The Nobel Prizes will be given away to at least six individuals in the coming days. Svante Paabo won this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for his discoveries on human evolution. All the Nobel Prizes will be announced by October 10 this year, the official schedule says.
The prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were established by the will of Alfred Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite. The first awards were handed out in 1901, five years after Nobel’s death.
Also Read: Nobel Prize 2022: Medicine first, economics at the end; full schedule
Here are the 3 lesser-known facts about the Nobel Prizes:
The judge’s discussions are kept a secret
The Nobel statutes prohibit the judges from discussing their deliberations for 50 years. So it’s probably going to be a while before we know for sure how judges made their picks for 2022 and who was on their shortlists.
The judges try hard to avoid dropping hints about the winners before the announcements, but sometimes word gets out, news agency Associated Press reported.
Thousands of people hold the power to nominate
Thousands of individuals around the world have the power to nominate other people for the Nobel Prize. They include university professors, lawmakers, previous Nobel laureates and the committee members themselves.
Although the nominations are kept secret for 50 years, those who submit them sometimes announce their suggestions publicly, particularly for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Also Read: Svante Paabo awarded 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Peace Prize is announced in Norway, not Sweden
The Nobel Peace Prize is presented in Norway while the other awards are handed out in Sweden. That’s how Alfred Nobel wanted it.
His exact reasons are unclear but during his lifetime Sweden and Norway were joined in a union, which was dissolved in 1905. Sometimes relations have been tense between the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, which manages the prize money, and the fiercely independent peace prize committee in Oslo.