Winning the Nobel Prize is maybe the highest achievement you could accomplish in your field. First prizes were awarded in 1901, and they are still awarded every year, with the pause during World War II, until today.
You can talk about Nobel Prizes without mention Alfred Bernhard Nobel. He was a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, and businessman. He had numerous patents, but the most important was patenting an explosive using nitroglycerine – dynamite.
Nobel Prize Winners 1902
Emil Fischer (Chemistry), Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (Physics), Pieter Zeeman (Physics)
Sweden – 1962/12/10
The popular story exists that, after the death of his brother Ludvig, newspapers published that Alfred passed away, stating that he will leave behind him a dynamite – the way to kill more people than ever before. So, some claim that it was guilt that drove him to establish Nobel Prizes. Others still think it’s a myth.
Nobel Prize Winners 1908
Klas Pontus Arnoldson & Fredrik Bajer (Peace)
Norway – 1968/12/10
No matter which one is the truth, the fact is that in his last will Nobel donated most of his fortune to establish prizes which would be awarded yearly for the greatest achievements in five fields. The original Nobel Prizes were awarded in physical science, chemistry, medical science or physiology, literature. The fifth prize is a Nobel Peace Prize.
The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. The first laureates were: Wilhelm Rontgen (Physics), Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (Chemistry), Emil von Behring (Physiology or Medicine), Sully Prudhomme (Literature) and Henry Dunant & Frédéric Passy (Peace).
Nobel Prizes, 75th Anniversary
Emil von Behring (Germany, the first Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, 1901),
Rene Sully Prudhomme (France, the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901),
Wilhelm K. Röntgen (Germany, the first Nobel Prize for Physics, in 1901),
Jacobus H. van 't Hoff (Germany, the first Nobel Prize for Chemistry, in 1901
Uruguay – 1976/11/12
Since 1901, each year, on December 10 (the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death), Nobel Prizes are awarded.
Nobel Prize for Literature - German Winners
Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946), Nobel Prize 1912
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), Nobel Prize 1946
Thomas Mann (1875-1955) Nobel Prize Literature 1929
(West) Germany – 1978/02/16
Nobel prizes were cancelled due to World War II in 1940, 1941, and 1942. Also, not all 5 Nobel Prizes were awarded each year, although, after 1973, all Nobel Prizes, in all fields were awarded.
In 1969, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded for the first time to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen “for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes.”
Most Notable Nobel Laureates
It’s hard to say who was more or less important as a laureate, but I’ll try to mention maybe the most important and famous:
Nobel in Belgium - 10 Nobel Prizes
1st row - Jules Bordet (Physiology or Medicine, 1919), Corneille Heymans (Physiology or Medicine, 1938), Maurice Maeterlinck (Literature, 1911)
2nd row - Albert Claude and Christian De Duve (Physiology or Medicine, 1974), François Englert / Robert Brout (Physics, 2013)
3rd row - Ilya Prigogine (Chemistry, 1977)
4th row - Institut de Droit International / Gustave Rolin-Jacquemyns (Peace, 1904), Auguste Marie François Beernaert (Peace, 1909), Dominique Pire (Peace, 1958), Henri La Fontaine (Peace, 1913)
Belgium – 2016/10/24
Today we’ve mentioned some important facts related to Nobel Prizes, but we’ve also seen some very interesting stamps with Nobel Prize laureates.
