Nobel Prizes are awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institute and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to the people or organizations who excel in six different fields, including physics, chemistry, literature, peace, medicine and economics considered the most successful.
The Nobel Prize in Economics was first awarded in 1969, when the Swedish central bank decided in 1968 to award a prize in economics in memory of Alfred Nobel.
The awards, announced each October and presented to their holders at a ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel, are given to those who throughout the year “do the greatest service to humanity.” bring benefit”.
In Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, prizes are awarded for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and economics. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to its winners in Oslo, the capital of Norway.
The awards have not been presented in a few years since 1901, mainly during the First and Second World Wars. The 2020 and 2021 ceremonies could not be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the rules, if no one deserves an award in any category this year, the award will not be given and the scheduled prize money will be withheld for next year.
The winners of the awards were predominantly men
Throughout the history of the Nobel Prizes, most of the 970 awards given in various categories have gone to men. While 905 of the awards went to men, 65 went to women.
From 1901, when the awards were first presented, to 2023, a total of 19 women, 92 men and 30 organizations have received the Nobel Peace Prize. In the field of economics, women received 3 awards, far behind men, who received 90 awards.
There have been people who have been awarded the Nobel Prize twice
There were also people who were found worthy of receiving the Nobel Prize more than once. Frederick Sanger, John Bardeen, Karl Barry Sharpless, Linus Pauling and Marie Curie are among the five people in history to win the Nobel Prize twice.
Nobel Prizes, which are awarded in different fields, can sometimes go to more than one person. In the case of the Nobel Prizes, which can be awarded to a maximum of three people, 65 percent of the awards in the field of medicine went to more than one person. This made medicine the category with the most awards in history that went to more than one person.
The average age of Nobel Prize winners is 58 years
Although, according to statistics, the average age of Nobel Prize winners is 58, hundreds of people from many age groups have been awarded the prize since 1901.
The youngest laureate in history was Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Yousafzai, who advocates for children's right to education, was 17 years old when she accepted the award.
Lawrence Bragg received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915 at the age of 25 for his work with his father William Bragg in analyzing crystal structures using X-rays.
The oldest winner was John Goodenough, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 at the age of 97. Goodenough received the award for the lithium-ion batteries he developed.
Famous Nobel Prize winners
The Nobel Prize winners include world-famous scientists and writers.
Marie Curie, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, discovered radium and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. Curie's discoveries regarding radiation made significant contributions to the field of medicine.
Thanks to Curie's discoveries, radiation therapy began to be used in cancer treatment and radium became an effective tool in tumor treatment. The portable X-ray machines developed by Curie were used in the treatment of soldiers at the front during the First World War.
Albert Einstein received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his work on the development of the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics and his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.
French writer and philosopher Jean Paul Sartre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964, but rejected the award because he believed it would harm his political position and his works. Sartre refused all official awards he received during his lifetime.
In 1964, at the age of 35, Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent fight for the civil rights of the African-American people.
Former US President Barack Obama also received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.
Turks who won the prize
So far, two Turks have won the Nobel Prize.
The writer Orhan Pamuk received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006 for his work “The Red-Haired Woman”. Pamuk's books, which have made significant contributions to the world of literature, have been published in more than 100 countries and translated into more than 60 languages.
Turkish scientist Aziz Sancar, who specializes in areas such as DNA repair and the cell cycle, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015 along with Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich for their work on DNA repair.
Bir yanıt yazın