Nobel Prize Facts
On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, giving the largest share of his fortune to a series of prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace - the Nobel Prizes. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden's central bank) established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
Lists of Nobel Prizes and Laureates 2015
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2015
Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald
"for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass"
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015
Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar
"for mechanistic studies of DNA repair"
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015
William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura
"for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites"
"for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria"
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015
"for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time"
"for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011"
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2015
"for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare"
The Nobel Prize 2014
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2014 was awarded to Patrick Modiano "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation".
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 was awarded jointly to Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy".
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 was awarded jointly to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources".
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014 was divided, one half awarded to John O'Keefe, the other half jointly to May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain".
Nobel Prize 2013
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 was awarded jointly to François Englert and Peter W. Higgs. “For the Theory of How Particles Acquire Mass”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013 was awarded jointly to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel "for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems".
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013 was awarded jointly to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof "for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 was awarded to Alice Munro "master of the contemporary short story".
The Nobel Peace Prize 2013 was awarded to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons "for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons".
The 2013 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was awarded jointly to Eugene F. Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert J. Shiller "for their empirical analysis of asset prices".
Between 1901 and 2013, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 561 times.
Nobel Prize |
Number of Prizes |
Number of Laureates |
Awarded to one Laureate |
Shared by two Laureates |
Shared by three Laureates |
Physics |
107 |
196 |
47 |
30 |
29 |
Chemistry |
105 |
166 |
63 |
22 |
19 |
Medicine |
104 |
204 |
38 |
31 |
34 |
Literature |
106 |
110 |
101 |
4 |
- |
Peace |
94 |
100+25 |
63 |
28 |
2 |
Economic Sciences |
45 |
74 |
22 |
16 |
6 |
Total: |
561 |
875 |
334 |
131 |
90 |
Years when the Nobel Prize Have Not Been Awarded
Since the start, in 1901, there are some years when the Nobel Prizes have not been awarded. The total number of times are 50. Most of them during World War I (1914-1918) and II (1939-1945).
Nobel Prize |
Year |
Physics |
1916, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1941, 1942 |
Chemistry |
1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1933, 1940, 1941, 1942 |
Medicine |
1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1921, 1925, 1940, 1941, 1942 |
Literature |
1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943 |
Peace |
1914, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1948, 1955, 1956, 1966, 1967, 1972 |
Economic Sciences |
- |
Nobel Laureates and Field
The most common fields for Physics Laureates is particle physics, for Chemistry Laureates it is biochemistry, for Medicine Laureates it is genetics and for Laureates in Economic Sciences it is Macroeconomics.
The Youngest Nobel Laureates
Category |
Name |
Year of Award |
Age of Nobel Laureate |
Physics |
1915 |
25 |
|
Chemistry |
1935 |
35 |
|
Physiology or Medicine |
1923 |
32 |
|
Literature |
1907 |
42 |
|
Peace |
2011 |
32 |
|
Economic Sciences |
1972 |
51 |
The Oldest Nobel Laureates
Category |
Name |
Year of Award |
Age of Nobel Laureate |
Physics |
2002 |
88 |
|
Chemistry |
2002 |
85 |
|
Physiology or Medicine |
1966 |
87 |
|
Literature |
2007 |
88 |
|
Peace |
1995 |
87 |
|
Economic Sciences |
2007 |
90 |
45 Nobel Prizes to Women
Between 1901 and 2013 the Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded 45 times to women.
Two Nobel Laureates have Declined the Nobel Prize!
Jean-Paul Sartre, awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature, declined the prize because he had consistently declined all official honours.
Le Duc Tho, awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. They were awarded the Prize for negotiating the Vietnam peace accord. Le Doc Tho said that he was not in a position to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, citing the situation in Vietnam as his reason.
Forced to Decline the Nobel Prize!
Four Nobel Laureates have been forced by authorities to decline the Nobel Prize. Adolf Hitler forbade three German Nobel Laureates, Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt andGerhard Domagk, from accepting the Nobel Prize. All of them could later receive the Nobel Prize Diploma and Medal, but not the prize amount.
Boris Pasternak, the 1958 Nobel Laureate in Literature, initially accepted the Nobel Prize but was later coerced by the authorities of the Soviet Union, his native country, to decline the Nobel Prize.
Three Nobel Laureates Have Been under Arrest at the Time of the Award
German pacifist and journalist Carl von Ossietzky
Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi
Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo
Multiple Nobel Laureates
The work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been honoured by a Nobel Peace Prize three times. Besides, the founder of the ICRC,Henry Dunant, was awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
Linus Pauling is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes - the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize.
J. Bardeen |
M. Curie |
L. Pauling |
F. Sanger |
ICRC |
UNHCR |
The Nobel Prize Amount
Alfred Nobel left most of his estate, more than SEK 31 million (today approximately SEK 1,702 million) to be converted into a fund and invested in "safe securities." The income from the investments was to be "distributed annually in the form of prizes to those who during the preceding year have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind."
The Nobel Prize amount for 2013 is set at Swedish kronor (SEK) 8.0 million per full Nobel Prize.
মহিলা নোবেল বিজয়ী (Female Nobel laureates )
Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine
1947: Gerty Cori
1977: Rosalyn Sussman Yalow
1983: Barbara McClintock
1986: Rita Levi-Montalcini
1988: Gertrude Elion
1995: Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
2004: Linda B. Buck
2008: Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
2009: Elizabeth H. Blackburn
2009: Carol W. Greider
Nobel Prize in Physics
1903: Marie Curie
1963: Maria Goeppert Mayer
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1911: Marie Curie
1935: Irène Joliot-Curie
1964: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
2009: Ada E. Yonath
Nobel Prize in Literature
1909: Selma Lagerlöf
1926: Grazia Deledda
1928: Sigrid Undset
1938: Pearl Buck
1945: Gabriela Mistral
1966: Nelly Sachs
1991: Nadine Gordimer
1993: Toni Morrison
1996: Wislawa Szymborska
2004: Elfriede Jelinek
2007: Doris Lessing
2009: Herta Müller
2013: Alice Munro
Nobel Prize in Economics
2009: Elinor Ostrom
Nobel Peace Prize
1905: Bertha von Suttner
1931: Jane Addams
1946: Emily Greene Balch
1976: Betty Williams
1976: Mairead Corrigan
1979: Mother Teresa
1982: Alva Myrdal
1991: Aung San Suu Kyi
1992: Rigoberta Menchú
1997: Jody Williams
2003: Shirin Ebadi
2004: Wangari Maathai
2011: Tawakkul Karman
2011: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
2011: Leymah Gbowee
মুসলিম নোবেল বিজয়ী (Muslim Nobel laureates)
Nobel Prize in Literature
1988: Naguib Mahfouz
2006: Orhan Pamuk
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1999: Ahmed Zewail
Nobel Prize in Physics
1979: Dr. Abdus Salam
Nobel Peace Prize
1978: Anwar El-Sadat
1994: Yasser Arafat
2003: Shirin Ebadi
2005: Mohamed ElBaradei
2006: Muhammad Yunus
2011: Tawakkul Karman
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
None
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
None