Science & Technology
Nobel Prizes 2019
- 15 Oct 2019
- 3 min read
The Nobel Foundation has declared the complete list of winners for 2019.
Field | Winners | Work Recognized |
Physics | James Peebles | Theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology |
Michel Mayor |
Discovery of an exoplanet “ 51 Pegasi b” orbiting a solar-type star. | |
Chemistry | John B Goodenough, M Stanley Whittingham, Akira Yoshino |
Development of lithium-ion batteries. |
Physiology/ Medicine | William G. Kaelin Jr, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, Gregg L. Semenza |
For discoveries on how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability |
Economic Sciences | Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer |
For the experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. |
Literature | Peter Handke - 2019 |
For an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience. |
Olga Tokarczuk - 2018 | For a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life. | |
Peace | Abiy Ahmed Ali (Prime Minister of Ethiopia) |
For an initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea. |
About Nobel Prizes
- The will of the Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel established the five Nobel prizes in 1895.
- The Nobel Prizes are a set of recognition given to fields of Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine by The Nobel Foundation.
- The Nobel Foundation is a private institution established in 1900, has ultimate responsibility for fulfilling the intentions in Alfred Nobel’s will.
- The prizes in Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine were first awarded in 1901.
Who selects the Nobel Laureates?
- In his last will and testament, Alfred Nobel specifically designated the institutions responsible for the prizes he wished to be established:
- The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry,
- Karolinska Institutet for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,
- The Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and
- A Committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) for the Nobel Peace Prize.
- In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
- The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was given the task to select the Laureates in Economic Sciences starting in 1969.
- While the five Nobel Prizes are based on a fund set up from the wealth bequeathed by Alfred Nobel, the Economic Prize is based on a donation received by the Nobel Foundation in 1968 from Sveriges Riksbank.