The Nobel Foundation 2012 Annual Review - Nobelprize.org
The Nobel Foundation 2012 Annual Review - Nobelprize.org
The Nobel Foundation 2012 Annual Review - Nobelprize.org
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
<strong>2012</strong> <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Review</strong><br />
1
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
<strong>2012</strong> <strong>Annual</strong> review<br />
ediTors: Annika Pontikis, Public relations Manager and siavash Pournouri, Public relations officer<br />
desigN/ProducTioN: Martin Zetterquist, Formalix AB<br />
PriNTiNg: göteb<strong>org</strong>stryckeriet AB<br />
PAPer: galerie Art Matt<br />
All images in the <strong>Annual</strong> review are © <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> or © <strong>Nobel</strong> Media unless otherwise stated.<br />
FroNT cover:<br />
Alexander Mahmoud<br />
exhibitions, programmes and events can be subject to change during 2013.<br />
For enquiries, please contact: info@nobel.se<br />
© <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> 2013<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize ® , <strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong> ® , <strong>Nobel</strong> Media ® , <strong>Nobel</strong> Museum ® , <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace center ® , <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize concert ®<br />
and the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize ® Medal design mark are registered trademarks of the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>, P.o. Box 5232, se-102 45 stockholm, sweden
Lars Heikensten, the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>’s Executive Director<br />
since June, 2011<br />
pHoto: orasis<br />
A word from the<br />
executive director<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Week in stockholm is distinguished<br />
by the series of festive celebrations<br />
that culminates in the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize<br />
Award ceremony and the <strong>Nobel</strong> Banquet on<br />
december 10. it is also a week that includes<br />
such events as the <strong>Nobel</strong> Lectures, which focus<br />
on the <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates’ many years of persistent,<br />
strenuous work. if we ask the Laureates<br />
themselves, they often say that it is their meetings<br />
with school children, students and young<br />
researchers that are the most memorable and<br />
inspiring events of their stay in stockholm. We<br />
want to encourage these kinds of encounters,<br />
and the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> has long discussed<br />
how the <strong>Nobel</strong> Week programme might be<br />
broadened both in order to reach a wider audience,<br />
and to generate greater interest in current<br />
fields of science and social issues. so in <strong>2012</strong><br />
we launched a new full-day meeting, <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Week dialogue, for the purpose of promoting<br />
a broader conversation between scientists<br />
and society at large. of the more than 1,000<br />
people who attended the <strong>2012</strong> event, on the<br />
theme of genetics, nearly half were students.<br />
<strong>The</strong> response to the event was overwhelmingly<br />
positive.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Week dialogue is a good<br />
example of the kind of activity carried out<br />
by the various companies that have emerged<br />
around the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> during the past<br />
10–15 years. <strong>The</strong> event clearly demonstrates<br />
the potential that exists for creating highquality<br />
activities in the spirit of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize.<br />
<strong>The</strong> prize that Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> established was<br />
intended to reward those who had “conferred<br />
the greatest benefit on mankind”. By using<br />
various means to spread knowledge of the<br />
advances for which the prize is awarded, and<br />
by encouraging creativity and fresh thinking,<br />
we can help ensure that <strong>Nobel</strong>’s vision will live<br />
on and that the impact of his contributions will<br />
be even greater.<br />
Last year a number of exhibitions and<br />
programmes were presented at our museums in<br />
