Background of Nobel Foundation

Alfred Bernhard Nobel: Nobel was born on October 21, 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. Nobel, who invented dynamite, endowed a $9 million fund in his will. The interest on this endowment was to be used as awards for people whose work most benefited humanity. He wanted the profit from his invention to be used to reward human ingenuity. First awarded in 1901, the Nobel Prize, is still the most honoured in the world.

In 1842, Nobel’s family moved to St. Petesburg, Russia, where he obtained his education. He travelled widely as a young man, becoming fluent in five languages. Nobel was interested in literature and wrote novels, poetry and plays in his spare time. In the 1860s, he began experiments with nitroglycerin in his father’s factory. He tried many ways to stabilise this highly volatile material. Nobel discovered that a mix of nitroglycerin and fine porous powder called kieselguhr was most effective. He named this mixture as dynamite and received a patent in 1867.

Background and Establishment of the Nobel Foundation : Alfred Nobel died on December 10, 1896. The provisions of his will and their unusual purpose, as well as their partly incomplete form, attracted great attention and soon led to skepticism and criticism, also aimed at the testator due to his international spirit. Only after several years of negotiations and often rather bitter conflicts and after various obstacles had been circumvented or overcome, could the fundamental concepts presented in the will assume solid form with the establishment of the Nobel Foundation.

On June, 1900, after series of alterations, suggestions, modifications, the statues of the newly created legatee, the Nobel Foundation, and special regulations for the Swedish Prize-Awarding Institutions were promulgated by the King in Council (Oscar II). The same year as the political union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved in 1905, special regulations were adopted on April 10, 1905, by the Nobel Committee of the Storting (known since January 1, 1977 as the Norwegian Nobel Committee), the awarder of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Premises: To create a worthy framework around the prizes, the board decided at an early stage that it would erect its own building in Stockholm, which would include a hall for the Prize Award Ceremony and banquet as well as its own administrative offices. Ferdinand Boberg was selected as the architect. He presented an ambitious proposal for a Nobel Palace, which generated extensive publicity but also led to doubts and questions. On December 19, 1918, a building at Sturegatan, 14 was bought for this purpose. After years of renovation there, the Foundation finally left its cramped premises at Norrlandsgatan, 6 in 1926, and moved to Sturegatan, 14, where the Foundation has been housed ever since.

Objectives of the Foundation : The Nobel Foundation is a private institution. It is entrusted with protecting the common interests of the Prize Awarding Institutions named in the will, as well as representing the Nobel institutions externally. This includes informational activities as well as arrangements related to the presentation of the Nobel Prizes. The Foundation is not, however, involved in the selection process and the final choice of the Laureates (as Nobel Prize winners are also called). In this work, the Prize-awarding Institutions are not only entirely independent of all government agencies and organisations, but also of the Nobel Foundation. Their autonomy is of crucial importance to the objectivity and quality of their prize decisions. One vital task of the Foundation is to manage its assets in such a way as to safeguard the financial base of the prizes themselves and of the prize selection process.

• Year of Institution : 1901
• Founder : Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833–96)
• Number of Awards : Six
  1. Physics
  2. Chemistry
  3. Physiology or Medicine
  4. Literature Peace
  5. Economics (Established in 1967)

• Date on which it is awarded : December 10
  Anyone proposing himself for Nobel Prize is ruled out of consideration. The recommendations have to come from outside. The Noble Prizes are presented annually, December 10, the death anniversary of the founder and the festival day of the Foundation. Originally it was awarded for works in five disciplines. The prize for Economics was instituted in 1967, by Sverigs Riksbank, Swedish Bank, in celebration of its 300th anniversary and was awarded for the first time in 1969, it is called Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.

Nobel Foundation’s Prize Awarding Bodies

• The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, awards the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry.
• The Nobel Assembly of Karolinska Chirugical Institute, Sweden, awards the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology.
• The Swedish Academy awards the Prize in Literature.
• The Committee of the Norwegian Parliament awards the Prize for Peace.
• The Bank of Sweden Awards the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Value of the Nobel Prize : The amount of each prize varies with the income from the fund. The value of nobel prize was 150,782 Swedish Crown in 1901. Now the value of nobel prize has increased to 10,000,000 Swedish Crown in 2004 as compared to 9,000,000 Swedish Crown in 2000. No Nobel Prize was awarded for 1940, 1941 and 1942; Prizes for Literature were not awarded for 1914, 1918 and 1943.

Maximum Nobel Prizes : US citizens have won outright as well as shared the maximum number of Nobel Prizes. Individually, the only person to have two Nobel Prizes: Dr Linus Carl Pauling, Professor of Chemistry at California. He received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1954 and the Peace Prize in 1962

First Couple to Receive the Nobel Prize : Madame Marie Curie shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics with her husband Pierre Curie, she later won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911,

Three Nobel Prizes : The International Committee of the Red Cross was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace three times: 1917, 1944 and 1963.

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