Alfred Nobel and His Prizes: From Dynamite to DNA

15 Pages·2017·0.62 MB·English

Open Access Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal

NOBEL PRIZE RETROSPECTIVE AFTER 115 YEARS

Alfred Nobel and His Prizes: From
Dynamite to DNA
Marshall A. Lichtman, M.D.*
Department of Medicine and the James P. Wilmot Cancer Institute, University of Rochester Medical
Center, Rochester, NY, USA

ABSTRACT
Alfred Nobel was one of the most successful chemists, inventors, entrepreneurs, and businessmen of the
late nineteenth century. In a decision later in life, he rewrote his will to leave virtually all his fortune to
establish prizes for persons of any nationality who made the most compelling achievement for the benefit of
mankind in the fields of chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace among nations.
The prizes were first awarded in 1901, five years after his death. In considering his choice of prizes, it may
be pertinent that he used the principles of chemistry and physics in his inventions and he had a lifelong
devotion to science, he suffered and died from severe coronary and cerebral atherosclerosis, and he was a
bibliophile, an author, and mingled with the literati of Paris. His interest in harmony among nations may
have derived from the effects of the applications of his inventions in warfare (“merchant of death”) and his
friendship with a leader in the movement to bring peace to nations of Europe. After some controversy,
including Nobel’s citizenship, the mechanisms to choose the laureates and make four of the awards were
developed by a foundation established in Stockholm; the choice of the laureate for promoting harmony
among nations was assigned to the Norwegian Storting, another controversy. The Nobel Prizes after 115
years remain the most prestigious of awards. This review describes the man, his foundation, and the prizes
with a special commentary on the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
KEY WORDS: Alfred Nobel, Nobel Foundation, Nobel Prizes, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

INTRODUCTION
Since the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, world’s scientific, literary, and political communi-
the recipients have captured the interest of the ties. In December, the prize winners in the cate-

Abbreviations: DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid; RNA, ribonucleic acid.
Citation: Lichtman MA. Alfred Nobel and His Prizes: From Dynamite to DNA. Rambam Maimonides Med J 2017;8
(3):e0035. Review. doi:10.5041/RMMJ.10311
Copyright: © 2017 Marshall A. Lichtman. This is an open-access article. All its content, except where otherwise noted, is
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Acknowledgement: Susan M. Daley prepared the figures and tables for publication.
Conflict of interest: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.
* E-mail: [email protected]

