Nobel prizes are awarded every year for outstanding achievements in the fields of science, literature and for promoting world peace. The winners of these prizes are talked about throughout the world. Their life-sketch and works are published in the newspapers. Their names are heard on radio and television.
Under this prize, the prize-winner gets a gold medal, a certificate and a large sum of money. The Nobel Prize is the world’s most important prize. This prize is given to persons with most outstanding contributions in six fields, namely, physics, chemistry, literature, physiology or medicine, peace and economics. Economics was added in the list in 1969 for the first time. One prize is awarded in each field. If there are more than one recipients of the prize in one field, the prize money is equally distributed amongst all the winners.
Do you know how the Nobel Prize was started? It is surprisingly true that this prize was instituted by a man who was the founder inventor of the science of destruction. This scientist was Alfred Bernhard Nobel. The Nobel Prize is given after his name. He was born in Stockholm on 21st October, 1833 and he died on 10th December 1896. His father was also a scientist. Though he was a citizen of Sweden, he was educated in Russia. He invented dynamite. This material is widely used for breaking rocks, digging petrol wells and in wars. For his valuable discovery, Nobel became famous all over the world. He earned huge sum of money from selling it. At the time of his death in 1896, he left behind a fabulous sum of 90, 00,000 dollars. He left a Will indicating that the interest on this money should be given as prizes to persons for their outstanding contributions to physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. This prize was named as Nobel Prize. The first Nobel Prize was given to Roentgen on 10th December 1901 for his outstanding research in X-rays. The prize money was 40,000 dollars. Even though the prize money is not large, the winners of this prize are treated with great respect all over the world.
Nobel prizes are awarded by a council called ‘Nobel Foundation of Sweden’. The Royal Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, selects the best scientists of the year in the fields of physics and chemistry. The Caroline Institute of Stockholm selects the best man in the field of medical science, while the Swedish Academy of Literature does it for literature. Similarly a committee of five persons appointed by the Parliament of Norway selects the best persons for peace.
Some of the many outstanding people of the world who have received the Nobel Prize are: Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Sir C.V. Raman, Hargobind Khorana, and Mother Teresa etc.
The youngest man to receive Nobel Prize was Sir William Lawrence Bragg of England, who received the Nobel Prize for physics when he was 25.
Nobel became so famous in the world that the 102nd element was named as Nobelium after him. There is an institution in Sweden which has also been named after him as Nobel Institute of Sweden.