Complete List of Nobel Prize Winners 2018

In all Competitive Exams, we can expect at least one question from the Latest List of Nobel Prize Winners. The List of Nobel Prize Winners 2018 has been given below.

What is a Nobel Prize?

• The Nobel Prizes are prizes instituted by the will of Alfred Bernhard Nobel.
• They are awarded to people/organizations, which have done outstanding research, invented groundbreaking techniques or equipment, or made outstanding contributions to society.
• The Nobel Prizes are awarded annually in the categories of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace, and economics.
• The Nobel Prizes are prizes awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations.
• The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was established in 1968 by the Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, for contributions to the field of economics.

What is the Prize given for the Winners?

• Each recipient, or “laureate”, receives a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of money, which is decided annually by the Nobel Foundation. In 1901, the recipients of the first Nobel Prizes were given 150,782 SEK, which is equal to 8,402,670 SEK in December 2017. In 2017, the laureates were awarded a prize amount of 9,000,000 SEK.

About Alfred Nobel

• Known for inventing dynamite, Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments. Nobel held 355 different patents, dynamite being the most famous.
• The synthetic element nobelium was named after him.

Why Alfred Nobel started Nobel Prize?

In 1888 Alfred’s brother Ludvig died while visiting Cannes and a French newspaper erroneously published Alfred’s obituary. It condemned him for his invention of dynamite and is said to have brought about his decision to leave a better legacy after his death. The obituary stated, Le marchand de la mort est mort which means “The merchant of death is dead” and went on to say, “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.” Alfred (who never had a wife or children) was disappointed with what he read and concerned with how he would be remembered.

Categories in Nobel Prize

Alfred Nobel’s will made provision for only five prizes. Later economics prize was added later in his memory. The six prizes awarded are:

• Nobel Prize in Physics – Awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry – Awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine – Awarded by the Karolinska Institute
• Nobel Prize in Literature – Awarded by the Swedish Academy
• Nobel Prize in Peace – Awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee
• Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics – Also known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, it was instituted in 1969 by Sveriges Riksbank, the Bank of Sweden. Although it is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with the official Nobel prizes, it is not paid for by his money, and is technically not a Nobel Prize.

How the recipients of Nobel Prize are selected?

• The Peace Prize award ceremony on December 10 is the culmination of a long selection process.
• According to rules, there can be a maximum of three Laureates in a category every year.
• The Norwegian Nobel Committee begins the whole process by inviting nominations which can be submitted by February 1 each year.

Laureates

• Between 1901 and 2017, the Nobel Prizes and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 585 times to 923 people and organizations. With some receiving the Nobel Prize more than once, this makes a total of 892 individuals (including 844 men, 48 women) and 24 organizations.
• Four Nobel laureates were not permitted by their governments to accept the Nobel Prize. Adolf Hitler forbade three Germans, Richard Kuhn (Chemistry, 1938), Adolf Butenandt (Chemistry, 1939), and Gerhard Domagk (Physiology or Medicine, 1939), from accepting their Nobel Prizes, and the government of the Soviet Union pressured Boris Pasternak (Literature, 1958) to decline his award.
• Two Nobel laureates, Jean-Paul Sartre (Literature, 1964) and Lê Ðức Thọ (Peace, 1973), declined the award; Sartre declined the award as he declined all official honors, and Lê declined the award due to the situation Vietnam was in at the time.
• Six laureates have received more than one prize; of the six, the International Committee of the Red Cross has received the Nobel Peace Prize three times, more than any other.
• UNHCR has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Also the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John Bardeen twice, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Frederick Sanger.
• Two laureates have been awarded twice but not in the same field: Marie Curie (Physics and Chemistry) and Linus Pauling (Chemistry and Peace).
• Among the 892 Nobel laureates, 48 have been women.
• The first woman to receive a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. She was also the first person (male or female) to be awarded two Nobel Prizes, the second award being the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, given in 1911.

Family Nobel Laureates

The Curies were a very successful ‘Nobel Prize family’. Marie Curie herself was awarded two Nobel Prizes.

Nobel Prize Winners from India

Interesting facts about Nobel Prize

• The average age of all Nobel Laureates in all prize categories between 1901 and 2014 is 59 years.
• Most common birthday month of all the Nobel Laureates is June.
• Since 1901, prizes have not been awarded 49 times, most of them during World War I (1914-1918) and II (1939-1945).
• Leonid Hurwicz has the distinction of being the oldest Nobel recipient at the age of 90 for Economics in 2007.
• Till now, 48 women have won the Nobel while two Laureates declined the prize.
• Jean-Paul Sartre, awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature, declined it as he had consistently declined all official honours.
• Le Duc Tho, awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for negotiating the Vietnam peace accord, said he was not in a position to accept the award, citing the situation in Vietnam as his reason.
• Four Laureates were forced by authorities to decline the Nobel.
• Adolf Hitler forbade three Germans Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt and Gerhard Domagk, from accepting the Nobel Prize. They, however, received the Nobel Prize Diploma and Medal later but not the prize amount.
• Boris Pasternak, the 1958 Nobel Laureate in Literature, initially accepted the Prize but was later coerced by authorities of his native country the Soviet Union to decline the award.
• Three Peace Laureates — Germany’s Carl von Ossietzky, Myanmar’s pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and Chinese rights activist Liu Xiaobo — were under arrest at the time of the award.
• The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was given the Nobel Peace Prize thrice while its founder Henry Dunant won the first Peace Prize in 1901.
• Linus Pauling has the distinction of being the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes — the 1954 Prize in Chemistry and the 1962 Peace Prize.