- Nobel prizes first awarded in five subjects: chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.
- The Nobel Prize is an annual, international award originating in Sweden. The award was established in 1895 by the Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Bernhard Nobel.
- Sweden was home to Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and other explosives.
- Barack Obama won the Nobel Prize fr peace in 2009 for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.
- Pierre and Marie Curie are the first and only husband and wife to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics (in 1903).
- The Nobel Prize has been criticised for not always choosing the best candidates, the lack of a Nobel Peace prize for Mahatma Gandhi being a prime example.
- Jean Paul Sartre refused the prize for literature in 1964 for fear it would turn him into an institution.
- 806 Laureates and 23 organizations have been awarded the Nobel Prize between 1901 and 2009.
- Although the Nobel Prize in Economics is not technically a Nobel Prize, its winners are announced with the Nobel Prize recipients and it is presented at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony.
- In 2007, 90-year-old professor Leonid Hurwicz became the oldest person to ever win
- (Economics).
- A recipient of the Nobel Prize (called a laureate) earns a gold medal, a diploma bearing a citation and a sum of money.
- Between 1901 and 2009, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 537 times.
- Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, who won in 1976 for his research in human slow-virus infections, spent 19 months in jail after pleading guilty in 1997 to charges of child molestation.
- Controversial is the strict rule against a prize being awarded to more than three people at once. This inevitably means one or more people will not be recognised if a notable achievement is accomplished by a team of collaborators.
15 interesting Nobel prize facts
