Rafaela Prifti/
Every October, Committees in Sweden and Norway name laureates in six categories including sciences, literature and economics, as well as peace work in recognition of an individual’s or organization’s contribution to humanity in a specific field. During the pandemic years the Nobel Committee made adjustments by holding some events digitally. The Oslo ceremony for the peace prize was smaller than in most years. In 2022, the organization said that the laureates will receive their Nobel Prize medals and diplomas at a Stockholm ceremony in December, where the winners from the previous two years will also be invited.
One prize is announced each day this week, beginning from the 3rd to 10th of October, in Stockholm and Oslo, and the event is streamed live on the official digital channels of the Nobel Prize.
These are the winners so far:
Physiology or Medicine – Dr. Svante Pääbo, a Swedish geneticist, was awarded this year’s prize for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution. The Committee recognized his work in retrieving genetic material from 40,000-year-old bones, thus producing a complete Neanderthal genome and initiating the field of ancient DNA studies.
Chemistry – Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless shared the award for chemistry for the development of click chemistry and bio-orthogonal chemistry. The three chemists have been working independently since 2000 to create functional molecules that have “led to a revolution in how chemists think about linking molecules together,” the Nobel Committee said.
Physics – The 2022 prize for Physics is shared by three men, Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger, for their work in quantum technology. Their experiments have “shaken the very foundation of how we interpret measurements,” the Nobel Committee for Physics said.
Nobel Prize in Literature was Awarded to French novelist Annie Ernaux. Her body of work which chronicles her life experience is particularly meaningful to many. “I shall carry out an ethnological study of myself,” she wrote in her 1997 memoir Shame. The Swedish Academy lauded “the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory.” Authors worldwide praised Annie Ernaux’s novels after ‘the exceptional writer” received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and even expressed admiration for her activism. Among them was Didier Eribon, the philosopher and sociologist, who said “I have such admiration for her, not just as a writer, but for her activism.” Ismail Kadare, nominated many times in the same category, and his wife, Helena, have reacted in the Albanian media to say that they do not know her and it is the first time they hear her name, but, add that “(Ernaux) has been waiting at the bottom of the (Nobel) list for 40 years.”
Peace Prize – The winners of the Nobel Peace Prize were Rights advocates in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. The three laureates are Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, Memorial, a human rights group in Russia, and the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, “who have become symbols of resistance and accountability at a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has set off the largest ground war in Europe since World War II.” “The Peace Prize laureates represent civil society in their home countries,” Ms. Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said in announcing the awards. “They have for many years promoted the right to criticize power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens.” The prize is an implicit rebuke to Putin’s violent crackdowns on dissidents and critics at home. Many observers noted the overlap of the announcement with Putin’s 70th birthday on Friday. Three laureates have emerged as some of the starkest challengers to the widespread misinformation and harmful myths disseminated by authoritarian leaders and fueled by globalization, digital connectedness and new methods of surveillance. There were 343 candidates for this year’s prize, including 251 people and 92 organizations. Last year, the Peace Prize was shared by two journalists, Maria Ressa and Dmitri A. Muratov, “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace,” the Nobel committee said. The committee praised the Center for Civil Liberties for taking a stand to “strengthen Ukrainian civil society and pressure the authorities to make Ukraine a full-fledged democracy.” Since the invasion began, the organization is engaged in identifying and documenting human rights violations said the Committee chair, adding that the group was “playing a pioneering role with a view to holding the guilty parties accountable for their crimes.” At a time when reverence for Stalin as a “effective manager” was on the rise in Russia, the human rights group Memorial led the effort to keep the spotlight focused on his crimes and on the hundreds of thousands of Russians who disappeared into his labor camps, never to be seen again. As news of the Nobel Prize recipients spread, pro-democracy leaders expressed their support on Twitter. President Emmanuel Macron of France said the prize had been awarded to “unfailing defenders of human rights in Europe.” describing them as “artisans of peace”. Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary General, congratulated the winners with a Tweeter post “The right to speak truth to power is fundamental to free and open societies.” Other political figures seized the moment to call for the release of all political prisoners. They urged Belarus’s authoritarian leader, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, to release Ales Bialiatski, the new Nobel laureate, so that he could collect his prize from Oslo.
The award for Economic Science will be announced on October 10th.
On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, giving the largest share of his fortune to a series of prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace – the Nobel Prizes.
947 laureates and 28 organizations have been awarded the Nobel Prize between 1901 and 2021. Of them, 89 are economic sciences laureates.
At the Nobel Prize award ceremonies on December 10, the Nobel Prize laureates receive three things: a Nobel Prize diploma, a Nobel Prize medal and a document confirming the Nobel Prize amount. Each Nobel Prize diploma is a unique work of art, created by foremost Swedish and Norwegian artists and calligraphers. The Nobel Prize medals are handmade with careful precision and in 18 carat recycled gold.
The Nobel Prize amount for 2022 is set at Swedish kronor (SEK) 10.0 million per full Nobel Prize.