The Nobel Prize is considered the most prestigious award in the world in its field and stands out for its superiority. The coveted Nobel Prizes are a result of Alfred Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, who signed his last will giving the largest share of his fortune to a series of prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. The economics award – officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel – was not created by Nobel, but by Sweden’s central bank in 1968. Each prize is worth 10 million kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out with a diploma and gold medal on December 10 – the date of Nobel’s death in 1896. Nobel Prizes have been awarded to individuals 959 times (61 to women) and organizations 30 times between 1901 and 2022.

The Nobel Prize awarding institutions:

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences – Prize awarder for the Nobel Prize in Physics, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the Prize in Economic Sciences

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet – Prize awarder for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The Swedish Academy – Prize awarder for the Nobel Prize in Literature

The Norwegian Nobel Committee – Prize awarder for the Nobel Peace Prize (By the terms of Alfred Nobel’s will the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 1901. Alfred Nobel left no explanation as to why the prize for peace was to be awarded by a Norwegian committee while the other four prizes were to be handled by Swedish committees.)

2022 Nobel Laureates

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022
Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.”

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022
Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and K. Barry Sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.”

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022
Svante Pääbo “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.”

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2022
Annie Ernaux “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements, and collective restraints of personal memory.”

The Nobel Peace Prize 2022
Ales Bialiatski, Memorial, and Center for Civil Liberties
The Peace Prize laureates represent civil society in their home countries. They have promoted the right to criticize power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens, documenting war crimes, human rights abuses, and the abuse of power. Together, they demonstrate the importance of civil society for peace and democracy.

Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022
Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond, and Philip H. Dybvig “for research on banks and financial crises.”

Record number of laureates on hand in Stockholm for this year’s Nobel Week

December 6–12 will mark the 2022 Nobel Week. The Nobel Foundation has invited this year’s Nobel Prize laureates together with laureates from 2020 and 2021. No fewer than 27 laureates will attend this year’s festivities in Stockholm. A number of other previous laureates will also participate in the Nobel Week Dialogue science conference on 9 December.

“After two years of cancelled festivities, we are finally able to welcome the Nobel Prize laureates to Stockholm. This will give us a fantastic opportunity to celebrate science, literature and peace efforts during an entire week. Given the challenges the world faces, it feels especially important to highlight Alfred Nobel’s idea of international community, respect for knowledge and a belief in humankind’s ability to bring about changes,” says Vidar Helgesen, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation.

It will be a busy period for the laureates visiting Stockholm during Nobel Week. The prize-awarding institutions will organize press conferences and Nobel lectures featuring the 2022 laureates. In keeping with tradition, all 27 laureates will be invited to the Nobel Prize Museum to sign a chair and contribute an artifact to the museum’s collection. Throughout the week, there will also be time for school visits and the Nobel Week Lights festival, among other events. On 10 December, the Nobel Prize award ceremony and banquet will take place.

The Nobel Prize Amount

Alfred Nobel left most of his estate, over SEK 31 million (approximately SEK 1.7 billion today), to be converted into a fund and invested in “safe securities.” The income from these investments was to be “distributed annually in the form of prizes to those who during the preceding year have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.” For 2022, the Nobel Prize amount is set at SEK 10.0 million per full prize.

Two Nobel Prize Laureates Declined the Prize

Jean-Paul Sartre, awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature, declined it as he had consistently refused all official honors. Le Duc Tho, awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize alongside U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for negotiating the Vietnam peace accord, also declined, citing the situation in Vietnam as his reason.

Forced to Decline the Nobel Prize

Four Nobel Prize laureates were compelled by their governments to decline the Nobel Prize. Adolf Hitler prohibited three German laureates—Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt, and Gerhard Domagk—from accepting the honor. Although they later received the Nobel Prize diplomas and medals, they were denied the prize money. In 1958, Boris Pasternak initially accepted the Nobel Prize in Literature but was later forced by Soviet authorities to decline it.

Multiple Nobel Prize Laureates

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been honored with the Nobel Peace Prize three times. Its founder, Henry Dunant, was awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. Linus Pauling remains the only individual to receive two unshared Nobel Prizes: the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize.

Nobel Foundation

The Nobel Foundation, established in 1900, is a private institution founded based on Alfred Nobel’s will. Its main role is to ensure that Nobel’s intentions are carried out, managing the funds to maintain the economic stability of the Prize while ensuring the independence of the institutions that select laureates. The Foundation also oversees the Nobel trademarks and intangible assets developed over its long history.

With great pride, we share that our publication, Global Features, has been invited to attend the coveted Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo. We are one of the few to be accredited to this prestigious ceremony, which is held in the presence of the King of Norway, his Royal family, the PM of Norway, and other dignitaries. We will also have the opportunity to interact with the 2022 Nobel Laureates in Physics, Chemistry, and Economic Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden.