The Nobel family

Members Immanuel Nobel Robert Nobel Alfred Nobel Ludvig Nobel Emanuel Nobel Claes Nobel Peter Nobel Gustaf Nobel Marta Helena Nobel-Oleinikoff Michael Nobel

Companies Nobel Fils Branobel Dynamit Nobel KemaNord

Prizes Nobel Prize in Chemistry Nobel Prize in Literature Nobel Peace Prize Nobel Prize in Physics Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Michael Nobel Energy Award

Institutions Nobel Foundation Nobel Family Society Nobel Charitable Trust

v t e

The Nobel Prize (Swedish pronunciation: [noˈbɛl], Swedish definite form, singular: Nobelpriset, Norwegian: Nobelprisen) is a set of annual international awards bestowed in a number of categories by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895. The prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace were first awarded in 1901.^[1]

The Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway, while the other prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace and economics.^[2]

In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank instituted an award that is often associated with the Nobel prizes, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The first such prize was awarded in 1969. Although it is not an official Nobel Prize, its announcements and presentations are made along with the other prizes.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Nobel Prize in Physics, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The Swedish Academy grants the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Peace Prize is not awarded by a Swedish organisation but by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Each recipient, or laureate, receives a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of money which depends on the Nobel Foundation's income that year. In 2011, each prize was worth kr10 million (c. US$1.46 million, €1.16 million). The prize is not awarded posthumously; however, if a person is awarded a prize and dies before receiving it, the prize may still be presented."^[3] A prize may not be shared among more than three people. The average number of laureates per prize has increased substantially over the 20th century.^[4]

History[link]

Alfred Nobel had the unpleasant surprise of reading his own obituary, titled The merchant of death is dead, in a French newspaper.

Alfred Nobel ( listen (help·info)) was born on 21 October 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden, into a family of engineers.^[5] He was a chemist, engineer, and inventor. In 1894 Nobel purchased the Bofors iron and steel mill, which he made into a major armaments manufacturer. Nobel also invented ballistite, a precursor to many smokeless military explosives, especially the British smokeless powder cordite. Nobel was even involved in a patent infringement lawsuit over cordite. Nobel amassed a fortune during his lifetime. Most of his wealth was from his 355 inventions, of which dynamite is the most famous.^[6]

In 1888, Alfred was astonished to read his own obituary, titled ‘The merchant of death is dead’, in a French newspaper. As it was Alfred's brother Ludvig who had died, the obituary was eight years premature. The article disconcerted Nobel and made him apprehensive about how he would be remembered. This inspired him to change his will.^[7] On 10 December 1896 Alfred Nobel died in his villa in San Remo, Italy, from a cerebral haemorrhage. He was 63 years old.^[8]

To widespread astonishment, Nobel's last will specified that his fortune 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.^[9] Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime. The last was written over a year before he died, signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895.^[10][11] Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million SEK (c. US$186 million, €150 million in 2008), to establish the five Nobel Prizes.^[12] Because of scepticism surrounding the will, it was not until 26 April 1897 that it was approved by the Storting in Norway.^[13] The executors of Nobel's will, Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, formed the Nobel Foundation to take care of Nobel's fortune and organise the award of prizes.^[14]

Nobel's instructions named a Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the Peace Prize, the members of whom were appointed shortly after the will was approved in April 1897. Soon thereafter, the other prize-awarding organisations were established. These were the Karolinska Institutet on 7 June, the Swedish Academy on 9 June, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 11 June.^[15] The Nobel Foundation reached an agreement on guidelines for how the prizes should be awarded, and in 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly-created statutes were promulgated by King Oscar II.^[9] In 1905, the Union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved. Thereafter Norway's Nobel Committee was responsible for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize and the Swedish institutions retained responsibility for the other prizes.^[13]

Nobel Foundation[link]

Alfred Nobel's will stated that 94% of his total assets should be used to establish the Nobel Prizes.

The Nobel Foundation was founded as a private organisation on 29 June 1900, to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes.^[16] In accordance with Nobel's will, the primary task of the Foundation is to manage the fortune Nobel left. Robert and Ludwig Nobel were involved in the oil business in Azerbaijan and according to Swedish historian E. Bargengren, who accessed the Nobel family archives, it was this "decision to allow withdrawal of Alfred's money from Baku that became the decisive factor that enabled the Nobel Prizes to be established".^[17] Another important task of the Nobel Foundation is to market the prizes internationally and to oversee informal administration related to the prizes. The Foundation is not involved in the process of selecting the Nobel laureates.^[18][19] In many ways the Nobel Foundation is similar to an investment company, in that it invests Nobel's money to create a solid funding base for the prizes and the administrative activities. The Nobel Foundation is exempt from all taxes in Sweden (since 1946) and from investment taxes in the United States (since 1953).^[20] Since the 1980s, the Foundation's investments have become more profitable and as of 31 December 2007, the assets controlled by the Nobel Foundation amounted to 3.628 billion Swedish kronor (c. US$560 million).^[21]

According to the statutes, the Foundation consists of a board of five Swedish or Norwegian citizens, with its seat in Stockholm. The Chairman of the Board is appointed by the Swedish King in Council, with the other four members appointed by the trustees of the prize-awarding institutions. An Executive Director is chosen from among the board members, a Deputy Director is appointed by the King in Council, and two deputies are appointed by the trustees. However, since 1995 all the members of the board have been chosen by the trustees, and the Executive Director and the Deputy Director appointed by the board itself. As well as the board, the Nobel Foundation is made up of the prize-awarding institutions (the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute, the Swedish Academy, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee), the trustees of these institutions, and auditors.^[21]

First prizes[link]

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen received the first Physics Prize for his discovery of X-rays.

Once the Nobel Foundation and its guidelines were in place, the Nobel Committees began collecting nominations for the inaugural prizes. Subsequently they sent a list of preliminary candidates to the prize-awarding institutions. Originally, the Norwegian Nobel Committee appointed prominent figures including Jørgen Løvland, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Johannes Steen to give the Nobel Peace Prize credibility.^[22] The committee awarded the Peace Prize to two prominent figures in the growing peace movement around the end of the 19th century: Frédéric Passy was co-founder of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Henry Dunant was founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross.^[23][24][25]

The Nobel Committee's Physics Prize shortlist cited Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen's discovery of X-rays and Philipp Lenard's work on cathode rays. The Academy of Sciences selected Röntgen for the prize.^[26][27] In the last decades of the 19th century, many chemists had made significant contributions. Thus, with the Chemistry Prize, the Academy "was chiefly faced with merely deciding the order in which these scientists should be awarded the prize."^[28] The Academy received 20 nominations, eleven of them for Jacobus van't Hoff.^[29] Van't Hoff was awarded the prize for his contributions in chemical thermodynamics.^[30][31]

The Swedish Academy chose the poet Sully Prudhomme for the first Nobel Prize in Literature. A group including 42 Swedish writers, artists and literary critics protested against this decision, having expected Leo Tolstoy to win.^[32] Some, including Burton Feldman, have criticised this prize because they consider Prudhomme a mediocre poet. Feldman's explanation is that most of the Academy members preferred Victorian literature and thus selected a Victorian poet.^[33] The first Physiology or Medicine Prize went to the German physiologist and microbiologist Emil von Behring. During the 1890s, von Behring developed an antitoxin to treat diphtheria, which until then was causing thousands of deaths each year.^[34][35]