stockholm and oslo. <strong>The</strong> task of modernising<br />
the official <strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong> website is under way,<br />
and during 2014 we plan to carry out events<br />
similar to the <strong>Nobel</strong> Week dialogue in Asia.<br />
<strong>The</strong> task of creating a new <strong>Nobel</strong> center in<br />
stockholm is also continuing at a healthy pace.<br />
Among the highlights of <strong>2012</strong>, of course,<br />
was Peace Prize Laureate Aung san suu Kyi’s<br />
visit to oslo where, after many years of house<br />
arrest, she was finally able to hold her <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Lecture – a historic event that attracted great<br />
attention worldwide.<br />
during <strong>2012</strong>, the finances of the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong> were in focus. <strong>The</strong> prize amount<br />
was lowered by 20 per cent, while steps were<br />
taken and are continously being taken to<br />
reduce the <strong>Foundation</strong>’s other expenses.<br />
concurrently, efforts are under way to<br />
establish a new model for partnerships between<br />
the business community and the externally<br />
financed entities of the <strong>Nobel</strong> sphere. A number<br />
of companies, both swedish and foreign, have<br />
expressed their interest.<br />
in this context, i would also like to thank<br />
all the Laureates who have responded positively<br />
by joining the <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureate Network, which<br />
was established at the initiative of the Board<br />
of directors of the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> during<br />
<strong>2012</strong>. <strong>The</strong> purpose of this network is to lay the<br />
groundwork for an expanded dialogue between<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates and the <strong>Nobel</strong> sphere,<br />
and thereby contribute to additional inspiring<br />
activities in the spirit of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize.<br />
Finally, i would like to mention that on May<br />
1, 2013 the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> elected Professor<br />
carl-Henrik Heldin as its new chairman of the<br />
Board, since Marcus storch’s term of office has<br />
expired and he has reached the age of 70. on<br />
behalf of the entire <strong>Nobel</strong> sphere, i would like to<br />
thank Marcus storch for his contributions during<br />
17 years on the Board of the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
while also welcoming carl-Henrik Heldin.<br />
i hope that readers will enjoy the following<br />
pages, in which we present the <strong>2012</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Laureates and our efforts – with the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Prize as the starting point – to encourage<br />
creativity and fresh thinking that is in line with<br />
Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong>’s vision of conferring the greatest<br />
benefit on mankind.<br />
LArs HeiKeNsTeN<br />
execuTive direcTor<br />
1
2<br />
James Watson at the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Week Dialogue<br />
Aung San Suu Kyi in the Oslo Town Hall<br />
content<br />
1<br />
4<br />
8<br />
10<br />
12<br />
14<br />
16<br />
18<br />
20<br />
John B. Gurdon inspects his medal <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize Award Ceremony<br />
Thorbjørn Jagland, Chair of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Committee with representatives of the Peace Prize<br />
Laureate EU: Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, José Manuel Durão<br />
Barroso, President of the European Commission and Martin Schulz, President of the<br />
European Parliament<br />
A word from the executive director<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>2012</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates<br />
science and society in dialogue<br />
Aung san suu Kyi celebrated in oslo<br />
<strong>The</strong> story of <strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong><br />
A brief history of the finances<br />
Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>org</strong>anisational structure of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize
Robert J. Lefkowitz with family and friends<br />
22<br />
24<br />
26<br />
28<br />
30<br />
32<br />
34<br />
