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Mahesh

09/10/24 09:38 AM IST

How are Nobel Prize winners selected?

In News
  • The 2024 Nobel Prize for Medicine was announced recently, kicking off the week where awards in Physics, Chemistry, Literature and Peace will be announced.
Selection of people for noble prize
  • The first stage involves nominations. A range of people — university professors, former Nobel winners in that category, etc. — are deemed eligible by the respective Nobel Committee to submit a nomination for that award.
  • The eligibility, and the larger process, slightly differ for all six awards. For example, heads of state and members of national assemblies and national governments can send nominations for the Peace Prize.
  • Permanent professors in relevant subjects at the universities and colleges in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway can send nominations for the Economics Prize.
  • But in general, all six awards have a Nobel committee, appointed by the institution responsible for the prize.
  • The committee assesses the hundreds of submissions and prepares a shortlist.
  • The Nobel Institute’s permanent advisers, who are subject experts, consider them. After the expert reports are presented, the Nobel Committee discusses the most likely candidates.
  • A few institutions are responsible for awarding the Nobel Prizes: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry, Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature, a Committee of five persons elected by the Norwegian Parliament for the Nobel Peace Prize, and The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the Economic Sciences prize.
Institutions involved
  •  Sweden-born Alfred Nobel was an innovator and scientist with over 300 patents, perhaps the best-known one being dynamite.
  • At the end of his life, he had amassed a significant personal fortune thanks to his inventions, many of which had uses in warfare.
  • As per his will, he wanted the money to be used to award excellence across fields, with the first prizes announced in 1901.
  • While his interest in the sciences was well-known, Nobel was also inclined towards literature and philosophy.
  • After his death he left a private library of over 1500 volumes, mostly fiction in the original language, works by the great writers of the 19th century, but also the classics and works by philosophers, theologians, historians and other scientists.
  • The Economics Prize was established much later in 1968 by Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
  • It was based on a donation received by the Nobel Foundation in 1968 from Sveriges Riksbank on the bank’s 300th anniversary.
Source- Indian Express

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