Nobel Prizes

By the terms of Alfred Nobel’s will the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry have been awarded by the Academy since 1901. The awarding ceremony takes place on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. Each prize can be shared by three laureates at the most. The Laureates are announced here and at Nobelprize.org every year in mid-October immediately after they have been chosen. Since 1969, the Academy also awards the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Memory of Alfred Nobel, which is presented at the menu Prize in Economic Sciences.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2012

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2012 to Serge Haroche, Collège de France and Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France, and David J. Wineland, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USA, "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems".

Press release

 

 

Announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2012

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2012 to Robert J. Lefkowitz, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA and Brian K. Kobilka, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA “for studies of G-protein–coupled receptors”.

Press release

 

 

 

 

Announcement of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012

Nobel Posters

Why have the Laureates received the world’s most prestigious prize? Posters explaining the prize contributions in physics , chemistry and economic sciences are produced annually in several languages and distributed to schools and scientific institutes in many countries. Free copies can be ordered from the Academy's reception desk by e-mail posters@kva.se, or phone +46 86739500.

Particle control in a quantum world
Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland have invented and developed methods for measuring and manipulating individual particles according
to the rules of quantum physics, in ways that were previously not thought possible. 

 

 

 

Cells and sensibility
Your body is a fine-tuned system in which billions of cells interact. Each cell has tiny receptors that enable it to sense its environment, so
it can adapt to new situations. Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka are awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for groundbreaking
discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family of such receptors: G-protein–coupled receptors.  

 

A Perfect Match
This year’s prize concerns a central economic problem: how to match different agents with each other as well as possible. For example,
students have to be matched with schools, and donors of human organs with patients in need of a transplant. How can such matching
be accomplished in an efficient way? What methods are beneficial to what groups? 

 

Nobel Lectures

In connection with the awarding ceremonies in December each year, the Nobel Prize and Economics laureates hold their prize lectures. Since 1999 the lectures available on the Internet at Nobelprize.org.

 

Nominating and awarding  

 The nomination and selection of the Nobel laureates is to a large extent handled by the Nobel Committees of the Academy. Each year the committees send invitations to thousands of scientists, members of academies and university professors in numerous countries, asking them to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prize for the coming year. Those who are competent to submit nominations are chosen in such a way that as many countries and universities as possible will be represented. Members of the Academy and former laureates are also authorised to nominate candidates.

 

The nominations received by each committee are then investigated with the help of specially appointed experts. When the committees have made their selection among the nominated candidates and have presented their recommendation to the Academy, a vote is taken for the final choice of laureates. The Academy's decisions are announced and published on the Academy’s and the Nobel Foundation’s web sites immediately after the vote in mid-October each year.