36<br />
institutions selecting the <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> group interests AB<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Media AB<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>museet AB<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Peace center <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize – research and information<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>huset AB<br />
With this <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Review</strong> we aim<br />
to provide a comprehensive picture of the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Sphere as a whole. For additional<br />
information, please see the respective annual<br />
reports of the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> and related<br />
<strong>org</strong>anisations.<br />
Emma Johansson, toastmaster at the <strong>Nobel</strong> Banquet<br />
artist: Lena Cronström.<br />
Calligrapher: annika rücker. Book binder: ingemar Dackéus.<br />
JamEs WatsoN, JoHN B. GurDoN, pHoto: NikLas ELmEHED.<br />
auNG saN suu kyi, Eu rEprEsENtativEs, pHoto: kEN oppraNN.<br />
NoBEL prizE aWarD CErEmoNy, pHoto: aLExaNDEr LJuNGDaHL.<br />
roBErt J. LEFkoWitz, pHoto: aLEx maHmouD. toastmastEr, pHoto: orasis.<br />
DaviD WiNELaND’s DipLoma, pHoto: Lovisa ENGBLom.<br />
3
Lloyd S. Shapley at the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize Award Ceremony in the Stockholm Concert Hall<br />
Brian K. Kobilka signing a chair at the <strong>Nobel</strong> Museum<br />
4<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Medals and Diplomas at<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>, 11 December
<strong>The</strong> <strong>2012</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates<br />
tHE NoBEL prizE iN pHysiCs<br />
Was aWarDED to<br />
serge Haroche and<br />
david J. Wineland<br />
“for ground-breaking experimental methods that<br />
enable measuring and manipulation of individual<br />
quantum systems”<br />
Professor serge HarocHe, born 1944, collège de<br />
France and ecole Normale supérieure, France.<br />
Dr DaviD J. WinelanD, born 1944, National institute of<br />
standards and Technology (NisT), and university of<br />
colorado Boulder, usA.<br />
WHen it comes to the smallest components of our<br />
universe, our usual understanding of how the world<br />
works ceases to apply. We have entered the often<br />
paradoxical and difficult-to-comprehend realm of<br />
quantum physics. in this world, the same object can<br />
exist in different states simultaneously. For a long<br />
time, many quantum phenomena could only be<br />
examined theoretically. david Wineland and serge<br />
Haroche are responsible for the development of<br />
ingenious experiments designed to study quantum<br />
phenomena when matter and light interact. using<br />
electric fields, Wineland has successfully captured electrically<br />
charged atoms, or ions, in a kind of trap and<br />
studied them with the help of small packets of light,<br />
or photons. Haroche has been able to capture photons<br />
using another kind of trap – two mirrors which they<br />
can bounce between. This device allowed Haroche to<br />
study the photons by passing atoms through the trap.<br />
Wineland has been able to create incredibly precise<br />
clocks based on his discoveries. <strong>The</strong>se discoveries<br />
may also make it possible to build computers that are<br />
much faster than those we use today.<br />
tHE NoBEL prizE iN<br />
CHEmistry<br />
Was aWarDED to<br />
robert J. Lefkowitz and<br />
Brian K. Kobilka<br />
“for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors”<br />
Professor robert J. lefkoWitz, born 1943, Howard<br />
Hughes Medical institute and duke university<br />
Medical center, usA.<br />
Professor brian k. kobilka, born 1955, stanford<br />
university school of Medicine, usA.<br />
WHen you are afraiD, your heart beats faster, your<br />
blood pressure rises, and you breathe more heavily.<br />
This is partly the result of adrenaline forming in<br />
your body, which causes your heart rate to accelerate.<br />
Adrenaline is a hormone, a substance that manages<br />
communication between the cells in your body. each<br />
cell has a small receiver known as a receptor, which is<br />
able to receive hormones. What these receptors look<br />
like and how they work remained a mystery for many<br />
years. in order to track these receptors, in 1968 robert<br />
