Chemist, engineer and industrialist Alfred Nobel died in San Remo, Italy, on 10 December 1896. When his will was opened, it came as a surprise that his fortune was to be used for Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace.
The dynamite invention made Nobel a very rich man, as it soon became popular in construction, mining and the weapons industry.
He would leave behind 31 million SEK (today about 340 million dollars) to fund an annual prize which he envisioned would go “to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”
According to the official website of the Nobel Prizes, the executors of his will were two young engineers, Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist.
They set about forming the Nobel Foundation as an organization to take care of the financial assets left by Nobel for this purpose.
One family, three Nobel Prizes
The first Nobel Prize would be awarded in 1901, five years after his death. Marie Curie's family has been recorded as the family that has won the most Nobel prizes.
She received two Prizes (Physics 1903 and Chemistry 1911), sharing the physics prize with her husband Pierre Curie.
Their daughter Irène Joliot-Curie was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, she also shared the prize with her husband Frédéric Joliot.
In 1968, a sixth prize was created, for economics, by Sweden’s central bank. Though Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is technically not a Nobel Prize, it’s always presented together with the others.
Gold and Glory
One reason the prizes are so famous is they come with a generous amount of cash.
The Nobel Foundation, which administers the awards, raised the prize money by 10% this year to 11 million Swedish Kronor (about $1 million).
In addition to the money, the winners receive an 18-carat gold medal and diploma when they collect their Nobel Prizes at the award ceremonies in December.
Most winners are proud and humbled by joining the pantheon of Nobel laureates, from Albert Einstein to Mother Teresa.
However, two winners refused their Nobel Prizes: French writer Jean-Paul Sartre, who turned down the literature prize in 1964, and Vietnamese politician Le Duc Tho, who declined the peace prize that he was meant to share with U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger in 1973.
Controversies and criticisms
No person can nominate herself/himself for a Nobel Prize.
According to nobelprize.org, thousands of members of academies, scientists, previous Nobel Prize laureates, members of parliamentary assemblies among others, are asked to submit candidates for the Nobel Prizes for the coming year.
The nomination processes start in September each year. After receiving the nominations, the Nobel Committees of the four prize-awarding institutions are responsible for the selection of the candidates.
Historically, the vast majority of Nobel Prize winners have been white men. Though that’s started to change, there is still little diversity among Nobel winners, particularly in the science categories.
With Tuesday's announcement, 61 women have won Nobel Prizes, including 27 in the scientific categories. Only five women have won the Nobel Prize in physics and just two have won the economics prize.
Critics say the judges need to do a better job at highlighting discoveries made by women and scientists outside Europe and North America.
The prize committees say their decisions are based on scientific merit, not gender, nationality or race. However, they are not deaf to the criticism.
Five years ago, the head of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said it had started to ask nominating bodies to make sure they don’t overlook “women or people of other ethnicities or nationalities in their nominations.”
What's politics got to do with it?
The Nobel Prizes project an aura of being above the political fray, focused solely on the benefit of humanity. But the peace and literature awards, in particular, are sometimes accused of being politicized.
Critics question whether winners are selected because their work is truly outstanding or because it aligns with the political preferences of the judges.
The scrutiny can get intense for high-profile awards, such as in 2009, when President Barack Obama won the peace prize less than a year after taking office.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee is an independent body that insists its only mission is to carry out the will of Alfred Nobel.
However, it does have links to Norway's political system. The five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, so the panel's composition reflects the power balance in the legislature.
To avoid the perception that the prizes are influenced by Norway’s political leaders, sitting members of the Norwegian government or Parliament are barred from serving on the committee.
Even so, the panel isn't always viewed as independent by foreign countries. When imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the peace prize in 2010, Beijing responded by freezing trade talks with Norway. It took years for Norway-China relations to be restored.
Why Norway for Nobel Peace Prize?
For reasons that are not entirely clear, Nobel decided that the peace prize should be awarded in Norway and the other prizes in Sweden. Nobel historians suspect Sweden’s history of militarism may have been a factor.
During Nobel’s lifetime, Sweden and Norway were in a union, which the Norwegians reluctantly joined after the Swedes invaded their country in 1814. It’s possible that Nobel thought Norway would be a more suitable location for a prize meant to encourage “fellowship among nations.”
To this day, the Nobel Peace Prize is a completely Norwegian affair, with the winners selected and announced by a Norwegian committee. The peace prize even has its own ceremony in the Norwegian capital of Oslo on December10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death, while the other prizes are presented in Stockholm.
