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FACTS ABOUT SWEDEN | THE NOBEL PRIZE sweden.se PHOTO: DAN HANSSON/TT DAN PHOTO: Each year, King Carl XVI Gustaf personally presents a diploma to the winners during a stately ceremony in the Stockholm Concert Hall. NOBEL PRIZE: THE PRESTIGIOUS AWARD THAT CAPTURES THE WORLD’S ATTENTION The Nobel Prize is considered the most prestigious award in the world. Prize-winning discoveries include X-rays, radioactivity and penicillin. Peace Laureates include Nelson Mandela and the 14th Dalai Lama. Nobel Laureates in Literature, including Gabriel García Márquez and Doris Lessing, have thrilled readers with works such as One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Grass is Singing. Every year in early October, the world Nobel Day is 10 December. For the prize Prize in Economic Sciences turns its gaze towards Sweden and winners, it is the crowning point of a week In 1968, Sweden’s central bank (Sveriges Norway as the Nobel Laureates are of speeches, conferences and receptions. Riksbank) established the Prize in announced in Stockholm and Oslo. At the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Millions of people visit the website of in Stockholm on that day, the Laureates Nobel. The prize is based on a donation the Nobel Foundation during this time. in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or received by the Nobel Foundation in The Nobel Prize has been awarded Medicine, and Literature receive a medal 1968 from the central bank to mark to people and organisations every year from the King of Sweden, as well as the bank’s 300th anniversary. The Prize since 1901 (with a few exceptions such a diploma and a cash award. The cer­ in Economic Sciences is awarded by as during World War II) for achieve­ emony is followed by a gala banquet. the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, ments in physics, chemistry, physiology The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in follow ing the same principles as the or medicine, literature and peace. Oslo the same day. Nobel Prizes. FACTS ABOUT SWEDEN | THE NOBEL PRIZE sweden.se DID YOU KNOW? Legacy of Alfred Nobel up to three recipients for each prize, who The Nobel Prize is the legacy of Sweden’s share the sum between them. 48 WOMEN Alfred Nobel (1833–1896). Prizes are The Nobel Prize and the Prize in awarded to ‘those who, during the pre­ Organisations affiliated with Economic Sciences have been ceding year, shall have conferred the the prize awarded to women 49 times from greatest benefit on mankind.’ When he The Nobel Prize is affiliated with several 1901 to 2016. One woman, Marie signed his last will in 1895, Nobel declared organisations and institutions entrusted Curie, has been honoured twice, receiving the 1903 Nobel Prize in that the bulk of his estate should be con­ with different tasks related to the prize. Physics and the 1911 Nobel Prize verted into a fund and invested in safe The Nobel Foundation Rights Association in Chemistry. This means a total securities. The four institutions in Sweden was established in 1999 to provide informa­ of 48 women have received Nobel and Norway (the two countries were united tion through a variety of media about the Prizes to date: between 1814 and 1905) conferring the Nobel Laureates and their achievements. 16 have received the Peace Prize, 14 the Prize in Literature, prizes were to be the Swedish Academy This non-profit association serves as 12 in Physiology/Medicine, of Sciences, Karolinska Institutet in Stock­ an umbrella organisation for four other 4 in Chemistry (including Curie), holm, the Academy in Stockholm and a entities: 2 in Physics (including Curie) and committee of five people to be elected by • Nobel Media AB, which develops and 1 in Economic Sciences. the Norwegian parliament (Stortinget). manages programmes, productions and 90 YEARS OLD media rights of the Nobel Prize within The Nobel Foundation the areas of digital and broadcast media, The oldest Laureate to date is Leonid In 1900, the four institutions awarding the publishing as well as events. Hurwicz, who was 90 when he was awarded the Prize in Economic prizes agreed to create the Nobel Founda­ • The Nobel Museum AB, housed in the Sciences in 2007. tion, a private institution based on Alfred Old Stock Exchange Building (Börs huset) Nobel’s will. The Nobel Foundation would in Stockholm’s Old Town, creates inter­ 17 YEARS OLD administer Nobel’s estate, totalling SEK est and spreads knowledge around the The youngest Laureate to date is Malala 31 million, make public announcements natural sciences and culture. Yousafzai, who was 17 when she was and arrange the prize ceremonies. The • The Nobel Peace Center, at Rådhusplas­ awarded the Peace Prize in 2014. total amount awarded each year is based sen in Oslo, Norway, a showcase which on the most recent return on investment. presents the Nobel Peace Prize and the TWO HAVE DECLINED The capital is currently worth