Lefkowitz attached a radioactive isotope of the element<br />
iodine to different hormones. By tracking the radiation<br />
emitted by the isotope, he succeeded in finding a<br />
receptor for adrenaline, which allowed him to build an<br />
understanding of how it functions. in the 1980s, Brian<br />
Kobilka successfully identified the gene that regulates<br />
the formation of this receptor. <strong>The</strong> two researchers also<br />
discovered that the receptor was similar to receptors<br />
located in the eye that capture light. it was later discovered<br />
that there is an entire family of receptors that look<br />
and act in similar ways – known as g-protein-coupled<br />
receptors. Approximately half of all medications used<br />
today make use of this kind of receptor.<br />
tHE NoBEL portraits, pHoto: uLLa moNtaN.<br />
NoBEL prizE aWarD CErEmoNy, pHoto: aLEx maHmouD. CHair-siGNiNG at tHE NoBEL musEum, Group portrait, pHoto: orasis. NoBEL mEDaLs & DipLomas, pHoto: NikLas ELmEHED.<br />
5
6<br />
tHE NoBEL prizE iN<br />
pHysioLoGy or mEDiCiNE<br />
Was aWarDED to<br />
John B. gurdon och<br />
shinya Yamanaka<br />
“for the discovery that mature cells can be<br />
reprogrammed to become pluripotent”<br />
Dr JoHn b. gurDon, born 1933, gurdon institute,<br />
cambridge, uK.<br />
Professor sHinya yamanaka, born 1962, Kyoto<br />
university, Japan and gladstone institutes, usA.<br />
our lives begin when a fertilized egg divides and<br />
forms new cells that, in turn, also divide. <strong>The</strong>se cells<br />
are identical in the beginning, but become increasingly<br />
varied over time. As a result of this process, our cells<br />
become specialized for their location in the body –<br />
perhaps in a nerve, a muscle, or a kidney. it was long<br />
thought that a mature or specialized cell could not<br />
return to an immature state, but this has been proven<br />
incorrect. in 1962, John gurdon removed the nucleus<br />
of a fertilized egg cell from a frog and replaced it with<br />
the nucleus of a mature cell taken from a tadpole’s<br />
intestine. This modified egg cell grew into a new<br />
frog, proving that the mature cell still contained the<br />
genetic information needed to form all types of cells.<br />
in 2006, shinya Yamanaka succeeded in identifying a<br />
small number of genes within the genome of mice that<br />
proved decisive in this process. When activated, skin<br />
cells from mice could be reprogrammed to immature<br />
stem cells, which, in turn, can grow into all types of<br />
cells within the body. in the long-term, these discoveries<br />
may lead to new medical treatments.<br />
tHE NoBEL prizE iN<br />
LitEraturE<br />
Was aWarDED to<br />
Mo Yan<br />
“who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales,<br />
history and the contemporary”<br />
autHor mo yan, born 1955, china<br />
mo yan’s Writings cover a wide span, from short<br />
stories, to novels, to essays. His path to a literary<br />
career was not clear-cut. Mo Yan was born to a poor<br />
farming family in shandong Province, china. After<br />
only a few years of schooling, he began work as a cattle<br />
herder at the age of 11. As a young man, Mo Yan<br />
enlisted in the army, where his literary talent was first<br />
discovered. He published his first short story in 1981,<br />
which, like his earlier works, was written according<br />
to the prevailing literary dictates of the ruling regime.<br />
over time, however, Mo Yan’s storytelling began<br />
to seek out its own, more independent paths. His<br />
international breakthrough came with the epic novel<br />
Red S<strong>org</strong>hum. other famous works by the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Prize-awarded author include <strong>The</strong> Garlic Ballads and<br />
Life and Death are Wearing Me Out. His narrative<br />
style bears the hallmarks of magical realism. Mo Yan’s<br />
writing often uses older chinese literature and popular<br />
oral traditions as a starting point, combining these<br />
with contemporary social issues.<br />
artist: John stenb<strong>org</strong>.<br />
John B. Gurdon and family<br />
kalligraf: annika rücker.<br />
Book binder: ingemar Dackéus.<br />
tHE NoBEL portraits, pHoto: uLLa moNtaN.<br />
LaurEatEs WitH FriENDs aND FamiLy, pHoto: aLEx maHmouD. mo yaN’s DipLoma, pHoto: Lovisa ENGBLom. Eu FLaG: istoCkpHoto. pEaCE prizE DipLoma, pHoto: tHomas WiDErBErG.