World War II[link]

In 1938 and 1939, Adolf Hitler's Third Reich forbade three laureates from Germany (Richard Kuhn, Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt, and Gerhard Domagk) from accepting their prizes.^[36] Each man was later able to receive the diploma and medal.^[37] Even though Sweden was officially neutral during World War II, the prizes were awarded irregularly. In 1939, the Peace Prize was not awarded. No prize was awarded in any category from 1940–42, due to the occupation of Norway by Germany. In the subsequent year, all prizes were awarded except those for literature and peace.^[38]

During the occupation of Norway, three members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee fled into exile. The remaining members escaped persecution from the Nazis when the Nobel Foundation stated that the Committee building in Oslo was Swedish property. Thus it was a safe haven from the German military, which was not at war with Sweden.^[39] These members kept the work of the Committee going but did not award any prizes. In 1944 the Nobel Foundation, together with the three members in exile, made sure that nominations were submitted for the Peace Prize and that the prize could be awarded once again.^[36]

Map of Nobel laureates by country.

Prize in Economic Sciences[link]

In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank celebrated its 300th anniversary by donating a large sum of money to the Nobel Foundation to be used to set up a prize in honor of Nobel. The following year, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded for the first time. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences became responsible for selecting laureates. The first laureates for the Economics Prize were Jan Tinbergen and Ragnar Frisch "for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes."^[40][41] Although not a Nobel Prize, it is intimately identified with the other awards; the laureates are announced with the Nobel Prize recipients, and the Prize in Economic Sciences is presented at the Swedish Nobel Prize Award Ceremony.^[42] The Board of the Nobel Foundation decided that after this addition, it would allow no further new prizes.^[43]

Award process[link]

The award process is similar for all of the Nobel Prizes; the main difference is in who can make nominations for each of them.^[44]

The announcement of the laureates in Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009 by Gunnar Öquist, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

2009 Nobel Prize in Literature announcement by Peter Englund in Swedish, English and German

Nominations[link]

Nomination forms are sent by the Nobel Committee to about 3000 individuals, usually in September the year before the prizes are awarded. These individuals are often academics working in a relevant area. For the Peace Prize, inquiries are sent to governments, members of international courts, professors and rectors, former Peace Prize laureates and current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The deadline for the return of the nomination forms is 31 January of the year of the award.^[44][45] The Nobel Committee nominates about 300 potential laureates from these forms and additional names.^[46] The nominees are not publicly named, nor are they told that they are being considered for the prize. All nomination records for a prize are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of the prize.^[47][48]

Selection[link]

The Nobel Committee then prepares a report reflecting the advice of experts in the relevant fields. This, along with the list of preliminary candidates, is submitted to the prize-awarding institutions.^[49] The institutions meet to choose the laureate or laureates in each field by a majority vote. Their decision, which cannot be appealed, is announced immediately after the vote.^[50] A maximum of three laureates and two different works may be selected per award. Except for the Peace Prize, which can be awarded to institutions, the awards can only be given to individuals.^[51] If the Peace Prize is not awarded, the money is split among the scientific prizes. This has happened 19 times so far.^[52]

Posthumous nominations[link]

Although posthumous nominations are not permitted, individuals who die in the months between their nomination and the decision of the prize committee were originally eligible to receive the prize. This has occurred twice: the 1931 Literature Prize awarded to Erik Axel Karlfeldt, and the 1961 Peace Prize awarded to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. Since 1974, laureates must be thought alive at the time of the October announcement. There has been one laureate, William Vickrey, who died after the prize was announced but before it could be presented.^[53] On 3 October 2011, the laureates for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were announced; however, the committee was not aware that one of the laureates, Ralph M. Steinman, had died three days earlier. The committee was debating about Steinman's prize, since the rule is that the prize is not awarded posthumously.^[3] The committee later decided that as the decision to award Steinman the prize "was made in good faith," it would remain unchanged.^[54]

Recognition time lag[link]

Nobel's will provides for prizes to be awarded in recognition of discoveries made "during the preceding year". Early on, the awards usually recognised recent discoveries.^[55] However, some of these early discoveries were later discredited. For example, Johannes Fibiger was awarded the 1926 Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his purported discovery of a parasite that caused cancer.^[56] To avoid this embarrassment, the awards increasingly recognised scientific discoveries that had withstood the test of time.^[57][58][59] According to Ralf Pettersson, former chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology or Medicine, "the criterion ‘the previous year’ is interpreted by the Nobel Assembly as the year when the full impact of the discovery has become evident."^[58]

The committee room of the Norwegian Nobel Committee

The interval between the award and the accomplishment it recognises varies from discipline to discipline. The Literature Prize is typically awarded to recognise a cumulative lifetime body of work rather than a single achievement.^[60][61] The Peace Prize can also be awarded for a lifetime body of work. For example 2008 laureate Martti Ahtisaari was awarded for his work to resolve international conflicts.^[62][63] However, they can also be awarded for specific recent events.^[64] For instance, Kofi Annan was awarded the 2001 Peace Prize just four years after becoming the Secretary-General of the United Nations.^[65] Similarly Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres received the 1994 award, about a year after they successfully concluded the Oslo Accords.^[66]

Although Nobel's will stated that prizes should be awarded for contributions made "during the preceding year", awards for physics, chemistry, and medicine are typically awarded once the achievement has been widely accepted. Sometimes, this takes decades – for example, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar shared the 1983 Physics Prize for his 1930s work on stellar structure and evolution.^[67][68] Not all scientists live long enough for their work to be recognised. Some discoveries can never be considered for a prize if their impact is realised after the discoverers have died.^[69][70][71]

Award ceremonies[link]

Left: Barack Obama after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo City Hall from the hands of Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland; Right: Giovanni Jona-Lasinio presenting Yoichiro Nambu's Nobel Lecture at Aula Magna, Stockholm in 2008

Except for the Peace Prize, the Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm, Sweden, at the annual Prize Award Ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The recipients' lectures are normally held in the days prior to the award ceremony. The Peace Prize and its recipients' lectures are presented at the annual Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, usually on 10 December. The award ceremonies and the associated banquets are typically major international events.^[72][73] The Prizes awarded in Sweden's ceremonies' are held at the Stockholm Concert Hall, with the Nobel banquet following immediately at Stockholm City Hall. The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has been held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905–1946), at the auditorium of the University of Oslo (1947–1989) and at Oslo City Hall (1990–present).^[74]

The highlight of the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm occurs when each Nobel Laureate steps forward to receive the prize from the hands of the King of Sweden. In Oslo, the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway.^[73][75] At first King Oscar II did not approve of awarding grand prizes to foreigners. It is said that his mind changed once his attention had been drawn to the publicity value of the prizes for Sweden.^[76]

Nobel banquet[link]

Table at the 2005 Nobel Banquet in Stockholm

After the award ceremony in Sweden, a banquet is held at the Stockholm City Hall, which is attended by the Swedish Royal Family and around 1,300 guests. The banquet features a three-course dinner, entertainment and dancing and is extensively covered by local and international^{[says who?]} media. Before 1930, the banquet in Sweden was held in the ballroom of Stockholm's Grand Hotel.^[74]