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Alfred Nobel and His Prizes

gories of chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, laureates who merely passed through its ivied halls;
and literature are honored at a ceremony in other institutions’ claims are less fastidious.
Stockholm where they receive their diploma and
Through 2016, 115 years since the initiation of
medal, and a document indicating the value of their
the prizes, the Nobel Foundation’s list of laureate
share of that year’s monetary award and deliver a
affiliations had only one of 911 laureates shown as
lecture describing the significance of the work
affiliated with the University of Rochester as the
leading to the prize. After the awards ceremony they
research site of his or her work leading to the prize.
participate in a lavish banquet hosted by the
That person was George Whipple who shared the
Swedish royal family. Simultaneously, the Peace
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934, a
Prize is awarded by the Royal Norwegian Academy
matter to be discussed later in this essay. Another
in Oslo, according to the directives of Alfred
laureate, Henrik Carl Peter Dam, was at the time of
Bernhard Nobel’s will.
the receipt of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medi-
No other prize for contributions to humankind cine a senior associate in biochemistry at the Uni-
holds the same prestige.1,2 The recipients will be versity of Rochester.4 He shared the prize in 1943
hailed in their institutes, communities, and coun- with the American biochemist Edward Adelbert
tries. The science laureates will attract the most Doisy for the discovery of vitamin K. This vitamin is
promising students to their laboratories. The required for the complete formation of several pro-
laureates will be honored by political leaders. Their teins that participate in normal blood coagulation.
signatures on petitions and newspaper advertise- The work was done at the University of Copenhagen
ments supporting political and social policy posi- by Dam and his wife. He left Denmark on a lecture
tions will be given weighty consideration. The tour in 1940 to the United States and Canada, just
prestige of the prize results in the laureates being after the Nazis occupied Denmark, and he gained
claimed as products of all past institutions with sanctuary in Rochester at the invitation of Dean
which they were affiliated, even if the association Whipple. The award was made in New York City on
had little or nothing to do with the achievements December 10, 1943 by the Swedish Minister,
that led to the prize. Wollmar F. Bostroem, with King Gustav V sending
his congratulations; the wartime conditions pre-
The more prestigious the institution the more
vented travel to Stockholm.
fastidious is their claim to a Nobel Laureate’s
achievement. Harvard, for example, does not make a
THE PRIZES
claim regarding its alumni who subsequently
received a Nobel Prize, only those who did the work The fund that supports the prizes was derived from
for which the prize was awarded at Harvard. In virtually all of Alfred Nobel’s assets and the sale of
contrast, the University of Rochester named a large, all properties and business holdings following his
newly built medical research building for Arthur death from a cerebral hemorrhage in San Remo,
Kornberg in 1999, who shared the Nobel Prize in Italy on December 10, 1896 at the age of 63 years.5–9
Physiology or Medicine with Severo Ochoa in 1959 He also had coronary artery disease and angina
for their description of the biological synthesis of pectoris for which he was treated with nitroglycerin,
ribonucleic and deoxyribonucleic acid. Kornberg the essential chemical in the explosive he developed.
received his MD degree at the University of In a letter to a friend he commented on this unusual
Rochester in 1941. Neither the ideas nor the work coincidence: “Isn’t it the irony of fate that I have
that led to the prize were even conceivable at that been prescribed nitroglycerin, to be taken internally!
time, given the limited state of knowledge of They call it Trinitrin, so as not to scare the chemist
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid and the public.”10
(RNA), and nucleotide biosynthesis. He was a
He was a bachelor. Thus, a small fraction of his
medical student. Moreover, Kornberg harbored
estate’s financial assets was divided among nieces
longstanding ill-will about his failure to be selected
and nephews, friends, and servants. In a short
by Dean George Hoyt Whipple for a year-out
statement at the end of his instructions pertaining to
research fellowship between the second and third
family and friends, he requested that,
year of medical school, which Kornberg attributed to
his being Jewish, as detailed in his autobiography, … the remaining realizable estate shall be
For the love of enzymes: The odyssey of a dealt with in the following way: the capital,
biochemist.3 In any case, Harvard can be aloof about invested in safe securities by my executors,

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Alfred Nobel and His Prizes

shall constitute a fund, the interest of which who had died in 1888 in Cannes. Alfred was living in
shall be annually distributed in the form of Paris. The Parisian newspaper mistook Ludvig for
prizes to those who, during the preceding Alfred and reported Alfred’s supposed death with
year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit the headline, “Le marchand de la morte est mort”
on mankind. The said interest shall be (“The merchant of death is dead”). The obituary and
divided into five equal parts, which shall be the media coverage he received during his career
apportioned as follows: one part to the highlighted the manufacturing of explosive chemi-
person who shall have made the most im- cals and devices and the development of armaments.
portant discovery or invention in the field of He was portrayed as an arms merchant. The jour-
physics; one part to the person who shall nalist who mistakenly published his obituary stated
have made the most important chemical that Nobel “… became rich by finding ways to kill
discovery or improvement; one part to the more people faster than ever before.”5
person who shall have made the most
Nobel was an accomplished chemist, inventor,
important discovery within the domain of
entrepreneur, and industrialist. He became one of
physiology or medicine; one part to the
the most notable and wealthy men of the late nine-
person who shall have produced in the field
teenth century (Figure 1). He was born in Stockholm
of literature the most outstanding work of an
in 1833. The Nobels were descended from a
idealistic tendency; and one part to the
seventeenth-century Swedish physician, scientist,
person who shall have done the most or best
and scholar, Olof Rudbeck the Elder, who became
work for fraternity between nations, for the
the Rector of the University of Uppsala.12 Rudbeck’s
abolition or reducing of standing armies and
daughter married Peter Olai Nobelius. It was from
for the holding and promotion of peace
this marriage that the Nobel family descended.
congresses. [The last-mentioned became
(Nobel is the shortened form of Nobelius, a
known as the Nobel Prize for Peace.] The
Latinized habitational name from the village of
prizes for physics and chemistry shall be
Nöbbelöv.)
awarded by the Swedish Academy of
Sciences; that for physiological or medical
work by the Caroline Institute in Stockholm;
that for literature by the Royal Swedish
Academy in Stockholm, and that for cham-
pions of peace by a committee of five persons
to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is
my express wish that in awarding the prizes
no consideration whatsoever shall be given to
the nationality of the candidates …11
In 1968, as an act commemorating the 300th
anniversary of the founding of the Bank of Sweden,
a sixth prize was established, designated officially as
“The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in
memory of Alfred Nobel.” Although there was
Figure 1. Portrait of Alfred Nobel.
consternation about this intrusion on Nobel’s
intentions, as described in his will, the prize has
Immanuel Nobel, Alfred Nobel’s father, planned
come to be accepted functionally by Sweden and the
to build a canal at Suez, resulting in his interest in
world as a sixth Nobel Prize. It was first awarded in
explosives. The methods for such enormous building
1969, and, through 2016, 48 awards to 78 laureates
projects were those used by the Romans. These
have been made.
projects would benefit from explosives that were
capable of displacing large amounts of rock. Also,
THE MAN
the Russian military was intrigued by his experi-
Nobel’s philanthropic interests may have crystal- ments with explosives and requested that he develop
lized after reading his own obituary in a Paris news- two systems that had military applications: land
paper. Several newspapers in Paris erroneously mines to defend army bases or towns, and sea mines
reported his death, when it was his brother, Ludvig, to protect harbors and docked ships. The Russian

