Nobel price Introduction
Alfred Nobel had a vision of a better world. He believed that people are capable of helping to improve society through knowledge, science and humanism. This is why he created a prize that would reward the discoveries that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace, while a memorial prize in economic sciences was added in 1968.
Every October, committees in Sweden and Norway name laureates in a variety of prizes in the sciences, literature and economics, as well as peace work.
In total, six prizes are awarded, each recognizing an individual’s or organization’s groundbreaking contribution in a specific field. Prizes are given for 1. physiology or medicine, 2. physics, 3. chemistry, 4. economic science, 5. literature and 6. peace work.
Here is a quick guide to this year’s prizes.
The Nobel Prize in Peace 2022
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to jailed Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties.
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honour three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence in the neighbour countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine,” said Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2022
The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2022 is awarded to the French author Annie Ernaux “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”.
In her writing, Ernaux consistently and from different angles, examines a life marked by strong disparities regarding gender, language and class. Her path to authorship was long and arduous.
Ms. Ernaux, 82, is the 17th female writer to have won the prize since it was formed in 1901.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 to
Carolyn R. Bertozzi
Stanford University, CA, USA
Morten Meldal
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
K. Barry Sharpless
Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA
“for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 was awarded jointly to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry” at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The three have been awarded for their work in ‘click chemistry’, in which molecules snap together fast and firmly, without the need for a long, complicated process and too many unwanted byproducts. Their work has applications in the field of medical science, including the treatment of cancer. Bertozzi is based at Stanford University in California, Sharpless with Scripps Research, California, and Meldal is at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Nobel prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out on December 10.
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022
The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2022 was awarded to 3 persons jointly
Alain Aspect
Université Paris-Saclay and
École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
John F. Clauser
J.F. Clauser & Assoc., Walnut Creek, CA, USA
Anton Zeilinger
University of Vienna, Austria
“for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”
Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger have each conducted groundbreaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two particles behave like a single unit even when they are separated. Their results have cleared the way for new technology based upon quantum information.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022
Svante Pääbo was awarded the year’s first prize, for physiology or medicine. Dr. Pääbo, a Swedish geneticist, won for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.
He won for his work in retrieving genetic material from 40,000-year-old bones, producing a complete Neanderthal genome and initiating the field of ancient DNA studies.