The Nobel Peace Prize banquet is held in Oslo at the Grand Hotel after the award ceremony. Apart from the laureate, guests include the President of the Storting, the Prime Minister and (since 2006) the King and Queen of Norway. In total about 250 guests attend for a five-course meal.^[77] For the first time in its history, the banquet was cancelled in Oslo in 1979 because the laureate Mother Teresa refused to attend, saying the money would be better spent on the poor. Mother Teresa used the US$7,000 that was to be spent on the banquet to hold a dinner for 2,000 homeless people on Christmas Day.^[78][79]

Nobel lecture[link]

According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, each laureate is required to give a public lecture on a subject related to the topic of their prize.^[80][81] The Nobel lecture as a rhetorical genre took decades to reach its current format.^[82] These lectures normally occur during Nobel Week (the week leading up to the award ceremony and banquet, which begins with the laureates arriving in Stockholm and normally ends with the Nobel banquet), but this is not mandatory. The laureate is only obliged to give the lecture within six months of receiving the prize. Some have happened even later. For example, US president Theodore Roosevelt won the Peace Prize in 1906 but gave his lecture in 1910, after his term in office.^[83] The lectures are organized by the same association which selected the laureates.^[84]

Prizes[link]

Medals[link]

The Nobel Prize medals, minted by Myntverket in Sweden and the Mint of Norway since 1902, are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation.^[85] Each medal features an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the obverse. The medals for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature have identical obverses, showing the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death. Nobel's portrait also appears on the obverse of the Peace Prize medal and the medal for the Economics Prize, but with a slightly different design. For instance, the laureate's name is engraved on the rim of the Economics medal.^[86] The image on the reverse of a medal varies according to the institution awarding the prize. The reverse sides of the medals for chemistry and physics share the same design.^[87]

Laureates receive a heavily decorated diploma together with a gold medal and the prize money. Here Fritz Haber's diploma is shown, which he received for the development of a method to synthesise ammonia.

All medals made before 1980 were struck in 23 carat gold. Since then they have been struck in 18 carat green gold plated with 24 carat gold. The weight of each medal varies with the value of gold, but averages about 175 grams (0.39 lb) for each medal. The diameter is 66 millimetres (2.6 in) and the thickness varies between 5.2 millimetres (0.20 in) and 2.4 millimetres (0.094 in).^[88] Because of the high value of their gold content and tendency to be on public display, Nobel medals are subject to medal theft.^[89][90][91] During World War II, the medals of German scientists Max von Laue and James Franck were sent to Copenhagen for safekeeping. When Germany invaded Denmark, chemist George de Hevesy dissolved them in aqua regia, to prevent confiscation by Nazi Germany and to prevent legal problems for the holders. After the war, the gold was recovered from solution, and the medals re-cast.^[92]

Diplomas[link]

Nobel laureates receive a diploma directly from the hands of the King of Sweden or the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Each diploma is uniquely designed by the prize-awarding institutions for the laureates that receive them.^[86] The diploma contains a picture and text which states the name of the laureate and normally a citation of why they received the prize. None of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates has ever had a citation on their diplomas.^[93][94]

Award money[link]

The laureates are given a sum of money when they receive their prizes, in the form of a document confirming the amount awarded.^[86] The amount of prize money depends upon how much money the Nobel Foundation can award each year. The purse has increased since the 1980s, when the prize money was 880 000 SEK (c. 2.6 million SEK, US$350 000 or €295,000 today). In 2009, the monetary award was 10 million SEK (US$1.4 million, €950,000).^[95][96] If there are two laureates in a particular category, the award grant is divided equally between the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of dividing the grant equally, or awarding one-half to one recipient and one-quarter to each of the others.^[97][98][99] It is not uncommon for recipients to donate prize money to benefit scientific, cultural, or humanitarian causes.^[100][101]

Controversies and criticisms[link]

Controversial recipients[link]

Among other criticisms, the Nobel Committees have been accused of having a political agenda, and of omitting more deserving candidates. They have also been accused of Eurocentrism, especially for the Literature Prize.^{[102][103][104]}

When it was announced that Henry Kissinger was to be awarded the Peace Prize two of the Norwegian Nobel Committee members resigned in protest.

Peace Prize

Among the most criticised Nobel Peace Prizes was the one awarded to Henry Kissinger and Lê Ðức Thọ. Lê Ðức Thọ later declined the prize.^[105] This led to two Norwegian Nobel Committee members resigning. Kissinger and Thọ were awarded the prize for negotiating a ceasefire between North Vietnam and the United States in January 1973. However, when the award was announced, both sides were still engaging in hostilities.^[106] Many critics were of the opinion that Kissinger was not a peace-maker but the opposite; responsible for widening the war.^[47][107]

Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin received the Peace Prize in 1994 for their efforts in making peace between Israel and Palestine.^[47][108] However, many issues, such as the plight of Palestinian refugees, had not been addressed on the negotiations,^[109] and no final status agreement was reached.^[110] Immediately after the award was announced, one of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members denounced Arafat as a terrorist and resigned.^[111] Additional misgivings about Arafat were widely expressed in various newspapers.^[112]

Another controversial Peace Prize was that awarded to Barack Obama in 2009.^[113] Nominations had closed only eleven days after Obama took office as President, but the actual evaluation occurred over the next eight months.^[52] Obama himself stated that he did not feel deserving of the award,^[114][115] or worthy of the company it would place him in.^[116] Past Peace Prize laureates were divided, some saying that Obama deserved the award, and others saying he had not yet earned it. Obama's award, along with the previous Peace Prizes for Jimmy Carter and Al Gore, also prompted accusations of a left-wing bias.^[117]

Literature Prize

The award of the 2004 Literature Prize to Elfriede Jelinek drew a protest from a member of the Swedish Academy, Knut Ahnlund. Ahnlund resigned, alleging that the selection of Jelinek had caused "irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art." He alleged that Jelinek's works were "a mass of text shovelled together without artistic structure."^[118][119] The 2009 Literature Prize to Herta Müller also generated criticism. According to The Washington Post many US literary critics and professors had never previously heard of her.^[120] This made many feel that the prizes were too Eurocentric.^[121]

Science prizes

In 1949, the Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz received the Physiology or Medicine Prize for his development of the prefrontal leucotomy. The previous year Dr. Walter Freeman had developed a version of the procedure which was faster and easier to carry out. Due in part to the publicity surrounding the original procedure, Freeman's procedure was prescribed without due consideration or regard for modern medical ethics. Endorsed by such influential publications as The New England Journal of Medicine, leucotomy or "lobotomy" became so popular that about 5,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States in the three years immediately following Moniz's receipt of the Prize.^[122][123]

Overlooked achievements[link]

The Norwegian Nobel Committee declined to award a prize in 1948, the year of Gandhi's death, on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate."