just over SEK work of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. Two Nobel Laureates have declined 4 billion, almost double the value of the • The Nobel Prize Education Fund, the Nobel Prize. Jean­Paul Sartre, original estate when adjusted for inflation. which supports educational outreach awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in focused on the achievements of Nobel Literature, declined the award be­ The Nobel Prize in each category is cur­ cause he had consistently declined rently worth SEK 8 million. There can be Laureates. n all official honours. Lê Ðúc Tho . was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for negotiating the Vietnam peace THE FATHER OF DYNAMITE agreement. Lê Ðúc Tho . said he was not in a position to accept the Nobel NOBEL MUSEUM PHOTO: Peace Prize, due to the situation in Alfred Nobel was a chemist, engineer, in­ Vietnam. ventor and entrepreneur. He was born on 21 October 1833 in Stockholm, and died FOUR FORCED TO DECLINE on 10 December 1896 in San Remo, Italy. He was devoted to the study of explo­ Four Nobel Laureates have been sives, and his inventions include a blast­ forced by authorities to decline the ing cap, dynamite and smokeless gun­ Nobel Prize. Adolf Hitler forbade powder. Nobel became famous across the three German Laureates – Richard world when the St. Gotthard Tunnel in the Kuhn (Chemistry), Adolf Butenandt Swiss Alps was completed in 1881 and (Chemistry) and Gerhard Domagk dynamite was used for the first time on (Physiology/Medicine) – from ac­ a large scale. cepting their prizes. The Nazi regime At the time of his death, Nobel held banned all Germans from accepting 355 patents in different countries. Nobel Prizes after the 1935 Nobel There were Nobel companies in more Peace Prize was awarded to Carl than 20 countries, with explosives of all von Ossietzky, a German writer who kinds being manufactured under his pat­ publicly opposed Hitler and Nazism. ents in around 90 factories worldwide. Alfred Nobel. The three later received their awards, Nobel lived and worked in many coun­ but not the prize money. tries, including Sweden, Russia, France, and drama. He could never have imag­ Boris Pasternak, the 1958 Nobel the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. ined how important his prize would be­ Laureate in Literature, initially accept­ He spoke five languages, had a passion­ come, or how much media attention future ed the prize but was later coerced into ate interest in literature, and wrote poetry Nobel Laureates would attract. n declining by Soviet authorities. 2 | FACTS ABOUT SWEDEN | THE NOBEL PRIZE sweden.se PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES GETTY IMAGES PHOTO: PHOTO: IMAGEBANK.SWEDEN.SE PHOTO: THE NOBEL PRIZE-AWARDING SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTO: INSTITUTIONS Four institutions select the Nobel Laureates: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel). Founded in 1739 as an independent organisation, it aims to promote the sciences and enhance their influence in society. It currently has SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTO: around 450 Swedish and 175 foreign members. The Swedish Academy (Nobel Prize in Literature). Founded in 1786, it consists of 18 Swedes, all elected for life. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine). Dating from 1977 in its current form, the assembly consists of Prize­winning discoveries (clockwise from left): X­rays; AGA lighthouse, a type of 50 professors at Karolinska Institutet. automatic lighthouse that runs on acetylene gas; the molecular structure of DNA – The Norwegian Nobel Committee the double helix; penicillin. (Nobel Peace Prize). Founded in 1897, its five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. A HISTORY OF CULTURE AND SCIENCE PHOTO: FREDRIKA BERGHULT/NOBEL MEDIA AB BERGHULT/NOBEL FREDRIKA PHOTO: Between 1901, when the first Nobel Prize was awarded, and 2016, a total of 911 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to individuals and organisations. Together, they represent a major contribution to the cultural and scientific history of the world. There have been 885 prizes awarded to Physics for his contributions to lighthouse individuals and 26 to organisations. Only a technology. In the early 1900s, he invented few recipients have been honoured more the AGA lighthouse, a type of automatic than once, which means that a total of lighthouse that ran on acetylene gas. The 881 individuals and 23 unique organisa­ gas supply was controlled by a sun valve tions have received prizes to date. that shut off the gas in daylight, and a re­ The first Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1901, volving light apparatus that allowed the Around 1,300 guests are invited went to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen for his beacon to flash by switching the gas off each year to the grand banquet.

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