Stockholm, Sweden — The Nobel Prize winners will be announced next week, spotlighting some of the world’s most prestigious honors for achievements in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, economics, and peace.
The laureates will join a distinguished list of past winners, from Albert Einstein to Mother Teresa, recognized for making extraordinary contributions to humanity. For the Peace Prize, former U.S. President Donald Trump has been nominated multiple times by both domestic and international figures since 2018. Most recently, in December, a Republican congresswoman proposed his name for the award in recognition of his role in brokering the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states.
A history of the Nobel Prizes
The Nobel Prizes were created by Alfred Nobel, a 19th-century Swedish businessman and chemist who held more than 300 patents. He is best known for inventing dynamite, a more stable form of nitroglycerine, which became widely used in construction, mining, and the weapons industry, making him very wealthy. Toward the end of his life, Nobel decided to use his fortune to fund annual prizes for those who, in his words, “have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” in the preceding year.
The first Nobel Prizes — in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, and peace — were awarded in 1901, five years after Nobel’s death. In 1968, a sixth prize for economics was created by Sweden’s central bank. Though technically not part of Nobel’s original vision, the economics prize is presented alongside the others each year.
The Nobel nomination process
None of the nominations are announced by the prizes’ respective committees, and the Nobel statutes prohibit judges from discussing their deliberations for 50 years. However, nominators may choose to make their recommendations public. Candidates cannot nominate themselves but can be nominated multiple times by others, including members of each prize’s panel.
Each prize’s committee operates slightly differently, but all strive to honor Nobel’s wish that the winners have conferred benefit to humankind. The Peace Prize committee is unique in regularly rewarding achievements from the previous year and is the only prize awarded in Oslo, Norway. Science prizes, awarded in Stockholm, often recognize work decades after it was done, ensuring breakthroughs have stood the test of time.
The program for this year’s Nobels
The 2025 Nobel Prize announcements begin Monday with the medicine prize at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Physics follows on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on October 13.
The awards will be presented on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. Each prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (nearly $1.2 million), along with an 18-carat gold medal and a diploma. Up to three laureates can share the prize money for each category.
As anticipation builds, the world waits to see who will join this elite group of Nobel laureates, recognized for shaping science, culture, and global peace.
SOURCE : AP NEWS & DT | Follow Us: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Youtube |