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Alfred Nobel and His Prizes

army used his products, and he gained economic The territory around Baku near the Caucasus
security and established his home in St Petersburg. Mountains in what is now Azerbaidzhan had been
known as the region of eternal fire. Gas escaping
At age 8 years, Alfred Nobel moved to St from superficial underground oil deposits ignited
Petersburg with his parents and brothers. He was spontaneously, and this “eternal flame” was the
tutored in the sciences and the humanities there, but basis for the Zoroaster religion. The industry devel-
never matriculated in a school or received a degree. oping in Russia near Baku used innovations in oil
Alfred’s diverse interests and ingenuity were so drilling techniques developed in the United States.
impressive that at age 17 years his father sent him to
France, Germany, Italy, and the United States, In 1873, Robert Nobel, Alfred’s brother, traveled
studying chemistry and conferring with chemists to Baku’s harbor with a mission to buy walnut wood
and industrialists to gain technical information that for rifle butts, a task given to him by his brother
would enhance their businesses.5–7 He had devel- Ludvig, who was in charge of the Nobel’s armament
oped a fluency in French, German, Italian, English, business in Russia. Robert, perceiving the potential
of the new oil industry developing in Baku, used the
Swedish, and Russian. Alfred returned to St Peters-
burg in 1852, at the age of 19. The Nobel enterprise money to buy a small oil field. Ultimately, Ludvig and
grew because of the demand for munitions and Robert built an enormous oil company (Branobel)
armaments to support Russia’s participation in the that produced and distributed over half the kerosene
Crimean War, from 1853 to 1856. in the Russian Empire. Ludvig and Robert had the
first oil tanker built, commissioned the Zoroaster,
Thereafter, the Nobels, collaborating with the which plied the Caspian Sea (Figure 2).14,15 They also
Rothschilds, used Russian oil to end Standard Oil’s developed railroad oil tanker cars for transport over
and John D. Rockefeller’s monopoly on the world’s land and built one of the earliest oil pipelines that
oil supply.13 Standard Oil had early success as a facilitated oil distribution. Ludvig Nobel was com-
result of the conversion of crude oil to kerosene, the pared to Rockefeller, and by the beginning of the
flammable that replaced whale oil for lamps, the twentieth century Russian oil output exceeded that
principal form of lighting at the time. The Nobel and of the United States. A portion of Alfred Nobel’s
Rothschild families’ development of Russian oil wealth came from the family’s oil profits, principally
intruded on Standard Oil’s control of world markets. the result of Ludvig’s and Robert’s efforts, espe-