James Joyce, one of the controversial omissions of the Literature Prize

The Norwegian Nobel Committee confirmed that Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Peace Prize in 1937–39, 1947 and a few days before he was assassinated in January 1948.^[124] Later members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee expressed regret that he was not given the prize.^[125] Geir Lundestad, Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006 said, "The greatest omission in our 106 year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace prize. Whether Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question".^[126] In 1948, the year of Gandhi's death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate" that year.^[125][127] Later, when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi."^[128] Other high profile individuals with widely recognised contributions to peace have been missed out. Foreign Policy lists Eleanor Roosevelt, Václav Havel, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Sari Nusseibeh and Corazon Aquino as people who "never won the prize, but should have."^[129]

The Literature Prize also has controversial omissions. Adam Kirsch has suggested that many notable writers have missed out on the award for political or extra-literary reasons. The heavy focus on European and Swedish authors has been a subject of criticism.^[130][131] The Eurocentric nature of the award was acknowledged by Peter Englund, the 2009 Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, as a problem with the award and was attributed to the tendency for the academy to relate more to European authors.^[132] Notable writers that have been overlooked for the Literature Prize include Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Émile Zola, Jorge Luis Borges, Marcel Proust, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, August Strindberg, Simon Vestdijk, John Updike, Arthur Miller, Chinua Achebe and Mark Twain.^[133]

The strict rule against awarding a prize to more than three people is also controversial.^[134] When a prize is awarded to recognize an achievement by a team of more than three collaborators, one or more will miss out. For example, in 2002, the prize was awarded to Koichi Tanaka and John Fenn for the development of mass spectrometry in protein chemistry, an award that did not recognize the achievements of Franz Hillenkamp and Michael Karas of the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Frankfurt.^[135][136] Similarly, the prohibition of posthumous awards fails to recognise achievements by an individual or collaborator who dies before the prize is awarded. In 1962, Francis Crick, James D. Watson, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Physiology or Medicine Prize for discovering the structure of DNA. Rosalind Franklin, a key contributor in that discovery, died of ovarian cancer four years earlier.^[137] Lise Meitner, a physicist who co-discovered nuclear fission along with Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann, was also denied the award^{[says who?]} due to having to flee Germany when the Nazis came to power. Her role in the research was not fully understood until years later, when the team was awarded the U.S.'s Enrico Fermi Award.

Emphasis on discoveries over inventions[link]

Alfred Nobel left his fortune to finance annual prizes to be awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." He stated that the Nobel Prizes in Physics should be given "to the person who shall have made the most important 'discovery' or 'invention' within the field of physics." Nobel did not emphasise discoveries, but they have historically been held in higher respect by the Nobel Prize Committee than inventions: 77% of the Physics Prizes have been given to discoveries, compared with only 23% to inventions. Christoph Bartneck and Matthias Rauterberg, in papers published in Nature and Technoetic Arts, have argued this emphasis on discoveries has moved the Nobel Prize away from its original intention of rewarding the greatest contribution to society.^[138][139]

Specially distinguished laureates[link]

Maria Skłodowska-Curie, one of four people who have received the Nobel Prize twice (Physics and Chemistry)

Multiple laureates[link]

Four people have received two Nobel Prizes. Maria Skłodowska-Curie received the Physics Prize in 1903 for the discovery of radioactivity and the Chemistry Prize in 1911 for the isolation of pure radium,^[140] making her the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. Linus Pauling won the 1954 Chemistry Prize for his research into the chemical bond and its application to the structure of complex substances. Pauling also won the Peace Prize in 1962 for his anti-nuclear activism, making him the only laureate of two unshared prizes. John Bardeen received the Physics Prize twice: in 1956 for the invention of the transistor and in 1972 for the theory of superconductivity.^[141] Frederick Sanger received the prize twice in Chemistry: in 1958 for determining the structure of the insulin molecule and in 1980 for inventing a method of determining base sequences in DNA.^[142][143]

Two organisations have received the Peace Prize multiple times. The International Committee of the Red Cross received it three times: in 1917 and 1944 for its work during the world wars; and in 1963 during the year of its centenary.^{[144][145][146]} The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has won the Peace Prize twice for assisting refugees: in 1954 and 1981.^[147]

Family laureates[link]

The Curie family has received the most prizes, with five. Maria Skłodowska-Curie received the prizes in Physics (in 1903) and Chemistry (in 1911). Her husband, Pierre Curie, shared the 1903 Physics prize with her.^[148] Their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, received the Chemistry Prize in 1935 together with her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie. In addition, the husband of Marie Curie's second daughter, Henry Labouisse, was the director of UNICEF when it won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965.^[149]

Although no family matches the Curie family's record, there have been several with two laureates. The husband-and-wife team of Gerty Radnitz Cori and Carl Ferdinand Cori shared the 1947 Prize in Physiology or Medicine. J. J. Thomson was awarded the Physics Prize in 1906 for showing that electrons are particles. His son, George Paget Thomson, received the same prize in 1937 for showing that they also have the properties of waves.^[150] William Henry Bragg together with his son, William Lawrence Bragg, shared the Physics Prize in 1915. Niels Bohr won the Physics prize in 1922, and his son, Aage Bohr, won the same prize in 1975.^[151] Manne Siegbahn, who received the Physics Prize in 1924, was the father of Kai Siegbahn, who received the Physics Prize in 1981.^[152] Hans von Euler-Chelpin, who received the Chemistry Prize in 1929, was the father of Ulf von Euler, who was awarded the Physiology or Medicine Prize in 1970. C.V. Raman won the Physics Prize in 1930 and was the uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who won the same prize in 1983.^[153][154] Arthur Kornberg received the Physiology or Medicine Prize in 1959. Kornberg's son, Roger later received the Chemistry Prize in 2006.^[155] Jan Tinbergen, who won the first Economics Prize in 1969, was the brother of Nikolaas Tinbergen, who received the 1973 Physiology or Medicine Prize.^[149]

Refusals and constraints[link]

Richard Kuhn, who was forced to decline his Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Two laureates have voluntarily declined the Nobel Prize. In 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Literature Prize but refused, stating, "A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honourable form."^[156] The other is Lê Ðức Thọ, chosen for the 1973 Peace Prize for his role in the Paris Peace Accords. He declined, stating that there was no actual peace in Vietnam.^[157]

During the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler hindered Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt, and Gerhard Domagk from accepting their prizes. All of them were awarded their diplomas and gold medals after World War II. In 1958, Boris Pasternak declined his prize for literature due to fear of what the Soviet Union government might do if he travelled to Stockholm to accept his prize. In return, the Swedish Academy refused his refusal, saying "this refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award."^[157] The Academy announced with regret that the presentation of the Literature Prize could not take place that year, holding it until 1989 when Pasternak's son accepted the prize on his behalf.^[158][159]

Monument to Nobel Prize[link]

The memorial symbol "Planet of Alfred Nobel" was opened in Dnipropetrovsk University of Economics and Law at September 13, 2008. It is a granite monument on which the hand supports the globe.^[160] Around the globe is the trace of flying figure of a woman – the goddess of science, reason and intellect.

On the globe there are 802 Nobel laureates' reliefs made ​​of a composite alloy obtained when disposing of military strategic missiles.^[161]

See also[link]

References[link]

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nobel Prize

• Official Website
• Nobel Prizes by Universities and Institutes

• Nobel Prize at Encyclopædia Britannica

Louis J. Ignarro
Born	(1941-05-31) May 31, 1941 (age 71) Brooklyn, NY
Nationality	American
Fields	Pharmacology
Institutions	Tulane University School of Medicine UCLA School of Medicine King Saud University
Alma mater	Columbia University University of Minnesota
Known for	Nitric Oxide
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1998)

Louis J. Ignarro (born May 31, 1941) is an American pharmacologist. For demonstrating the signaling properties of nitric oxide, he was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Robert F. Furchgott and Ferid Murad.

