Nobel Prizes(source--Nobelprize.org)

The Nobel Prize

Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize. Each prize consists of a medal, personal diploma, and a cash award.

The Nobel Prize Awarders

Who selects the Nobel Laureates? In his last will and testament, Alfred Nobel specifically designated the institutions responsible for the prizes he wished to be established:

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry,

Karolinska Institute for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,

the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and

a Committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) for the Nobel Peace Prize

In 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was given the task to select the Economics Prize Laureates starting in 1969.

Nomination for the Nobel Prizes

Each year the respective Nobel Committees send individual invitations to thousands of members of academies, university professors, scientists from numerous countries, previous Nobel Laureates, members of parliamentary assemblies and others, asking them to submit candidates for the Nobel Prizes for the coming year. These nominators are chosen in such a way that as many countries and universities as possible are represented over time.

Nobel Prize Announcements

The announcement of the Nobel Laureates and the Laureates in Economic Sciences for the year is made on the same day that the Nobel Prize awarding institutions choose from among the names recommended by the respective Nobel Committees. Immediately after the vote, a press conference is held by the concerned Nobel Prize awarder.

2009 Nobel Prizes

Physiology or MedicineTo Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak for discovering how chromosomes protect their ends.

ChemistryTo Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath for uncovering the structure of the ribosome.

PeaceTo Barack Obama for his efforts to strengthen cooperation between peoples to meet global challenges.

PhysicsTo Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, the fathers of fiber optics and digital imaging.

LiteratureTo Herta Müller, whose writings in German chronicle, with honesty and poetry, life under dictatorship in her Romanian homeland.

Prize in Economic SciencesTo Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson, who both analyse economic transactions occuring outside the markets.