COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Early October means Nobel Prize season. Six days, six awards, new faces from around the world added to the most prestigious list of scientists, writers, economists and human rights leaders.
This year’s Nobel season kicks off Monday with the Medicine Prize, followed by daily announcements: Physics on Tuesday, Chemistry on Wednesday and Literature on Thursday. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the Economics Prize on October 10.
Here are five more things to know about the coveted prizes:
WHO CREATED THE NOBEL AWARDS?
The prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were created by the will of Alfred Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite. The first prizes were awarded in 1901, five years after Nobel’s death.
Each prize is worth 10 million crowns (nearly $900,000) and will be presented with a diploma and a gold medal on December 10, the date of Nobel’s death in 1896.
The economics prize – officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel – was not established by Nobel, but by the Swedish central bank in 1968.
Between 1901 and 2021, the Nobel Prizes and the Economics Prize were awarded 609 times.
WHO KNOWS WHO WILL WIN AND WHY?
Nobel statutes prohibit judges from discussing their deliberations for 50 years. So it will likely be some time before we know for sure how the judges made their 2022 picks and who was on their shortlists.
The judges try hard to avoid giving hints about the winners before the announcements, but sometimes the word gets out. Bookmakers in Europe sometimes offer odds on potential Peace Prize and Nobel Prize for Literature winners.
WHO CAN NOMINATE A CANDIDATE?
Thousands of people around the world can submit nominations for the Nobel Prizes.
They include university professors, lawmakers, former Nobel laureates and the committee members themselves.
Although the nominations are kept secret for 50 years, those who submit them sometimes publicly announce their suggestions, including for the Nobel Peace Prize.
WHAT ABOUT THE NORWEGIAN CONNECTION?
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Norway while the other prizes are awarded in Sweden. This is how Alfred Nobel wanted it.
His exact reasons are unclear, but during his lifetime Sweden and Norway formed a union, which was dissolved in 1905. At times relations were strained between the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, which manages the money of the prize, and the fiercely independent Stockholm Peace Prize Committee. Oslo.
WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO TO WIN A NOBEL?
Patience, to begin with.
Scientists often have to wait decades for their work to be recognized by Nobel Prize judges, who want to ensure that any breakthrough will stand the test of time.
This is a departure from Nobel’s will, which stipulates that the awards must reward “those who, during the preceding year, have done the greatest good for humanity”. The Peace Prize Committee is the only one that regularly rewards the achievements of the previous year.
According to Nobel’s wishes, this prize should be awarded to “the person who has done the most or the best work for brotherhood among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of congresses. of peace”.
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