Currently, he is professor of pharmacology at the UCLA School of Medicine's department of molecular and medical pharmacology in Los Angeles, which he joined in 1985. Before relocating to California, he was a professor of pharmacology at Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, for 12 years. Ignarro has also previously worked as a staff scientist, research department, for the pharmaceutical division of CIBA-GEIGY Corporation in New York.

Ignarro has published numerous research articles. He received the Basic Research Prize of the American Heart Association in 1998. This was in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the advancement of cardiovascular science. That same year, he was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences and the following year, into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Because nitric oxide is indirectly involved in the action of this drug, he is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Viagra". ^[1]

He is the founder of the Nitric Oxide Society, and founder and editor-in-chief of Nitric Oxide Biology and Chemistry.^[2] Ignarro holds a B.S. in pharmacy, Columbia University, 1962, and a Ph.D. in pharmacology, University of Minnesota, School of Medicine, 1966. He also received a postdoctoral fellowship in chemical pharmacology from National Institutes of Health in 1968. He is a member of the scientific committee of Nicox, a French pharmaceutical company, a member of the Board of Directors of Antibe Therapeutics,^[3] a Canadian drug discovery company, a member of the Board of Directors of Operation USA, a non-profit organization, and a member of the Nutritional Advisory Board for Herbalife, a for-profit nutrition and weight-management company.

Personal life[link]

Louis J. Ignarro was born in 1941 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Italian immigrants and his father was a carpenter in Torre del Greco, near Naples. Ignarro grew up in Long Beach, NY, which is a suburb of New York City, NY on the south shore of Long Island, NY. Ignarro received his first chemistry set as a gift at the age of 8.^[4]

Ignarro is married and lives in Beverly Hills, CA.^[4] He is an avid cyclist and marathoner, having completed 13 marathons. ^[5][6] Ignarro has published multiple books for lay audiences about health and wellness focusing on the benefits of increasing nitric oxide production. He is a frequent public speaker on these and related topics.

Academic career[link]

Ignarro attended Central Grade School and Long Beach High School. A strong interest in science led Ignarro to Columbia University where he studied chemistry and pharmacology and in 1962 received a bachelor's degree in pharmacy. Ignarro then attended the University of Minnesota where he received a Ph.D. in pharmacology. His university studies also concentrated in chemistry, enzymology and cardiovascular physiology, which resulted in several published papers. While a the University of Minnesota, Ignarro studied under eventual Nobel Prize winning chemist Paul Boyer. ^[4]

Ignarro's work continued at the NIH in the fields he'd studied, collaborating with many other scientists to discover regulatory mechanisms of the cardiovascular system that would lead to his most famous work. This was his first time to apply his education outside of an academic setting. In 1968, Ignarro left the NIH to work for Geigy Pharmaceuticals. With this company, Ignarro helped develop new drugs and was able to continue research into new areas of pharmacology including cyclic GMP. After Geigy merged with Ciba Pharmaceuticals, Ignarro decided to move back to the world of academia, this time as a professor.^[4]

In 1973, Ignarro accepted the position of Assistant Professor of pharmacology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, LA. Tulane was chosen partially because it would provide a good environment for continued research into cyclic GMP. While studying cyclic GMP, Ignarro read a paper by Ferid Murad, who demonstrated that nitric oxide elevates cyclic GMP levels. Ignarro then speculated that nitric oxide could be the key to relaxing vascular smooth muscles. In turn, this led to his extensive research on the subject. Ignarro's research demonstrated that nitric oxide serves the functions of vasorelaxant and inhibitor of platelet aggregation, with both effects mediated by cyclic GMP.

Ignarro continued his research at Tulane. In 1984 he realized that the properties of nitric oxide were the same as those seen in the endothelium derived relaxing factor previously-identified by Robert Furchgott 3 years earlier. The exact nature of the EDRF was up to this point unknown. Interestingly, Furchgott and Ignarro came to similar conclusions about nitric oxide as the EDRF around the same time and both presented evidence at conferences during 1986 demonstrating nitric oxide's role as EDRF.^[4]

During the decades since Ignarro and Furchgott's initial research, thousands of studies have been published about the effects of nitric oxide as the endothelium derived relaxing factor. This has led to the development of erectile dysfunction drugs such as Viagra and nutritional supplements designed for cardiovascular health and athletic performance. In 1985, Ignarro moved from New Orleans to Los Angeles where he accepted a position at the UCLA School of Medicine and continues to research and teach.^[4]

Herbalife relationship[link]

Ignarro has worked as a paid consultant for Herbalife since 2003 and later became a member of the company's Scientific Advisory Board. He has collaborated in developing nutritional supplements for cardiovascular health and athletic performance. Ignarro first worked with Herbalife to develop Niteworks, a dietary supplement designed to boost the body’s own production of nitric oxide.^[7] Ignarro endorsed this product in exchange for a royalty agreement reported to have earned his consulting firm over $1 million in the first 12 months. ^[8] Ignarro has continued to work with Herbalife to develop additional supplements focusing on nutrients such as Omega-3 fatty acid and CoQ10.

In 2003, Ignarro published a study based on ingredients found in Niteworks in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, where, as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, he can submit papers without review and without disclosing his financial interest to the publication. After Ignarro's ties to Herbalife were revealed, the journal issued a correction to the article, citing Ignarro's undisclosed "conflict of interest." ^[8]UCLA conducted its own investigation and determined that Ignarro did not act improperly. Ignarro has publicly acknowledged the conflict of interest as a mistake and has continued to published extensively on the subject of nitric oxide.^[9]

Ignarro appears in videos promoting Niteworks and other Herbalife products, and is a frequent speaker at Herbalife events. Since partnering with Herbalife, Ignarro has spoken to more than 5,000,000 people worldwide about nitric oxide and cardiovascular health. ^[9]

Famous quotes[link]

While testifying before Congress in 2000, Ignarro remarked: "Only in America could the son of an uneducated carpenter receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine".^[10][11]

Awards and recognitions[link]

• Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association Foundation Research Award. 1973
• Merck Research Award. 1974 ^[12]
• Edward G Schlieder Foundation Award. 1973–1976 ^[12]
• U.S.P.H.S. Career Development Award. 1975 – 1980
• Arthritis Foundation Research Award. 1975 – 1977
• First recipient of the George Clark Memorial Arthritis Fund. 1975
• First recipient of the James Woodrow Waggoner Arthritis Fund. 1976
• Lilly Research Award. 1978 ^[12]
• Tulane Medical School – Outstanding Teacher Award. 1983
• UCLA School of Medicine – Outstanding Teacher Award. 1986
• AMSA Golden Apple Award (for teaching) – UCLA School of Medicine. 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999
• Alpha Omega Alpha – Honorary Member. 1990
• UCLA School of Medicine Award for Excellence in Education. 1993
• Roussel Uclaf Prize for Cell Communication and Signaling. Shared with Dr. Salvador Moncada and Dr. Robert Furchgott. 1994 ^[2]
• Wellcome Visiting Professor – Marshall University School of Medicine. 1995
• CIBA Award for Hypertension Research for Discovery of the Roles of Nitric Oxide and Cyclic GMP in Vascular Function. Shared with Dr. Salvador Moncada. 1995^[2]
• Basic Research Prize of the American Heart Association in recognition of outstanding contributions to the advancement of cardiovascular science. 1998
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for “nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system”. Shared with Robert Furchgott and Ferid Murad. 1998
• Laurea honoris causa(Honorary degree), University of Naples Federico II. 1999^[13]
• National Academy of Sciences. 1999
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 1999
• Institute of Medicine. 2011
• American Philsophical Society. 2007
• Canadian Medal of Merit. 2008^[14]
• American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist. 2008^[15]
• Honorary doctorates from the Universities of Madrid, Lund, Gent, North Carolina ^[12]

