Nobel laureates congregated in the Swedish capital Stockholm on Saturday for the first fully in-person award ceremonies complete with a formal banquet since the COVID-19 pandemic that curtailed events in the past two years.
The ceremony starts at 1500 GMT and features glamorous formal wear, with the men in white ties and tails and women in flowing gowns and elegant hairdos. Ceremonies in 2020 and 2021 were scaled back and there was no banquet.
Many laureates from 2020 and 2021 will be attending this year as well as the 2022 winners – last year for example there was a ceremony but no laureates attended as they received their medals in their home countries.
Throughout this week the laureates have taken part in activities ranging from panel discussions to news conferences, finding time to visit schools and give lectures and attending a lights show.
“Given the challenges the world faces, it feels especially important to highlight Alfred Nobel’s idea of the international community,” said Vidar Helgesen, executive director of the Nobel Foundation.
Five of the six Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm every year after a nomination process that is kept secret for the next 50 years. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo where separate festivities are held.
Dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel left around 31 million crowns – about 1.8 billion crowns ($174.2 million) in today’s money according to the Foundation – to fund prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace awarded annually since 1901.
Among the laureates for 2022 is a former chairman of U.S. Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, who won the Nobel Economics Prize along with economists Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig for research on how propping up failing banks can stave off an even deeper economic crisis.
The economics prize is a later addition to the original line-up, instituted by the Swedish central bank.
After the ceremony, there is a banquet in City Hall, attended by Sweden’s royal family, government officials and dignitaries and business leaders from different countries.
Swedish political party leaders are always invited to the banquet. However, Jimmie Akesson, leader of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, which became the country’s second biggest party in an election in September election, was left off the guest list, with his party not deemed to be in keeping with the prizes’ tenets.
The Nobel Foundation has also snubbed the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Jailed Belarusian activist Ales Byalyatski, Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.
($1 = 10.3329 Swedish crowns)
Source: Reuters
Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, and philanthropist who is best known for the creation of the Nobel Prize. He was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1833 and grew up in a family of engineers and inventors. His father, Immanuel Nobel, was an industrialist who owned a workshop that manufactured and sold explosives.
Nobel was a brilliant and curious mind who was fascinated by the potential of explosives. He studied chemistry and engineering in Sweden and abroad, and eventually took over his father’s workshop. He worked tirelessly to improve the quality and safety of explosives, and his innovations revolutionized the mining and construction industries.
One of Nobel’s most famous inventions was dynamite, a powerful and stable explosive that was safer and easier to use than other explosives of the time. He also developed a number of other explosives, including gelignite and ballistite, which were used in warfare and other applications.
Despite his success as an inventor and industrialist, Nobel was a deeply compassionate and philanthropic man. He was deeply affected by the suffering caused by war, and he wanted to use his wealth to promote peace and knowledge. In his will, Nobel specified that the majority of his fortune should be used to create a series of prizes to be awarded annually to individuals who had made significant contributions in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.
The Nobel Prize, which was first awarded in 1901, has become one of the most prestigious awards in the world. They are awarded by a committee of experts appointed by the Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the winners receive a gold medal, a diploma, and a cash prize.
Alfred Nobel died in 1896, but his legacy lives on through the Nobel Prizes, which continue to recognize and celebrate the achievements of some of the greatest minds in the world. He remains an inspiration for all those who seek to use their wealth and talent to make the world a better place.
Recent Comments