Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Background

Nobel stipulated in his last will and testament that his money be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, and literature. Though Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime, the last was written a little over a year before he died, and signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on November 27, 1895. Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million Swedish kronor (US$198 million, €176 million in 2016), to establish and endow the five Nobel Prizes. Due to the level of skepticism surrounding the will, it was not until April 26, 1897, that it was approved by the Storting (Norwegian Parliament). The executors of his will were Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, who formed the Nobel Foundation to take care of Nobel's fortune and organize the prizes.

The members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that were to award the Peace Prize were appointed shortly after the will was approved. The prize-awarding organizations followed: the Karolinska Institutet on June 7, the Swedish Academy on June 9, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on June 11. The Nobel Foundation then reached an agreement on guidelines for how the Nobel Prize should be awarded. In 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly created statutes were promulgated by King Oscar II. According to Nobel's will, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was to award the Prize in Chemistry.

Award ceremony

Main article: Nobel Prize

The committee and institution serving as the selection board for the prize typically announce the names of the laureates in October. The prize is then awarded at formal ceremonies held annually on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. Later the Nobel Banquet is held in Stockholm City Hall.

Nomination and selection

Main article: List of nominees for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Nobel Laureates in chemistry are selected by a committee that consists of five members elected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In its first stage, several thousand people are asked to nominate candidates. These names are scrutinized and discussed by experts until only the laureates remain. This slow and thorough process is arguably what gives the prize its importance.

Forms are sent to about three thousand selected individuals to invite them to submit nominations. The names of the nominees are never publicly announced, and neither are nominees told that they have been considered for the Prize. Nomination records are sealed for fifty years, but in practice, some nominees do become known. It is also common for publicists to make such a claim – founded or not.

The nominations are screened by the committee, and a list is produced of approximately two hundred preliminary candidates. This list is forwarded to selected experts in the field. They remove all but approximately fifteen names. The committee then submits a report with recommendations to the appropriate institution.

While posthumous nominations are not permitted, awards can occur if the individual dies in the months between the nomination and the decision of the prize committee.

The award in chemistry requires that the significance of achievements being recognized is "tested by time". In practice, it means that the lag between the discovery and the award is typically on the order of 20 years and can be much longer. As a downside of this approach, not all scientists live long enough for their work to be recognized.

A maximum of three laureates and two different works may be selected. The award can be given to a maximum of three recipients per year.

Prizes

A Chemistry Nobel Prize laureate earns a gold medal, a diploma bearing a citation, and a sum of money.

Nobel Prize medals

Main article: Nobel Prize medal#Physics and Chemistry

The medal for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is identical in design to the Nobel Prize in Physics medal. The reverse of the physics and chemistry medals depict the Goddess of Nature in the form of Isis as she emerges from clouds holding a cornucopia. The Genius of Science holds the veil which covers Nature's 'cold and austere face'. It was designed by Erik Lindberg and is manufactured by Svenska Medalj in Eskilstuna. It is inscribed "Inventas vitam iuvat excoluisse per artes" ("It is beneficial to have improved [human] life through discovered arts") an adaptation of "inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes" from line 663 from book 6 of the Aeneid by the Roman poet Virgil. A plate below the figures is inscribed with the name of the recipient. The text "REG. ACAD. SCIENT. SUEC." denoting the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is inscribed on the reverse.

Nobel Prize diplomas

Nobel laureates receive a diploma directly from the hands of the King of Sweden. Each diploma is uniquely designed by the prize-awarding institutions for the laureate that receives it. The diploma contains a picture and text that states the name of the laureate and normally a citation of why they received the prize.

Award money

At the awards ceremony, the laureate is given a document indicating the award sum. The amount of the cash award may differ from year to year, based on the funding available from the Nobel Foundation. For example, in 2009 the total cash awarded was 10 million SEK (US$1.4 million), but in 2012, the amount was 8 million Swedish Krona, or US$1.1 million. If there are two laureates in a particular category, the award grant is divided equally between the recipients, but if there are three, the awarding committee may opt to divide the grant equally, or award half to one recipient and a quarter to each of the two others.