Society memberships[link]

• American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
• American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• American Physiological Society
• American Society for Cell Biology
• American Rheumatism Association
• American Society of Hematology
• Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine
• American Heart Association ^[14]

Book publications[link]

• NO More Heart Disease: How Nitric Oxide Can Prevent – Even Reverse – Heart Disease and Strokes. New York: St. Martin's Press (2005). ISBN 0-312-33582-2.
• Nitric Oxide: Biology and Pathobiology. Academic Press (2009). ISBN 0-12-373866-0.
• Health Is Wealth: 10 Power Nutrients That Increase Your Odds Of Living To 100. Health Value Publications (2009). ISBN 0-9790229-1-6.
• Health Is Wealth: Performance Nutrition. Health Value Publications (2011). ISBN 978-1-61389-002-8.
• Survival of the Firmest: UCLA Doctors Describe Ten Steps to Better Erections, a Longer Life and Reversing Erectile Dysfunction (ED). CreateSpace (2011). ISBN 1-4611-5083-3.

Important publications[link]

• 1979 CA Gruetter, BK Barry, DB McNamara, DY Gruetter, PJ Kadowitz and LJ Ignarro. Relaxation of bovine coronary artery and activation of coronary arterial guanylate cyclase by nitric oxide, nitroprusside and a carcinogenic nitrosoamine. J. Cyclic Nucl. Res. 5: 211–224.
• 1980 LJ Ignarro and CA Gruetter. Requirement of thiols for activation of coronary arterial guanylate cyclase by glyceryl trinitrate and sodium nitrite: Possible involvement of S-nitrosothiols. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 631: 221–231.
• 1981 BT Mellion, LJ Ignarro, EH Ohlstein, EG Pontecorvo, AL Hyman and PJ Kadowitz. Evidence for the inhibitory role of guanosine 3’,5’-monophosphate in ADP-induced human platelet aggregation. Blood 57: 946–955.
• 1981 LJ Ignarro, H Lippton, JC Edwards, WH Baricos, AL Hyman, PJ Kadowitz and CA Gruetter. Mechanism of vascular smooth muscle relaxation by organic nitrates, nitrites, nitroprusside and nitric oxide: Evidence for the involvement of Snitrosothiols as active intermediates. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 218: 739–749.
• 1982 MS Wolin, KS Wood and LJ Ignarro. Guanylate cyclase from bovine lung: a kinetic analysis of the regulation of the purified soluble enzyme by protoporphyrin IX, heme and nitrosyl-heme. J. Biol. Chem. 257: 13312-13320.
• 1984 LJ Ignarro, B Ballot and KS Wood. Regulation of guanylate cyclase activity by porphyrins and metalloporphyrins. J. Biol. Chem. 259: 6201–6207.
• 1986 LJ Ignarro, RG Harbison, KS Wood and PJ Kadowitz. Activation of purified soluble guanylate cyclase by endothelium-derived relaxing factor from intrapulmonary artery and vein: stimulation by acetylcholine, bradykinin and arachidonic acid. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 237: 893–900.
• 1987 LJ Ignarro, RE Byrns, GM Buga and KS Wood. Endothelium-derived relaxing factor from pulmonary artery and vein possesses pharmacological and chemical properties that are identical to those for nitric oxide radical. Circ. Res. 61: 866–879.
• 1987 LJ Ignarro, GM Buga, KS Wood, RE Byrns and G Chaudhuri. Endothelium-derived relaxing factor produced and released from artery and vein is nitric oxide. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84: 9265–9269.
• 1990 LJ Ignarro, PA Bush, GM Buga, KS Wood, JM Fukuto and J Rajfer. Nitric oxide and cyclic GMP formation upon electrical field stimulation cause relaxation of corpus cavernosum smooth muscle. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 170: 843–850.
• 1992 J Rajfer, WJ Aronson, PA Bush, FJ Dorey and LJ Ignarro. Nitric oxide as a mediator of relaxation of the corpus cavernosum in response to nonadrenergic, noncholinergic neurotransmission. N. Engl. J. Med. 326: 90–94.
• 1994 JM Griscavage, JM Fukuto, Y Komori and LJ Ignarro. Nitric oxide inhibits neuronal nitric oxide synthase by interacting with the heme prosthetic group: role of tetrahydrobiopterin in modulating the inhibitory action of nitric oxide. J. Biol. Chem. 269: 21644-21649.
• 1994 AJ Hobbs, JM Fukuto and LJ Ignarro. Formation of free nitric oxide from Larginine by nitric oxide synthase: direct enhancement of generation by superoxide dismutase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91: 10992-10996.
• 1996 JM Griscavage, S Wilk and LJ Ignarro. Inhibitors of the proteasome pathway interfere with induction of nitric oxide synthase in macrophages by blocking activation of nuclear factor-kappa B. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93:3308–3312.
• 1999 HC Champion, TJ Bivalacqua, AL Hyman, LJ Ignarro, WJG Hellstrom and PJ Kadowitz. Gene transfer of endothelial nitric oxide synthase to the penis augments erectile responses in the aged rat. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96:11648-11652.
• 2001 LJ Ignarro, GM Buga, LH Wei, PM Bauer, G Wu and P del Soldato. Role of the arginine-nitric oxide pathway in the regulation of vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98: 4202–4208.
• 2001 PM Bauer, GM Buga, JM Fukuto, AE Pegg and LJ Ignarro. Nitric oxide inhibits ornithine decarboxylase via S-nitrosylation of cysteine 360 in the active site of the enzyme. J. Biol. Chem. 276: 34458-34464.
• 2001 PM Bauer, GM Buga and LJ Ignarro. Role of p42/p44 mitogen-activated protein kinase and p21waf1/cip1 in the regulation of vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation by nitric oxide. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98: 12802-12807.
• 2003 F de Nigris, LO Lerman, SW Ignarro, G Sica, A Lerman, W Palinski, LJ Ignarro and C Napoli. Beneficial effects of antioxidants and L-arginine on oxidation-sensitive gene expression and endothelial NO synthase activity at sites of disturbed shear stress. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100:1420–1425.
• 2003 D Sumi and LJ Ignarro. Estrogen-related receptor alpha 1 up-regulates endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100:14451-14456.
• 2004 T Hayashi, D Sumi, PA Juliet, H Matsui-Hirai, Y Asai-Tanaka, H Kano, A Fukatsu, T Tsunekawa, A Miyazaki, A Iguchi and LJ Ignarro. Gene transfer of endothelial NO synthase, but not eNOS plus inducible NOS, regressed atherosclerosis in rabbits. Cardiovasc. Res. 61:339–351.
• 2004 C Napoli, SW Ignarro, F de Nigris, LO Lerman, L Rossi, C Guarino, G Mansueto, F Di Tuoro, O Pignalosa, G De Rosa, V Sica and LJ Ignarro. Long-term combined beneficial effects of physical training and metabolic treatment on atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemic mice. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101:8797–8802.
• 2005 HJ Garban, D Marquez-Garban, R Pietras and LJ Ignarro. Rapid nitric oxidemediated S-nitrosylation of estrogen receptor: Regulation of estrogen-dependent gene transcription. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102:2632–2636.