Figure 2. The First Oil Tanker, the Zoroaster, Built in 1878.
The hull was built with steel, which became available in the last half of the nineteenth century as a result of Henry
Bessemer’s development of a method to produce large quantities of steel from pig iron. The ship contained iron
tanks to hold the oil. This innovation was the brainchild of Ludvig and Robert Nobel. They developed an oil pipeline
to carry the oil from its source to the ship’s tanks. They developed a system of ballast to stabilize the ship. They
subsequently built additional tankers to carry oil across the Caspian Sea and up the Volga and Don rivers. The ships,
built in Sweden, could reach the Caspian Sea by sailing the Baltic Sea, the canals, and smaller rivers leading to the
Volga river, which entered the Caspian Sea, a route suitable for tanker travel during high water levels after the
winter thaw. These tankers pioneered the method of carrying liquid cargo by ship.

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Alfred Nobel and His Prizes

cially the technical and entrepreneurial skill of solid fuel propellant for rockets in the mid-twentieth
Ludvig. century. He was able to secure a share of the profits
from virtually every factory manufacturing explo-
In 1863, Alfred returned to Sweden to assist his
sives anywhere in the world.
father in the study of nitroglycerin, a volatile solu-
tion of nitric and sulfuric acid and gelatin, In 1870, Nobel moved his headquarters and
discovered in 1847 by Ascanio Sobrero, an Italian personal laboratory to Paris where he devoted his
chemist, but not developed into an explosive. The time to finding investment partners, plant locations,
material was exquisitely sensitive to jarring, and it and managers for new factories, patent protection,
could not be handled, manufactured, or transported and other business matters. In 1891 the business
safely. Indeed, Alfred’s younger brother, Emil Oskar climate in France deteriorated, and Alfred moved
Nobel, and a laboratory technician were killed in an his activities to San Remo, Italy where he worked
accidental explosion in a Nobel laboratory. Within a until his death in 1896.
year, Alfred produced a detonator for a large
Nobel attached no consequence to personal
quantity of nitroglycerin or other explosive sub-
honors. He trivialized his own receipt of the French
stance too dangerous for handlers to explode
Order, an irony in view of his proposal to use prizes
directly. Two years later, in 1865, he patented the
to recognize and, presumably, to promote out-
mercury fulminate detonator. This percussion
standing achievement. He was devoted to literature
detonator was used to control the explosion of a
and considered leaving the family businesses for a
large explosive mass, becoming the basis for most
career as a writer.16 By the time he left Paris for San
military and civilian blasting applications; it became
Remo, his library contained over 1,500 volumes,
known as the “Nobel lighter.”
many in their original languages. His collection was
Alfred found that kieselguhr (diatomaceous eclectic but was primarily fiction, including the
earth), a clay-like material composed principally of works of nineteenth-century authors, and classical
porous silica, absorbed nitroglycerin nearly to works, including the writings of Shakespeare and
dryness (a thick paste) and made it insensitive to works on philosophy, religion, history, and science.
vibration, converting an unmanageable and danger- He had a large collection of personal letters. He
ous material to one that could be handled with much wrote numerous poems, the drafts of several novels,
less risk. The combination of nitroglycerin and and the script of a play. In Paris he interacted with
diatomaceous earth, which Alfred named “Dyna- the literati and visited literary salons where he met
mite,” after the Greek word for power, “dunamis,” contemporary writers and had a personal relation-
was one of his greatest technical achievements. ship with Victor Hugo, for whom he had particular
Dynamite could also be shaped into cylinders that admiration.
could be inserted in mining holes to expose deposits.
He never married; however, he did have a
Dynamite allowed construction projects to be
romance with Sofie Hess, an Austrian woman who
carried out on a scale previously not possible. Blast-
was 23 years younger than he and whom he met in a
ing tunnels through mountains for a railway or a
shop in 1876 when he was 43. Another Austrian
road, digging canals, and clearing navigation bar-
woman, Bertha Kinsky, became his confidant. She
riers from major rivers were some of the civilian
had responded to an advertisement in an Austrian
applications of the new explosive. The relevant
newspaper placed by Nobel for a secretary and
patents and licenses resulted in much of the large
housekeeper. Bertha, then 33, traveled to Paris to be
fortune that later formed the basis for the estab-
interviewed and was offered and accepted the
lishment of the Nobel Prizes.
position. Nobel became impressed with her intellect
Alfred held 355 patents for inventions in the field and interest in world affairs. Bertha soon left and
of industrial chemistry. He opened factories devoted married the son of a couple for whom she had
to the manufacture of dynamite and, subsequently, worked previously and became the Baroness von
its derivatives—blasting gelatin in 1875, more stable Suttner. She and Nobel interacted again in 1887
and powerful than dynamite, and, in 1887, ballistite when she became involved in efforts to bring peace
composed of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, a to the countries of Europe. She published two im-
substitute for black gun powder, the last-mentioned portant books. The first, Die Waffen nieder, later
developed by the Chinese nearly a thousand years published in English under the title Lay down your
earlier. A variant of this explosive was used as a arms, was an influential work. She probably contrib-

