Alfred Nobel’s will established awards in five fields: chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, and peace. The economics prize was added later. Each category has its own committee, and awards are usually given annually. Notable omissions occurred during WWII and in 1966-67. Winners have made significant contributions in their respective fields, such as William Conrad Roentgen in physics for developing X-ray technology and Sully Prudhomme in literature. The Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway.
When Alfred Nobel signed his will in 1895, he specified that the majority of his estate would be spent on awarding prizes to those who had made significant contributions in one of five fields. These fields are chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and peace.
A sixth Nobel laureate was created in 1969 in the field of economics. This award isn’t technically a Nobel Prize because the Bank of Sweden funds the funds for the award. However, some of the committees that nominate and select a laureate in mathematics have ties to other committees that award the Prize to those in other branches of science.
Each award category has its own nomination and voting committee, and awards tend to be awarded annually. However, Nobel only established awards once every five years. Notable award omissions occurred during World War II. The Nazi occupation of Norway interfered with Norway’s ability to select and award candidates from 1939 to 1943. Also, no Noble Peace Prizes were awarded in 1966 and 1967.
The first Nobel Prize winner in physics was William Conrad Roentgen in 1902. He was awarded for his work in developing X-ray technology and to this day is regarded as the “father” of modern radiology. Recent Nobel Prize winners in physics include Roy Glauber of the United States, who won in 2005 for his studies on optical coherence. Past laureates in physics have been honored for the discovery of the neutron, the positron, the advancement of microscopic studies and the development of the wireless telegraph.
In chemistry, Jacobus Henricus van’t Hoff won the first Nobel Prize for his study of osmotic pressure in liquids. Paul Berg was recognized in the 1980s for his studies and descriptions of recombinant DNA. Other winners in chemistry have studied the properties of RNA, developed nuclear magnetic resonance and investigated the depletion of the ozone layer.
Emil Adolf von Behring won the first Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work developing a treatment for diphtheria. Other major winners in this field include scientists who have developed antibiotics, defined the purpose of the thyroid gland, identified blood groups, and described or proposed cures for various viruses.
In literature, Sully Prudhomme from France won the first Nobel Prize. Other honorees include Pearl Buck, Rudyard Kipling, George Bernard Shaw, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Pablo Neruda. Boris Pasternak and Jean-Paul Sartre both won for literature, but declined to accept the award.
The Nobel Peace Prize is the only one to be awarded to Oslo, Norway, rather than Stockholm, Sweden. Why the Peace Prize is treated differently in this way is left to speculation. The first prize was divided between Jean Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, and Frédéric Passy. Peace in Peace award winners include Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Schweitzer, Mikhail Gorbachev, Anwar Al-Sadat, and Jimmy Carter.
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