See also[link]

• Arginine
• Nitric Oxide
• Pharmacology
• Pharmacy

References[link]

External links[link]

• Louis Ignarro's Official Homepage
• Nobel Prize Autobiography
• Louis Ignarro bio, Herbalife.com
• UCLA A Conversation with UCLA Professor Louis J. Ignarro Winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine

Brian Schmidt
Born	Brian P. Schmidt (1967-02-24) February 24, 1967 (age 45) Missoula, Montana, United States
Nationality	Australia and United States[1]
Institutions	Australian National University
Alma mater	University of Arizona (1989), Harvard University (1993)
Doctoral advisor	Robert Kirshner
Notable awards	Shaw Prize in Astronomy (2006) Nobel Prize in Physics (2011)
Spouse	Jennifer M. Gordon
Notes "FACTBOX-Nobel physics prize winners", Reuters News, 4 October 2011.

Brian P. Schmidt FRS (born February 24, 1967) is a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at The Australian National University Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is known for his research in using supernovae as cosmological probes. He currently holds an Australia Research Council Federation Fellowship and was elected to the Royal Society in 2012^[2]. Schmidt shared both the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

Early life and education[link]

Interview with Brian Schmidt after his Nobel lecture

Schmidt, an only child, was born on February 24, 1967, in Missoula, Montana, where his father Dana C. Schmidt was a fisheries biologist. When he was 13, his family relocated to Anchorage, Alaska.^[3][4]

Schmidt attended Bartlett High School in Anchorage, Alaska, and graduated in 1985. He has said that he wanted to be a meteorologist "since I was about five-years-old" but "... I did some work at the USA National Weather Service up in Anchorage and didn't enjoy it very much. It was less scientific, not as exciting as I thought it would be—there was a lot of routine. But I guess I was just a little naive about what being a meteorologist meant." His decision to study astronomy, which he had seen as "a minor pastime", was made just before he enrolled at university.^[5] He earned his BS (Physics) and BS (Astronomy) from the University of Arizona in 1989.^[6] He received his MA (1992) and then PhD from Harvard University in 1993.^[7] Schmidt's PhD thesis was supervised by Robert Kirshner and used Type II Supernovae to measure the Hubble Constant.

At Harvard, he met his future wife, the Australian (Jenny) Jennifer M. Gordon who was a PhD student in economics. In 1994, he moved to Australia.^[3][6]

Work[link]

Schmidt was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (1993–1994) before moving on to Mount Stromlo Observatory in 1995.

In 1994, Schmidt and Nicholas B. Suntzeff formed the High-Z Supernova Search Team to measure the expected deceleration of the Universe and the deceleration parameter q0 using distances to Type Ia supernovae. In 1995, the HZT at a meeting at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics elected Schmidt as the overall leader of the HZT. Schmidt led the team from Australia and in 1998 in the HZT paper with first author Adam Riess the first evidence was presented that the Universe's expansion rate is accelerating.^[8] The team's observations were contrary to the current theory that the expansion of the Universe should be slowing down; on the contrary, by monitoring the brightness and measuring the redshift of the supernovae, they discovered that these billion-year old exploding stars and their galaxies were accelerating away from our reference frame.^[9] This result was also found nearly simultaneously by the Supernova Cosmology Project, led by Saul Perlmutter.^[9] The corroborating evidence between the two competing studies led to the acceptance of the accelerating universe theory and initiated new research to understand the nature of the universe, such as the existence of dark energy.^[9] The discovery of the accelerating universe was named 'Breakthrough of the Year' by Science Magazine in 1998, and Schmidt was jointly awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Reiss and Perlmutter for their groundbreaking work.^[9]

Schmidt is currently leading the SkyMapper telescope Project and the associated Southern Sky Survey.

Awards[link]

Saul Perlmutter, Adam Riess, and Brian Schmidt being awarded the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy. The trio would later be awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Schmidt has received the Australian Government's Malcolm McIntosh Prize in 2000, Harvard University's Bok Prize in 2000, the Australian Academy of Science's Pawsey Medal Medal in 2001, and the Vainu Bappu Medal of the Astronomical Society of India in 2002. He was the Marc Aaronson Memorial Lecturer in 2005, and, in 2006, he shared the Shaw Prize in Astronomy with Adam Riess and Saul Perlmutter.^[10][11]

Schmidt and the other members of the High-Z Team (the set defined by the co-authors of Riess et al. 1998) shared the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize, a $500,000 award, with Saul Perlmutter of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Supernova Cosmology Project (the set defined by the co-authors of Perlmutter et al. 1999) for their discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Schmidt, along with Riess and Perlmutter, jointly won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for their observations which led to the discovery of the accelerating Universe.^[10]

Hobbies[link]

Schmidt makes wine and enjoys cooking.^[3] He and his wife are owners of the winery Maipenrai^[12], a winery in Sutton Australia which has been rated a four-star winery^[13]. At the 2011 Nobel Prize Ceremonies in Stockholm, he presented the King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden with a bottle of his wine.

See also[link]

• Cosmological constant
• Dark energy

References[link]

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ http://royalsociety.org/people/brian-schmidt/
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Restless experimenter The Canberra Times, 6 April 2011, p 8.
4. ↑ "FACTBOX-Nobel physics prize winners", Reuters News, 4 October 2011.
5. ↑ "Star turn in global success", The Canberra Times, 1 July 2006, p B02.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} "SCHMIDT, Brian" in Who's Who Live (Australia), Crown Content Pty Ltd accessed 4 October 2011.
7. ↑ The Universe from Beginning to End, Pollock Memorial Lecture, April 2009, The University of Sydney accessed 5 October 2011.
8. ↑ Cosmology ABC Catalyst segment on Cosmology, with Brian Schmidt, Ray Norris, & Lawrence Krauss
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3} Palmer, Jason (2011-10-04). "Nobel physics prize honours accelerating Universe find". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15165371. Retrieved 2011-10-05. 
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} "Nobel physics prize honours accelerating Universe find". BBC News. October 4, 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15165371. 
11. ↑ http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-04/australian-astrophysicist-wins-nobel-prize/3209216%7Ctitle= Australian Astrophysicist Wins Nobel Prize
12. ↑ http://www.maipenrai.com.au/
13. ↑ http://www.winecompanion.com.au/

Sources[link]

• Brian P Schmidt - Curriculum Vitae

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brian Schmidt

• Brian Schmidt's Home Page
• Nobel Prize in Phyics 2011 Announcement

Round Table
King Arthur presides at the Round Table with all of his Knights.
Plot element from Arthurian legend
First appearance	Roman de Brut
Created by	Wace
Genre	Fantasy
In-story information
Type	Fictional table
Element of stories featuring	King Arthur

The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of Arthur's fabulous retinue. The symbolism of the Round Table developed over time; by the close of the 12th century it had come to represent the chivalric order associated with Arthur's court, the Knights of the Round Table.