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Alfred Nobel and His Prizes

uted to Nobel’s decision to establish a prize for the of his fortune and Foundation. Nobel had left Swe-
promotion of harmony among countries. She was den as a child and was not considered a citizen of
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 for her that country nor, indeed, any other. Because of the
efforts to encourage peaceful relations among the international character of his businesses, it was not
nations of Europe. In an early version of his will, clear that Swedish courts had the jurisdiction to
Nobel restricted the award of the Peace Prize to a oversee liquidation of his properties and establish
period of 30 years. It was his opinion that if the Foundation. Disagreements arose with the
harmony among nations was not achieved in that French over which country should receive his estate.
time-frame, the world could not be saved from con- The determination of which country’s courts should
tinued irrational, violent, and destructive relation- adjudicate Nobel’s will and estate rested on an
ships. His prediction was prescient. arcane French custom. According to French prac-
tice, a man’s residence was the place he kept his
carriage horses. Nobel had moved his carriage
THE NOBEL FOUNDATION
horses to Sweden before his death. He was declared,
In 1895, a year before his death, Nobel’s final will ultimately, a legal resident of Sweden.
directed the establishment of the Nobel Foundation
Two of the institutions entrusted with selecting
and a mechanism to select and fund the five Nobel
recipients of the scientific prizes, the Royal Swedish
Prizes. It took five years to make his ideas opera-
Academy of Sciences and the Royal Caroline
tional since he had no discussions about who would
Institute (Karolinska Institutet), initially impeded
execute these plans and the specific mechanisms
the plan when they requested that a portion of the
that would be used to select awardees. Nobel’s
bequest be used to set up research institutes and to
decision that Norway, not Sweden, award the Nobel
cover their expenses in selecting awardees.17 These
Peace Prize was offensive to the Swedes, especially
requirements were met, allowing the implementa-
the royal family. Norway was seeking independence
tion of the Prizes.
from Sweden, and their relationship was adver-
sarial. The Swedish King interpreted Nobel’s will as After all property was liquidated and debts paid,
an expression of support for Norway’s break from the amount available for establishment of the Nobel
Sweden, and there was consideration of rejecting the Prizes was more than 31 million kronar, equivalent
will’s instructions to establish the Foundation. to about $9 million United States dollars at the time
or nearly $300 million in today’s dollars based on
The Nobel Foundation was established to man-
inflation, but would be considerably greater through
age the funds, supervise the selection of awardees,
investments. In accordance with the will, the funds
and organize the award of the prizes. Ragnar
were initially invested in “safe” securities, Swedish
Sohlman, an engineer working in Nobel’s Karlskoga
government bonds. This requirement retarded
laboratory, and the Swedish industrialist Rudolph
growth of the fund until its repeal in 1953.
Lilljequist were the executors of his will. The po-
tential Nobel heirs, notably two nephews, sons of his On June 29, 1900, the Nobel Foundation was
brothers, Robert and Ludvig, initially were dis- approved by King Oscar II and his cabinet. The
tressed to find that only a very small fraction of the Board of Directors of the Foundation consisted of
estate was to be divided between them and that they five members charged with managing the invest-
were not executors; they considered contesting the ments and generating income for the prizes. The
will. Another challenge came from Sofie Hess, who chairman of the Board was appointed by the Swe-
maintained that she was Alfred’s common-law wife dish King or Queen, and the remaining four mem-
and deserved inclusion in his bequest. The objec- bers were designated by the institutions charged
tions of the heirs were satisfied when one of the with selecting awardees.
nephews reconsidered and facilitated discussions
Initially, the Nobel Foundation was required to
between the executors and the family. This nephew
pay taxes on its earnings. This requirement mark-
also helped resolve disputes having to do with the
edly reduced the net yearly income available for the
Russian oil field holdings, permitting an agreement
prizes until 1946 when the Foundation was granted
that was acceptable to all segments of the Nobel
a permanent tax exemption. The Foundation pub-
family. Sofie Hess was given a lifetime allowance.
lished works about Alfred Nobel and the prizes,
Problematic, initially, was the question of Alfred among them “Les Prix Nobel,” an annual series that
Nobel’s citizenship and the country to be the home includes biographies of the laureates and their