tHE NoBEL pEaCE prizE<br />
Was aWarDED to<br />
european union (eu)<br />
“<strong>The</strong> union and its forerunners have for over six<br />
decades contributed to the advancement of peace<br />
and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in<br />
Europe”<br />
after tHe Decimation of the second World War,<br />
reconciliation between germany and France was an<br />
important step towards fostering peace in europe. <strong>The</strong><br />
two countries – which by then had fought three wars<br />
within the space of 70 years – built the european coal<br />
and steel community together with four other countries<br />
in 1952. This <strong>org</strong>anization became the foundation<br />
for an ever-broader cooperation within what has been<br />
known since 1993 as the european union (eu). in this<br />
time of economic and social unrest, the Norwegian<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> committee wished to reward the eu’s successful<br />
struggle for peace, reconciliation and for democracy<br />
and human rights. When the community expanded<br />
to include additional countries during the 1970s and<br />
1980s, democracy was a prerequisite for membership.<br />
After the fall of european communist regimes<br />
around 1990, the union was able to expand to include<br />
several countries in central and eastern europe,<br />
where democracy had been strengthened and conflict<br />
checked. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> committee also believes that the<br />
question of eu membership is bolstering the reconciliation<br />
process after the wars in the Balkan states, and<br />
that the desire for eu membership has also promoted<br />
democracy and human rights in Turkey.<br />
artist: Gerd tinglum. Calligrapher: inger magnus. Book binder: Julius Johansen.<br />
tHE svEriGEs riksBaNk<br />
prizE iN ECoNomiC<br />
sCiENCEs iN mEmory oF<br />
aLFrED NoBEL<br />
Was aWarDED to<br />
Alvin e. roth and<br />
Lloyd s. shapley<br />
”for the theory of stable allocations and the practice<br />
of market design”<br />
Professor alvin e. rotH, born 1951, Harvard<br />
university and Harvard Business school, usA.<br />
Professor emeritus lloyD s. sHaPley, born 1923,<br />
university of california, usA.<br />
HoW to bring different players together in the best<br />
possible way is a key economic problem. examples of<br />
situations where this problem arises include matching<br />
children with different schools, and kidneys or<br />
other <strong>org</strong>ans with patients who require transplants.<br />
From the 1960s onward, Lloyd shapley used what<br />
is known as cooperative game <strong>The</strong>ory to study<br />
different matching methods. Within the framework<br />
of this theory, it is especially important that a stable<br />
match is found. A stable match entails that there are<br />
no two agents who would prefer one another over<br />
their current counterparts. in collaboration with other<br />
researchers, shapley has succeeded in identifying<br />
methods that achieve this stability. Beginning in the<br />
1980s, Alvin roth used shapley’s theoretical results<br />
to explain how markets function in practice. Through<br />
empirical studies and lab experiments, roth and his<br />
colleagues demonstrated that stability was critical to<br />
successful matching methods. roth has also developed<br />
systems for matching doctors with hospitals, school<br />
pupils with schools, and <strong>org</strong>an donors with patients.<br />
Alvin E. Roth with family and friends<br />
7
More than a 1,000 people attended the <strong>Nobel</strong> Week<br />
Dialogue at the Stockholm City Congress Center<br />
Helga Nowotny, President of the<br />
European Research Council (ERC)<br />
8<br />
Steven Chu, 1997 <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Laureate in Physics, US Secretary<br />
of Energy 2009–2013<br />
In the future, the forum<br />
provided by the <strong>Nobel</strong> Week<br />
Dialogue will travel beyond<br />
the boundaries of Sweden to<br />
international settings.
aLL pHotos: aLEx LJuNGDaHL<br />
science and society in<br />
dialogue<br />
on december 9th, <strong>2012</strong>, a brand new<br />
element joined the roster of events<br />
forming the <strong>Nobel</strong> Week in stockholm;<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Week dialogue. This one day<br />
meeting, held the day before the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize<br />
Award ceremony and <strong>org</strong>anised by <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Media, brought together a rich mix of leading<br />
scientists, policy-makers and thinkers to discuss<br />
the topic of <strong>The</strong> Genetic Revolution and its<br />
Impact on Society.<br />
Free to attend and streamed live online for<br />
a global audience, the objective of the meeting<br />
was to deepen the dialogue between the<br />
scientific community and the rest of society.<br />
Alongside the wealth of online content created<br />
by <strong>Nobel</strong> Media that seeks to disseminate<br />
knowledge about scientific research to society,<br />
this event sought to give the wider public the<br />
chance to meet with scientists and engage in<br />
discussion on topics that concern us all.<br />