History[link]

The Round Table first appears in Wace's Roman de Brut, a Norman language adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae finished in 1155. Wace says Arthur created the Round Table to prevent quarrels among his barons, none of whom would accept a lower place than the others.^[1] Layamon added to the story when he adapted Wace's work into the Middle English Brut in the early 13th century, saying that the quarrel between Arthur's vassals led to violence at a Yuletide feast. In response a Cornish carpenter built an enormous but easily transportable Round Table to prevent further dispute.^[1] Wace claims he was not the source of the Round Table; both he and Layamon credit it instead to the Bretons. Some scholars have doubted this claim, while others believe it may be true.^[1] There is some similarity between the chroniclers' description of the Round Table and a custom recorded in Celtic stories, in which warriors sit in a circle around the king or lead warrior, in some cases feuding over the order of precedence as in Layamon.^[1] There is a possibility that Wace, contrary to his own claims, derived Arthur's round table not from any Breton source, but rather from medieval biographies of Charlemagne—notably Einhard's Vita Caroli and Notker the Stammerer's De Carolo Magno—in which the king is said to have possessed a round table decorated with a map of Rome.^[2]

Though the Round Table itself is not mentioned until Wace, the concept of Arthur having a marvellous court made up of many prominent warriors is much older. Geoffrey of Monmouth says that after establishing peace throughout Britain, Arthur "increased his personal entourage by inviting very distinguished men from far-distant kingdoms to join it."^[3] The code of chivalry so important in later romance figures in as well, as Geoffrey says Arthur established "such a code of courtliness in his household that he inspired peoples living far away to imitate him."^[3] Long before Geoffrey, Arthur's court was well known to Welsh storytellers; in the romance Culhwch and Olwen, written around 1100, the protagonist Culhwch invokes the names of 225 individuals affiliated with Arthur.^[4] In fact, the fame of Arthur's entourage became so prominent in Welsh tradition that in the later additions to the Welsh Triads, the formula "Arthur's Court" in the titles of the triads began to supersede the older "Island of Britain" formula.^[5] Though the code of chivalry crucial to later continental romances dealing with the Round Table is mostly absent from the earlier Welsh material, some passages of Culhwch and Olwen seem to prefigure it, for instance when Arthur explains the ethos of his court, saying "[w]e are nobles as long as we are sought out: the greater the bounty we may give, the greater our nobility, fame and honour."^[6]

Though no Round Table appears in the early Welsh texts, Arthur is associated with various items of household furniture. The earliest of these is Saint Carannog's mystical floating altar in that saint's 12th century Vita; in the story Arthur has found the altar and attempts unsuccessfully to use it for a table, and returns it to Carannog in exchange for the saint ridding the land of a meddlesome dragon.^[7] Arthur's household furniture figures into local topographical folklore throughout Britain as early as the early 12th century, with various landmarks being named "Arthur's Seat", "Arthur's Oven," and "Arthur's Bed-chamber."^[8] A henge at Eamont Bridge near Penrith, Cumbria is known as "King Arthur's Round Table".^[9] The still-visible Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon has been associated with the Round Table^[10] and has been suggested as a possible source for the legend.^[11]

In 2010, following archaeological discoveries at the Roman ruins in Chester, some writers suggested that the Chester Roman Amphitheatre was the true prototype of the Round Table^[12] but English Heritage, acting as consultants to a History Channel documentary in which the claim was made, declared that there was no archaeological basis to the story.^[13]

Later development[link]

Sir Galahad takes the "Siege Perilous"

The Round Table takes on new dimensions in the romances of the late 12th and early 13th century, where it becomes a symbol of the famed order of chivalry which flourishes under Arthur. In Robert de Boron's Merlin, written around the 1190s, the wizard Merlin creates the Round Table in imitation of the table of the Last Supper and of Joseph of Arimathea's Holy Grail table. This table, here made for Arthur's father Uther Pendragon rather than Arthur himself, has twelve seats and one empty place to mark the betrayal of Judas. This seat must remain empty until the coming of the knight who will achieve the Grail. The Didot Perceval, a prose continuation of Robert's work, takes up the story, and the knight Percival sits in the seat and initiates the Grail quest.^[1]

The prose cycles of the 13th century, the Lancelot-Grail cycle and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, further adapt the chivalric attributes of the Round Table. Here it is the perfect knight Galahad, rather than Percival, who assumes the empty seat, now called the Siege Perilous. Galahad's arrival marks the start of the Grail quest as well as the end of the Arthurian era.^[1] In these works the Round Table is kept by King Leodegrance of Cameliard after Uther's death; Arthur inherits it when he marries Leodegrance's daughter Guinevere. Other versions treat the Round Table differently, for instance Italian Arthurian works often distinguish between the "Old Table" of Uther's time and Arthur's "New Table."^[14]

Round Table tournaments[link]

Winchester Round Table

During the Middle Ages, festivals called Round Tables were celebrated throughout Europe in imitation of Arthur's court. These events featured jousting, dancing, and feasting, and in some cases attending knights assumed the identities of Arthur's knights.^[15] The earliest of these was held in Cyprus in 1223 to celebrate a knighting. Round Tables were popular in various European countries through the rest of the Middle Ages and were at times very elaborate; René of Anjou even erected an Arthurian castle for his 1446 Round Table.^[15] On 19 December 1566, in Stirling Castle, Mary Queen of Scots gave a feast with 30 guests at an imagined replica of Arthur's round table during the masque-themed celebrations of the baptism of the future James VI.^[16][17]

Winchester Round Table[link]

The artifact known as the "Winchester Round Table," a large tabletop hanging in Winchester Castle bearing the names of various knights of Arthur's court, was probably created for a Round Table tournament.^[18] The current paintwork is late; it was done by order of Henry VIII of England for Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's 1522 state visit, and depicts Henry himself sitting in Arthur's seat above a Tudor rose. The table itself is considerably older; dendrochronology calculates the date of construction to 1250–1280—during the reign of Edward I—using timber from store felled over a period of years.^[19] Edward was an Arthurian enthusiast who attended at least five Round Tables and hosted one himself in 1299, which may have been the occasion for the creation of the Winchester Round Table.^[18] Martin Biddle, from an examination of Edward's financial accounts, links it instead with a tournament Edward held near Winchester on April 20, 1290, to mark the betrothal of one of his daughters.^[20]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bromwich, Rachel (2006). Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain. University Of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1386-8.
• Geoffrey of Monmouth; Thorpe, Lewis (1988). The History of the Kings of Britain. New York: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-044170-0.
• Lacy, Norris J. (Ed.) (1991). The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-4377-4.
• Loomis, Roger S. (1959). "Arthurian Influence on Sport and Spectacle". Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages. Oxford.
• Padel, O. J. (2000). Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature. University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-7689-1.
• Rouse, Robert; and Cory Rushton (2005). The Medieval Quest for Arthur. Tempus, Stroud. ISBN 0-7524-3343-1.
• Thomas, Charles (1953). "Folklore from a Northern Henge Monument". Folklore 64 (3): 427–429. JSTOR 1256826. 

External links[link]

• Timeless Myths - Knights of the Round Table
• The 14th Century Round Table in Winchester, Hampshire. UK