Nobel Day

Every year since 1901, nominees in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine and physiology, as well as literature, gather in Stockholm on December 10 for the national Nobeldagen holiday, timed to coincide with the awarding of Nobel Prize laureates The list of nominations also includes the annual Peace Prize, which is awarded to the person who has made the most significant contribution to protecting peace on the planet, and the Economic Prize, awarded since 1968 by the Swedish Central Bank The inventor of dynamite, Swedish arms magnate Alfred Nobel, with his last will became the founder of this prestigious prize, investing all his property in the Nobel prize fund A paradoxical fact: the man who made a great contribution to the invention of various types of weapons was a reckless pacifist who believed that by creating more and more powerful types of weapons, humanity would eventually abandon them There is an opinion that Nobel was depressed by his involvement in the process of creating deadly inventions The desire to rehabilitate himself, at least after death, prompted him to take this step Therefore, every year the fund managers on December 10 (the day he died) award prizes and cash prizes to those “who during the previous year have brought the greatest benefit to humanity” Following the special wishes of the testator, when awarding prizes, the nationality of candidates is not taken into account The process of selecting laureates for the award involves about 300 top-category specialists, scientists and organizations from around the world The list of applicants is then submitted to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (physics and chemistry), the Swedish Academy (literature), the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institute (medicine and physiology) and the Norwegian Nobel Committee (Peace Prize) The main award ceremony takes place at Stockholm City Hall From the hands of the King of Sweden, after a speech of gratitude, each winner receives a diploma, a cash prize and a gold medal with a portrait of Alfred Nobel Then participants and guests are invited to the Nobel Banquet, which takes place in the Blue Hall of the Town Hall, and then move to the Golden Hall for a dance ball In parallel with the ceremony in Sweden, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded annually in Norway to a selected laureate The venue for this event was Oslo City Hall The royal couple of Norway are present at the ceremony as guests of honor, as are the king and queen of Sweden in Stockholm More than a century of history of the Nobel Prize includes about 900 prizes, awarded to both individual laureates and groups of scientists