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Alfred Nobel and His Prizes

Nobel lectures. These are now accessible on Nobel nominations are sent to members of the Institu-
Foundation sites on the internet. It also publishes tions, professors at major Swedish and foreign uni-
fact sheets giving the demographics of the prize win- versities and research organizations, and previous
ners by gender, age, country of origin, and other winners of the Nobel Prize. The nominations by
variables, also accessible on the internet. those contacted must be made by the end of January
in the year the award is to be made. Numerous
The Foundation also provides funds for the
requests for nominations are made, and these result
expenses of the institutions and committees making
in many candidates for each prize each year. Self-
selections for the awards, arranges travel for and
nominations are not accepted. The committees have
organizes the yearly award ceremony, and hosts
the challenge of reducing a long list of qualified
scientific symposia. In accordance with the operat-
candidates to one, two, or, at most, three recipients
ing statutes, separate committees were set up by the
for each prize. Evaluating the candidates and their
Swedish Academy of Science to select awardees for
accomplishments runs from February until the fol-
the prize in physics and in chemistry and by the
lowing September. Outside experts are consulted for
Royal Caroline Institute to make the selection for
advice on the importance of candidates’ achieve-
the prize in physiology or medicine (Table 1). The
ments. In the committees’ deliberations, Nobel’s
Swedish Academy was selected to oversee the
stipulation that the discovery for which the awards
selection of the prize winner for literature “… of an
are given shall have conferred the greatest benefit
idealistic tendency.” Apparently, translation from
on mankind is considered paramount. The recom-
the Swedish leaves some ambiguity in the interpre-
mendations of the committees are submitted to their
tation of “idealistic.” The literal interpretation of his
institutions for approval. After approval by the
instructions may have led to the omission of writers
institutions, the candidate for each prize is notified
of singular note, such as Leo Tolstoy, and the selec-
and announced to the public in October, the month
tion of authors who have passed into obscurity. Two
of Nobel’s birth.
Nobel Laureates in Literature refused their award:
Boris Pasternak, prevented by the Soviet Union from
The announcement of the recipients of the Nobel
accepting it, and Jean-Paul Sartre, who did not
prizes in October receives more attention from the
accept awards as a matter of principle. The Nobel
worldwide media than the formal award ceremony
Foundation still recognizes awardees as Nobel Prize
in the Stockholm Concert Hall on December 10, the
winners in their records whether they accept the
anniversary of Nobel’s death. The ceremony is
prize or not.
presided over by the King and Queen and is attend-
The committees charged with selecting Nobel ed by an audience of as many as 1,000 persons.
Laureates developed a set of procedures. In Septem- Figure 3 depicts a Nobel ceremony with laureates
ber of the year preceding the awards, requests for and royal family in apposition. Figure 4 shows
Table 1. The Nobel Institutions Charged with Selecting the Laureates.
Year First
Prize Category Responsible Institute
Awarded
Chemistry 1901 Royal Swedish Academy of Science
Physics 1901 Royal Swedish Academy of Science
Physiology or Medicine 1901 Nobel Assembly at the Royal Caroline
Institute (Karolinska Institutet)*
Peace 1901 Norwegian Nobel Committee
Literature 1901 The Swedish Academy
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic 1969 Royal Swedish Academy of Science
Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel**
* Composed of 50 professors at the Institute.
** Although not established as a Prize through Nobel’s will and the Nobel Foundation, it has been accepted
functionally as “the Nobel Prize in Economics” and is often referred to in that way by the media.

