NOBEL PRIZE

The obverse side of the Nobel Prize medals for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and any of the prizes (five in number until 1969, when a sixth was added) that are awarded annually from a fund bequeathed for that purpose by the Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel. The Nobel Prizes are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards given for intellectual achievement in the world. The reverse side of the Nobel Prize medal awarded for both Physics and Chemistry. In the will he drafted in 1895, Nobel instructed that most of his fortune be set aside as a fund for the awarding of five annual prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. These prizes as established by his will are: the Nobel Prize for Physics (Nobelpriset i Fysik); the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (Nobelpriset i Kemi); the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (Nobelpriset i Fysiologi eller Medicin); the Nobel Prize for Literature (Nobelpriset i Litteratur); and the Nobel Prize for Peace (Nobels Fredspris). The first distribution of the prizes took place on December 10, 1901, the fifth anniversary of Nobel's death. An additional award, the Prize for Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (Priset i Ekonomisk Vetenskap till Alfred Nobels Minne), was established in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden and was first awarded in 1969. The reverse side of the Nobel Prize medal for Physiology or Medicine. The reverse side of the Nobel Prize medal for Literature. After Nobel's death, the Nobel Foundation was set up to carry out the provisions of his will and to administer his funds. In his will, he had stipulated that four different institutionsthree Swedish and one Norwegianshould award the prizes. From Stockholm, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences confers the prizes for physics, chemistry, and economics, the Karolinska Institute confers the prize for physiology or medicine, and the Swedish Academy confers the prize for literature. The Norwegian Nobel Committee based in Oslo confers the prize for peace. The Nobel Foundation is the legal owner and functional administrator of the funds and serves as the joint administrative body of the prize-awarding institutions, but it is not concerned with the prize deliberations or decisions, which rest exclusively with the four institutions. Additional reading Sociological studies of the prize, the impact on winners, and the criteria utilized to nominate and evaluate candidates are among the topics addressed in Harriet Zuckerman, Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States (1977, reissued 1996); Carl Gustaf Bernhard, Elisabeth Crawford, and Per Srbom (eds.), Science, Technology, and Society in the Time of Alfred Nobel (1982), which includes useful information on the early history (to 1930) of the prizes in physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine; Kjell Espmark, The Nobel Prize in Literature: A Study of the Criteria Behind the Choices (1991; originally published in Swedish, 1986); Elisabeth Crawford, Nationalism and Internationalism in Science, 18801939: Four Studies of the Nobel Population (1992); and Denis Brian, Genius Talk: Conversations with Nobel Scientists and Other Luminaries (1995).Les Prix Nobel (annual) prints the Nobel Prize lectures, often in the original language; volumes in the series Nobel Lectures, Including Presentation Speeches and Laureates' Biographies, with separate sets of books for each of the prize categories, translates the lectures into English.Tyler Wasson (ed.), Nobel Prize Winners (1987), and two additional volumes, Nobel Prize Winners, Supplement, 19871991, ed. by Paula McGuire (1992), and Nobel Prize Winners, Supplement, 19921996, ed. by Clifford Thompson (1997), arranged alphabetically by prizewinner; and Bernard S. Schlessinger and June H. Schlessinger, The Who's Who of Nobel Prize Winners, 19011995, 3rd ed. (1996), arranged chronologically by prize category, give biographical and bibliographic information on winners in all the prize categories. Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries (1993), treats 14 women who either won the prize or were an important part of a prizewinning project. Additional biographical and bibliographic information on the laureates, by category, may be found in the following reference works: Frank N. Magill (ed.), The Nobel Prize Winners: Chemistry, 3 vol. (1990); Laylin K. James (ed.), Nobel Laureates in Chemistry, 19011991 (1993); Bernard S. Katz (ed.), Nobel Laureates in Economic Sciences (1989); William Breit and Roger W. Spencer (eds.), Lives of the Laureates: Thirteen Nobel Economists, 3rd ed. (1995); Rado Pribic (ed.), Nobel Laureates in Literature (1990); Frank N. Magill (ed.), The Nobel Prize Winners: Literature, 3 vol. (1987); Tony Gray, Champions of Peace (1976); Irwin Abrams, The Nobel Peace Prize and the Laureates (1988); Frank N. Magill (ed.), The Nobel Prize Winners: Physiology or Medicine, 3 vol. (1991); Daniel M. Fox, Marcia Meldrum, and Ira Rezak (ed.), Nobel Laureates in Medicine or Physiology (1990); Robert L. Weber, Pioneers of Science: Nobel Prize Winners in Physics, 2nd ed. (1988); and Frank N. Magill (ed.), The Nobel Prize Winners: Physics, 3 vol. (1989).