are meticulous and performed with a great sense of responsibility since the world will scrutinize every decision.
Candidate selection is carried out by four Nobel Committees that are based within the institutions Nobel’s will made responsible for attributing the awards. Each of these committees is composed of five elected members, the majority of whom are of Swedish origin, with the exception of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Every year the six committees send invitations to hundreds of scientists, academy members and university professors from around the world to nominate an individual for a Nobel Prize; former laureates are also encouraged to put forward a name. There are differences in the rules regarding nomination for the individual prizes, but they are accentuated with the Nobel Peace Prize, which can be recommended by members of national assemblies, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Law Institutes and governments themselves. According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, however, no one prize can be attributed to more than three people in the same year. Additionally, no scientific community, academic institution or organization may receive a prize on their own, except in the case of the Nobel Peace Prize. Since 1974, a Nobel Prize cannot be attributed posthumously.
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
During the first half of the 18th century a remarkable group of Swedish scientists were active in the country, and in 1739 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was established to help advance their work. Based on the Royal Society in London and the Académie Royale des Sciences (Royal Academy for Sciences) in Paris, it first began to encourage research in the areas of mathematics and the natural sciences. Among its founders were the renowned naturalist Carl Linnaeus, the mercantilist Jonas Alströmer, the mechanical engineer Mårten Triewald and the politician Anders Johan von Höpken, who was the first permanent secretary of the organization.
Although it had modest beginnings, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences soon began to develop important contacts with other scientific institutions across Europe. It developed a major program to publish scientific findings and began promoting more applied fields, including agriculture, ship building and mining. At the beginning of the 19th century the chemist Jacob Berzelius was appointed secretary-general. He reorganized the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, making it an institution with strictly scientific objectives.
The academy continued developing, and, at the beginning of the 20th century, it took on an important role in relation to the Nobel Foundation. Physics and chemistry were two subjects that Alfred Nobel knew well and expected much from in the coming years. He specified in his will that a prize should be awarded in both fields, and he chose the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to attribute the awards.
In 1968 the society was made responsible for attributing the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic in Memory of Alfred Nobel, commonly known as the Nobel Prize in Economics. It was awarded for the first time the following year. Economics is the only prize not referred to in the will of Alfred Nobel but the Bank of Sweden, on its 300th anniversary, established a considerable financial commitment to the Nobel Foundation in perpetuity. This commitment has allowed those who have made contributions to mathematic formulation, financial economics, game theories and macroeconomics to be recognized. Some have challenged whether the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic in Memory of Alfred Nobel fairly mirrors current tendencies in economic analysis, but most accept that decisions are stimulated by the multidimensional nature of economic investigation.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has approximately 350 native members and half that number again from foreign countries. Each member is part of one of the following 10 divisions: mathematics, astronomy and space sciences, physics, chemistry, geosciences, biological sciences, medical sciences, engineering sciences, social and economic sciences and the humanities. These members work within their divisions and permanent committees, contributing to their respective fields of research and presenting conferences and seminars.
Current social and environmental issues are also monitored by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It continues to promote innovative studies, and the Environmental Committee is dedicated to questions regarding sustainable development, natural resource use and maintaining biological diversity. The society’s journal Ambio is recognized as a leading forum for environmental issues. Two other committees in the society are those for Science Education and Human Rights, demonstrating the diverse nature of its work. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences also runs the Observatory and Berzelius museums, which have impressive collections of scientific artifacts and other resources.
The Karolinska Institute
At the end of the 19th century, Alfred Nobel recognized the pressing need for humanity to develop its medical knowledge, products and procedures. He had himself suffered from ill health for much of his life and experienced the primitive help available at the time. Accordingly, he specified in his will that a prize was to be set aside for this field, and in 1901 the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was conferred by the Karolinska Institute. The first winner was the German Emil von Behring, who was distinguished for his “work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and death.”
The difficult mission of choosing up to three people annually for this prize is still in the hands of the Karolinska Institute, located in Solna, just outside Stockholm. It initially entrusted the selection process of the nominees to its teaching staff, but nowadays the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institute is composed of 50 elected members of the Faculty of Medicine.
The organization continues to train doctors, dentists, physiotherapists, speech therapists and toxicologists. It also maintains a strong academic research department responsible for nearly 40 percent of such work in the country. According to the 2007 Academic Ranking of World Universities, it is the best such department in the country and 11th in Europe. Besides its close ties to the Nobel Foundation, the institute also preserves valuable relationships with the Swedish government and health organizations, businesses and other universities worldwide.
Swedish Academy
Since 1901 the Swedish Academy has had the responsibility of attributing the Nobel Prize in Literature. The academy was established in 1786 by King Gustaf III. He personally wrote most of its statutes, having been inspired by the French Academy; he also conferred on the institution its motto, “Snille och smak” (Talent and good taste). The main objective drawn up for the academy by Gustaf III was to work for the “purity, vigor and majesty” of the Swedish language. In the monarch’s understanding, the academy had a patriotic duty to elevate the country’s language and literature, as well as commemorate great national events of the past.
With the turn of the century, and after much debate, the academy accepted a task that was not a part of its initial mandate: to spend a considerable portion of its capacities to annually attribute the Nobel Prize in Literature. Erik Axel Karlfeldt, who, during the time he was permanent secretary between 1913 and 1931, revitalized and modernized the Swedish Academy, opened its doors to new writers and electing the first woman to its team.
Norwegian Nobel Committee
In accordance with the wishes of Alfred Nobel, the laureates for the Nobel Peace Prize are chosen by an independent committee composed of five people elected by the Norwegian Parliament and have been since 1901. These vague directions, however, have been controversial and sparked some degree of change.
The challenge for the Norwegian Nobel Committee is to be impartial in their decisions; many claim that this was far from true in the early years, when most members selected by Parliament were influential politicians. Over the decades this committee
