The Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize is one of the most prestigious awards that a person can receive. The history of the Nobel Prize dates back to the 1901. Nobel, Alfred Bernhard is the founder of the Nobel Prize. Nobel, Alfred Bernhard was an inventor, chemist, engineer, writer, and a businessman. He had no children or wife to will his fortune, so he decides to establish an award to honor people for their achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology, Medicine, Literature and Peace. Later in 1969 the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences will be added.
This paper will discuss the process in choosing a winner. I will also discuss about some of the recipients of the Noble prizes and where they receive them. I will also discuss some of the controversial persons as well. The Nobel Prize is a very prestigious award full of history, made to honor men and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. Nobel, Alfred Bernhard is the founder of the Noble Prize. He was born on October 21, 1833, in Stockholm, Sweden.
At the age of 4 his parents move to Russia and sent him to private tutors were he quickly master chemistry and became fluent in English, French, German, and Russian, and Swedish. At the age of 18, he spent a year in Paris studying chemistry. Then he moved back to Russia to work at his father’s factory making military equipment for the Crimean War. After the war his father’s factory became bankrupt, this misfortune lead the family to move back to their home in Sweden. There Alfred soon began experimenting with explosives.
In 1864, when Alfred was 29, his younger brother Emil and four others were killed in a large explosion in the family’s Swedish factory. Intensely distressed by the incident, Nobel set out to improve a safer explosive. In 1867, he patented a mixture of nitroglycerin, what he named “Dynamite. ” In 1888, Alfred’s brother Ludvig died while in France. A French newspaper mistakenly published Alfred’s obituary instead of Ludvig. The paper condemned Alfred for his invention of dynamite.
Provoked by the event and disappointed with how he felt he might be remembered, Nobel set aside a bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prizes to honor men and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and for their work in peace. On December 10, 1896, in Sanremo, Italy Nobel passes away at age 63. After taxes and bequests to individuals, Nobel gave 31,225,000 Swedish kronor (equivalent to 250 million US dollars in 2008) to fund the prizes. On November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will in Paris.
When it was opened and read after his death, the will caused a lot of controversy both in Sweden and internationally, as Nobel had left much of his wealth for the establishment of a prize. His family opposed the establishment of the Nobel Prize, and the prize awarders he named refused to do what he had requested in his will. There was much debate about the legality of Nobel’s will since it wasn’t written by an attorney, he made it himself and had four witnesses sign. The awarders waited till they knew the outcome of the legitimacy of his Will.
It took five years before the first Nobel Prize could be awarded in 1901. In this will Nobel’s assign four different awarders institutes or Academy to choose qualified persons. The first was the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for Physics and Chemistry. The second is the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute for Physiology or Medicine. The third is the Swedish Academy for Literature. The last was a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Parliament for the Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel’s biggest request for this award is that best candidates wins regardless of their race. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not. ” (Alfred Bernhard Nobel) This was very important to Nobel that the prize is awarded to the person or persons that has help improved mankind. The Nobel Organizational Structure is comprised of several organization and institutions, with their own tasks and purposes. The following organizations work together to carry out the process of financing to informing the public.
The following organizations are the Nobel Foundation, Nobel Prize awarding institutions, Nobel Foundation Rights Association, Nobel Media, Nobel Museum, and the Nobel Peace Center Foundation. The Nobel Foundation is in charge of financing the Nobel Prize, in accordance with the will of Alfred Nobel. The Nobel Prize Awarding Institutions has the task of selecting the Nobel Laureates (someone who has won a prize for their achievements), is entirely controlled by the Nobel Prize awarding institutions. These Nobel Prize awarding institutions are mention earlier in this essay.
The Nobel Foundation Rights Association is in charge of informing the public regarding the Nobel Laureates and their achievements. The Nobel Foundation Rights Association was established in 1999. This non-profit association has an overall function as the overseer for the following units: Nobel Media manages and develops media rights connected with the Nobel Prize, in the areas of TV and web production, distribution, publishing and events to reach a global audience. Nobel Museum displays a century of creativity through the Nobel Prize and the achievements of the Nobel Laureates.
The Nobel Museum is located in the Old Town in Stockholm, Sweden. Finally the Nobel Peace Center Foundation is an institution aimed at presenting the Nobel Peace Prize and the work of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates. It is comprised of five persons elected by the Norwegian Parliament. The Nobel Peace Center is located in Oslo, Norway. Each year at the beginning of October the Nobel Laureates are announce. Then on 10 December which is the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, they receive their prizes from the Swedish King. They receive a Nobel diploma, a medal, and 10 million Swedish crowns (US $1. 6 million) per prize. All Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, except for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded in Oslo, Norway. So how does one a person get nominated, in order for a person to become a nominee they must be chosen by one of the awarding institutions or be nominated by a Nobel Laureates. The process for the nominee is very long. First they must receive a letter from the awarding institutions, they usage send out about three thousand letters to candidates in Sept. Then the candidate must respond back by February, the following year.
Then the awarding institution screens the candidates, and by the beginning of October the Nobel Prize Laureates are announce. And on December 10th of that year they receive their Nobel Prize of their field. In 1901, the first person to receive the Nobel Prize was Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen for the discovery of the X-ray. He was a “German physicist, who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today known as X-rays or Rontgen rays, an achievement that earned him the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. Squire’s Fundamentals of Radiology) Along with Wilhelm Conrad there are many other great people that have received the Nobel Prize like Albert Einstein, for his many contributions to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect (lights are particle form and not a wave).
Then there is President Theodore Roosevelt received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905, for his efforts in mediating the Russian-Japanese dispute. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting world peace and helping the needed. Mother Teresa deserves Nobel’s Peace Prize because she promotes peace in the most fundamental manner, by her confirmation of the inviolability of human dignity”. (President of the World Bank, Robert MacNamara) Mother Teresa really brings goodness in people. There have been controversial Nobel Peace Prize awarded to people in the past for example in 2009, President Barack Obama, “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”(The Nobel Peace Prize 2009).
The Past Peace Prize laureates were divided, some saying that President Obama deserved the award, and others saying he had not yet earned it. Due to the fact that he was nominated only 11 days after he became president. Another controversial person who is currently a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize is Bradley Manning, the U. S. Army private charged with the biggest leak of classified information in U. S. history. According to news sources PVT Manning reason for leaking the classified information was to expose the wrongs he seen in documents and videos done by the Army in the Iraq war.
He is currently in a military prison awaiting trial. The Nobel Prize is full of history of great men and women that have contributed to help mankind in the areas of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology, Medicine, Literature, and Peace. I believe that Alfred Nobel would be proud of the good that has come out of the recognition of the Nobel Prize. To promote peace and well fair to mankind. To recognize man and women for their outstanding achievements to help mankind. Before this research paper I thought there was only a Nobel Prize for peace only, but now I am more informed about the whole process and history.
Works Cited
- Novelline, Robert. Squire’s Fundamentals of Radiology. Harvard University Press. 5th edition. 1997.
- Schück, H. et al. Nobel. The Man and His Prizes Edited by the Nobel Foundation
- “The Nobel Peace Prize 2009”. Nobelprize.org. 7 Mar 2012 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes
