The Nobel Prize was instituted under the will of the Swedish chemist, engineer, and inventor, Alfred Nobel in the year 1895. In accordance with his will, a 5 member Norwegian Nobel Committee appointed by the Norwegian Parliament selects the recipients.
The very first Nobel Prize award ceremony was held on 10 December 1901 at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music at Nybroviken, five years after the death of Alfred Nobel.
The first Nobel peace prize was presented at Storting, the parliament of Norway. Then the venue was shifted to the Norwegian Nobel Institute where it continued until 1946, then moved to the Oslo City Hall (1990–2019).
The 2020 prize will be awarded in the Atrium of the University of Oslo which was also a venue from 1947 to 1989.
List of First Nobel Prize Winners
First Recipients of Nobel Prizes in 1901 are as follows:| Branch | Recipient | Contribution |
|---|---|---|
| Physics | Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen | Discovery of X-rays (1895). |
| Chemistry | Jacobus Henricus Van't Hoff | Discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics & osmotic pressure in solutions. |
| Physiology/Medicine | Emil Adolf von Behring | For his work on Serum Therapy against Diphtheria & Tetanus. |
| Literature | Sully Prudhomme | For a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect. |
| Peace Prize | Jean Henry Dunant | For his humanitarian efforts to help wounded soldiers and create international understanding. For his lifelong work for international peace conferences, diplomacy and arbitration. |
In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Science to Award Nobel Prize in Economics.
- First recipient of Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences – Ragnar Frisch & Jan Tinbergen (1969).
The Organization which received the Nobel Prize for the first time is the Institut de Droit International (Institute of International Law) in 1904.
📝 SideNotes - :
- Henry Dunant – Founder of the Red Cross.
- Red Cross won 3 Nobel Peace Prizes.
- Frédéric Passy – Founder of the Peace League.
- Sveriges Riksbank – Central Bank of Sweden.
- Institut de Droit International was founded in – Ghent, Belgium.
- The Nobel prize ceremony was held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music from 1901 to 1925, then shifted its venue to Stockholm Concert Hall.