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Alfred Nobel and His Prizes

E. Donnall Thomas receiving the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine in 1990 from His Majesty
Carl XVI Gustaf for his singular contribution to the
development of syngeneic and allogeneic hemato-
poietic stem cell transplantation, commonly referred
to as bone marrow transplantation.
The Nobel Prize consists of a gold medal, a
unique diploma fashioned by an artist citing the rea-
sons for the prize, and the monetary award. The
medal was struck originally from 23-carat gold.
Since 1980, the medal is struck in 18-carat green
gold with 24-carat gold plating. The medal given for

the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is shown
Figure 3. The Nobel Prize Ceremony in 2014 with the in Figure 5. The medal for each prize has a different
Laureates in the Front Row on the Left and the Royal image on the back relevant to the field of achieve-
Family on the Right. ment. The medal for economics has a different image
In this year, the Prize in Physiology or Medicine was of Nobel on its face and different text including the
shared by John O’Keefe, May-Britt Moser, and Edvard I. designation of the Bank of Sweden. The monetary
Moser “for their discoveries of cells that constitute a amount distributed with each prize varies and
positioning system in the brain.” Photograph taken by depends upon the income available from the Nobel
Niklas Elmehed. ©Nobel Media AB. Permission obtained
Foundation’s investments. In its first years, the
from the Nobel Foundation.
monetary award was equivalent to approximately 20
years’ salary for the average university professor. As

Figure 5. The Medal for the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine.
A portrait of Alfred Nobel is on one side of the medal
for each prize. The opposite face is uniquely relevant to
the discipline for which each prize is awarded. This
medal depicts the “genius of medicine” represented as
a woman seated with an open book on her lap. The
woman is filling a bowl of water from a spring to relieve

a suffering girl’s thirst. There is a Latin inscription
Figure 4. Edward Donnall Thomas Receives his Medal above: “Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes”
and Certificate for the 1990 Nobel Prize for (“Invention enhances life, which is beautified through
Physiology and Medicine from His Majesty Carl XVI art”) cited from Virgil’s Aeneid. The name of the
Gustaf, King of Sweden. laureate is engraved on the plate below the figure, in
Thomas received the prize for the development and this case Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the
clinical application of hematopoietic stem cell structure of DNA. The lower text “REG. UNIVERSITAS
transplantation. The prize was shared with Joseph MED. CHIR. CARO.” designates the Royal Caroline
Murray for his development of renal transplantation. Institute (Karolinska Institutet). Reproduced with
Image provided by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, permission of the Nobel Foundation. © ® The Nobel
Seattle, WA. Foundation.