Nobel laureates in chemistry

Main article: List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry

Scope of award

In recent years, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry has drawn criticism from chemists who feel that the prize is more frequently awarded to non-chemists than to chemists. In the 30 years leading up to 2012, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded ten times for work classified as biochemistry or molecular biology, and once to a materials scientist. In the ten years leading up to 2012, only four prizes were awarded for work strictly in chemistry. Commenting on the scope of the award, The Economist explained that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is bound by Nobel's bequest, which specifies awards only in physics, chemistry, literature, medicine, and peace. Biology was in its infancy in Nobel's day and no award was established. The Economist argued there is no Nobel Prize for mathematics either, another major discipline, and added that Nobel's stipulation of no more than three winners is not readily applicable to modern physics, where progress is typically made through huge collaborations rather than by individuals alone.

In 2020, Ioannidis et al. reported that half of the Nobel Prizes for science awarded between 1995 and 2017 were clustered in just a few disciplines within their broader fields. Atomic physics, particle physics, cell biology, and neuroscience dominated the two subjects outside chemistry, while molecular chemistry was the chief prize-winning discipline in its domain. Molecular chemists won 5.3% of all science Nobel Prizes during this period.

Notes

References

Notes

A. Until 2025

Specific

General

References

1. "The Nobel Prize amounts". The Nobel Prize.
2. "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1901". Nobel Foundation.
3. "Facts on the Nobel Prize in Chemistry".
4. "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry".
5. "History – Historic Figures: Alfred Nobel (1833–1896)". [[BBC]].
6. "Guide to Nobel Prize". [[Britannica]].
7. [[#Sohlman69. Ragnar Sohlman]]: 1983, Page 7
8. von Euler, U.S.. (6 June 1981). "The Nobel Foundation and its Role for Modern Day Science". [[Springer-Verlag]].
9. [http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/index.html "The Will of Alfred Nobel"] {{Webarchive. link. (4 June 2011 , ''nobelprize.org''. Retrieved 6 November 2007.)
10. "The Nobel Foundation – History". Nobelprize.org.
11. [[#Levinovitz69. Agneta Wallin Levinovitz]]: 2001, Page 13
12. (13 October 1999). "Nobel Prize History —". Infoplease.
13. "Nobel Foundation (Scandinavian organization)". Britannica.
14. AFP, [http://www.thelocal.se/14776/20091005/ "Alfred Nobel's last will and testament"] {{webarchive. link. (9 October 2009 , ''[[The Local]]'' (5 October 2009): accessed 20 January 2010.)
15. [https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/416856/Nobel-Prize "Nobel Prize] {{Webarchive. link. (29 April 2015 " (2007), in ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', accessed 15 January 2009, from ''Encyclopædia Britannica Online'': {{blockquote). After Nobel's death, the Nobel Foundation was set up to carry out the provisions of his will and to administer his funds. In his will, he had stipulated that four different institutions—three Swedish and one Norwegian—should award the prizes. From Stockholm, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences confers the prizes for physics, chemistry, and economics, the Karolinska Institute confers the prize for physiology or medicine, and the Swedish Academy confers the prize for literature. The Norwegian Nobel Committee based in [[Oslo]] confers the prize for peace. The Nobel Foundation is the legal owner and functional administrator of the funds and serves as the joint administrative body of the prize-awarding institutions, but it is not concerned with the prize deliberations or decisions, which rest exclusively with the four institutions.
16. Tom Rivers. (10 December 2009). "2009 Nobel Laureates Receive Their Honors | Europe". .voanews.com.
17. "A unique gold medal". [[Nobel Foundation]].
18. "The Nobel Prize medals in physics and chemistry". [[Nobel Foundation]].
19. "The Nobel Prize medal in physiology or medicine". [[Nobel Foundation]].
20. "The Nobel Diplomas". Nobelprize.org.
21. "The Nobel Prize Amounts". Nobelprize.org.
22. (11 June 2012). "Nobel prize amounts to be cut 20% in 2012". CNN.
23. Sample, Ian. (5 October 2009). "Nobel prize for medicine shared by scientists for work on ageing and cancer | Science | guardian.co.uk". Guardian.
24. Sample, Ian. (7 October 2008). "Three share Nobel prize for physics | Science | guardian.co.uk". Guardian.
25. David Landes. (12 October 2009). "Americans claim Nobel economics prize – The Local". Thelocal.se.
26. (6 October 2009). "The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics – Press Release". Nobelprize.org.
27. (9 February 2012). "What, Another Nobel Prize in Chemistry to a Nonchemist?". Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
28. (7 October 2015). "The Economist explains: Why is the Nobel prize in chemistry given for things that are not chemistry?". The Economist.
29. (July 29, 2020). "Work honored by Nobel prizes clusters heavily in a few scientific fields". [[PLOS ONE]].