. Now, they are 18-carat green gold, covered with 24-carat gold. They weigh about 175 grams (about 6 ounces). Because they are so valuable, Nobel medals have sometimes been stolen. During World War II, some German scientists' medals were dissolved in acid to hide them from the Nazis. After the war, the gold was recovered, and new medals were made!

Diplomas

Nobel winners also receive a special diploma. Each diploma is unique and designed just for that winner. It includes a picture and text in Swedish. It states the winner's name and usually explains why they received the prize. Peace Prize diplomas do not have a specific citation.

Award Money

Winners receive a sum of money. The amount changes each year, depending on how well the Nobel Foundation's investments have done. In 2009, it was 10 million Swedish Krona. In 2012, it was lowered to 8 million SEK. If a prize is shared, the money is divided among the winners. Many winners choose to donate their prize money to support science, culture, or humanitarian causes.

Interesting Facts and Statistics

• Youngest Winner: Malala Yousafzai was 17 when she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.
• Oldest Winner: John B. Goodenough was 97 when he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019.
• Only Person with Two Unshared Prizes: Linus Pauling won the Chemistry Prize (1954) and the Peace Prize (1962).
• Country with Most Winners: The United States has had the most Nobel laureates, with 403 as of 2022.

Winners with Multiple Nobel Prizes

• Marie Curie: Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911). She's the only person to win in two different sciences!
• International Committee of the Red Cross: Peace Prize three times (1917, 1944, 1963).
• Linus Pauling: Chemistry (1954) and Peace (1962).
• John Bardeen: Physics twice (1956, 1972) for inventing the transistor and for superconductivity theory.
• Frederick Sanger: Chemistry twice (1958, 1980) for work on insulin and DNA.
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Peace Prize twice (1954, 1981).
• Karl Barry Sharpless: Chemistry twice (2001, 2022).

Family Winners

The Curie family has won the most Nobel Prizes!

• Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie shared the Physics Prize in 1903.
• Their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, and her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie won the Chemistry Prize in 1935.
• Marie Curie's other daughter's husband, Henry Labouisse, accepted the Peace Prize for UNICEF in 1965.

Many other families have had multiple Nobel winners:

• Gerty Cori and Carl Ferdinand Cori (husband and wife) won Medicine in 1947.
• May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser (husband and wife) won Medicine in 2014.
• J. J. Thomson (Physics 1906) and his son George Paget Thomson (Physics 1937).
• William Henry Bragg and his son William Lawrence Bragg shared Physics in 1915.
• Niels Bohr (Physics 1922) and his son Aage Bohr (Physics 1975).
• Arthur Kornberg (Medicine 1959) and his son Roger D. Kornberg (Chemistry 2006).
• Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo (married couple) won Economics in 2019.

Refusals and Challenges

Sometimes, people have refused the Nobel Prize or faced problems accepting it.

• In 1964, writer Jean-Paul Sartre refused the Literature Prize. He said a writer shouldn't become an "institution."
• Lê Đức Thọ refused the 1973 Peace Prize because there was no real peace in Vietnam yet.
• During Adolf Hitler's rule, three German winners were not allowed to accept their prizes. They received their medals and diplomas after World War II ended.
• In 1958, Boris Pasternak declined the Literature Prize because he feared what the Soviet Union government might do to him.
• Aung San Suu Kyi won the Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest. Her children accepted it for her.
• Liu Xiaobo won the Peace Prize in 2010 while he was a political prisoner in China. He was unable to accept it.

Images for kids

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  Wilhelm Röntgen, who received the first Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the X-ray

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  Map of Nobel laureates by country

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  The committee room of the Norwegian Nobel Committee

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  Giovanni Jona-Lasinio presenting Yoichiro Nambu's Nobel Lecture in Stockholm in 2008

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  Table at the 2005 Nobel Banquet in Stockholm

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  Richard Kuhn, who was forced to decline his Nobel Prize in Chemistry

See also

In Spanish: Premio Nobel para niños