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Alfred Nobel and His Prizes

such, it was a lifetime stipend to permit the awardee in 1966 at age 87 for work reported in 1910, 56 years
to continue his or her work without concern about earlier, on a transmissible (viral-induced) sarcoma
funding. By the 1990s each prize was valued at over in fowl. The Nobel Prize, especially in Physiology or
one million dollars. Medicine, has in recent decades more often been
given as an award shared by two or three scientists.
Following the awards, a lavish banquet is held in
The Nobel Foundation has agreed that no more than
the Blue Hall of the Stockholm City Hall. The size of
three awardees can share a single prize. Each
the banquet has grown ten-fold since 1901 to
awardee receives his or her medal and diploma;
accommodate over 1,000 persons who attend
however, the monetary award is divided equally
(Figure 6). The menus and dinner courses, the place
among them.
settings of flatware and china, and the logistics of
serving the large assembly of laureates, their family
THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR
and friends, the royal family, distinguished guests
including members of the selection committees and MEDICINE
the Nobel Foundation, diplomats, government
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, because
officials, and others have been the subject of various
of its relationship to human health and well-being,
writings, including a monograph.18 Table 2 provides
is the one that can be identified most readily by the
an example of the elegant menu, in this case for the
public as meeting Nobel’s intent to recognize the
dinner in December 2016.
accomplishment that is a benefit to mankind. The
The Nobel Foundation has allowed selection prize in physiology or medicine has not been award-
committees to deviate from Nobel’s stipulation that ed every year. For example, no prizes were offered
the achievement for which the prize is awarded be in for several years during the First and Second World
the preceding year. The committees have given War and in several years in which an appropriate
prizes for discoveries made decades before the year candidate was not identified. From 1901 to 2016,
of the award. Penicillin, for example, was discovered 107 awards have been made to 210 laureates, of
by Alexander Fleming in 1928 and developed into a whom 12 were women.20,21 Approximately one-third
drug by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain in the early of the prizes were given to one laureate, one-third
1940s, and the award was given to the three in 1945. was shared by two awardees, and one-third was
Peyton Rous, the oldest awardee, received the prize shared by three awardees. The Nobel Prize in Physi-
ology or Medicine has been awarded without inter-
ruption from 1943 to 2016.
Prior to World War II, Europe was the center of
scientific research, and European scientists received
most of the prizes for physiology or medicine. From
1901 to 1939, only three prizes for physiology or
medicine were won or shared by North Americans:
the first to Canadians, Frederick Banting and John
James Rickard Macleod, for the isolation and clini-
cal use of insulin in 1923; the second to Thomas
Hunt Morgan for his early studies of genetics and
inheritance, pioneering the use of Drosophila
melanogaster (the fruit fly) for genetic research;
Figure 6. The Nobel Prize Banquet in 2013. and the third in 1934, for the cure of pernicious
anemia, was shared by George Richards Minot,
In this year, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
was shared by James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman, William Parry Murphy, and George Hoyt Whipple,
and Thomas C. Südhof “for their discoveries of to be discussed subsequently in this paper.
machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport
Following the Second World War, with the
system in our cells.” Over 1,000 attendees are
massive disruption and destruction in Europe and
accommodated, requiring military precision in
the establishment of the National Science Founda-
delivering the multicourse dinner in a tasteful and
efficient manner. Photograph taken by Alex Ljungdahl. tion and the expansion of the National Institutes of
©Nobel Media AB. Permission obtained from the Nobel Health, the United States became the home of the
Foundation. most generously supported and largest biomedical

Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal 9 July 2017  Volume 8  Issue 3  e0035
Alfred Nobel and His Prizes

Table 2. The Nobel Banquet Menu, 2016.19
Charcoal baked langoustine and scallop,
served with nettles, ramson and pickled winter apples

Quail from Södermanland in black garlic and leek ash
with Jerusalem artichoke, preserved wild mushrooms
and jus of roasted chicken skin and mustard seed

Cloud of sudachi fruit, cloudberry sorbet, miso crumbs
and deep-fried rice paper

Wine
Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs 2006

Piccini Poggio Teo Chianti Classico 2010

Moncaro Tordiruta Passito 2007

Coffee & Nobel Museum Tea Blend
Grönstedts Extra Cognac

Facile Punsch

Stenkulla Brunn Mineral Water

Stadshusrestauranger in collaboration with Chef Sayan Isaksson
as well as Pastry Chef Daniel Roos

The menu is in French with an English and Swedish translation.
© ® The Nobel Foundation.
research establishment in the world. From 1943 Pavlov (the other Russian), and Karl Landsteiner are
until the current time, over 70% of the laureates in only a few of the laureates on the list, which is a
physiology or medicine have been either native or treasure trove of great European physicians of the
naturalized US citizens. late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
In the pre-World War II period, 42 of the 45 Following the Second World War, the awards
laureates in physiology or medicine held a medical began to focus on fundamental biochemical or
degree, and many practiced medicine. The Nobel molecular discoveries—including such areas as the
Prize in Physiology or Medicine reflected successes physical and chemical basis of nerve conduction, the
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in chemical basis of vision, investigations of tumor
conquering diseases caused by microbes and eluci- viruses, the genetic basis of atherosclerosis, the
dating major physiologic functions of the body. action of cell growth factors, the cellular origin of
Robert Koch, Paul Ehrlich, Élie Metchnikoff (one of cancer genes, the fundamentals of bacterial or viral
only two Russian, more specifically Ukrainian, lau- genetics, DNA replication in bacteria, the structure
reates in physiology or medicine), Jules Bordet, Ivan of DNA, the biosynthesis of DNA and RNA, pluri-

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