<strong>The</strong> choice of topic for this inaugural<br />
dialogue was partly inspired by the fact that<br />
<strong>2012</strong> marked the 50th anniversary of the 1962<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded<br />
to Francis crick, James Watson and Maurice<br />
Wilkins for their discovery of the molecular<br />
structure of dNA. <strong>The</strong> participants however<br />
(including James Watson himself), were keen<br />
on looking forward rather than back. After<br />
morning plenary sessions devoted to reviewing<br />
the past half century’s progress in genetics and<br />
genomics from a scientific as well as societal<br />
perspective, the programme split into parallel<br />
panel discussions. during lunchtime breakout<br />
sessions and an afternoon of more formally<br />
<strong>org</strong>anised panels, audience members were free<br />
to choose whichever stream interested them<br />
most. Audiences, both those present and following<br />
online, were invited to engage in the conversations<br />
through comments and questions.<br />
over thirty participants from around the<br />
world had come to stockholm to attend the<br />
event. <strong>The</strong> full list of participants, along with<br />
the programme and videos capturing the day’s<br />
proceedings can be viewed online at www.<br />
nobelweekdialogue.<strong>org</strong>. Among those taking<br />
part were seven <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates, a range of<br />
scientists, as well as representatives from industry<br />
and policy-making institutions. in various<br />
constellations, they discussed a variety of topics<br />
centred around questions such as Human<br />
evolution: where have we been and where are<br />
we going? and <strong>The</strong> promised land of genomic<br />
medicine: how do we actually get there?<br />
Just under half of the registered audience<br />
were students, the other half consisting of interested<br />
members of the public along with experts,<br />
researchers, invited guests and media. in total,<br />
more than a thousand people filled the stockholm<br />
city congress center to watch and participate<br />
in the discussions, not bad for a 9am<br />
start on a sunday in december with an outside<br />
temperature of a chilly –10°c. Happily for the<br />
<strong>org</strong>anisers, 97 per cent of those surveyed said<br />
they would participate again.<br />
This first <strong>Nobel</strong> Week dialogue, which like<br />
most of <strong>Nobel</strong> Media’s activities is financed by<br />
external support, was generously made possible<br />
by three partners: the region of västra götaland,<br />
the city of gothenburg and carl Bennet AB.<br />
Now established as an annual part of <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Week, the next <strong>Nobel</strong> Week dialogue will take<br />
place on december 9th, 2013, in gothenburg.<br />
<strong>The</strong> subject for that and future meetings will<br />
be decided in consultation with the Programme<br />
committee for the <strong>Nobel</strong> Week dialogue,<br />
consisting of the secretaries of all six <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
committees and representatives of <strong>Nobel</strong> Media<br />
and the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>. in the near future,<br />
the meetings will alternate annually between<br />
gothenburg and stockholm, in harmony with<br />
the desire to spread the opportunities afforded<br />
by <strong>Nobel</strong> Week across regional boundaries. Not<br />
that there’s anything new in involving gothenburg<br />
in the <strong>Nobel</strong> Week: Albert einstein gave his<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Lecture there in 1923.<br />
in the future, the forum provided by the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Week dialogue will travel beyond the<br />
boundaries of sweden to international settings.<br />
<strong>The</strong> need for conversations between those at<br />
the forefront of scientific progress and the<br />
rest of society has never been greater, and the<br />
questions being discussed demand international<br />
engagement. <strong>Nobel</strong> Media already works<br />
with its partners to run several international<br />
educational events each year, and one goal for<br />
the future is to extend those activities in order<br />
to promote discussions that further connect<br />
science with society.<br />
9
Aung San Suu Kyi participated in the opening of the<br />
Mother Democracy exhibition at the <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Center<br />
10<br />
For me receiving the <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace<br />
Prize means personally extending my<br />
concerns for democracy and human rights<br />
beyond national borders. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace<br />
Prize opened up a door in my heart.<br />
AuNg sAN suu KYi
aLL pHotos: sara JoHaNNEsEN /<br />
NoBELs FrEDssENtEr<br />
Aung san suu Kyi<br />
celebrated in oslo<br />
When Aung san suu Kyi was<br />
announced as the <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize<br />
Laureate in october 1991, the Norwegian<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> committee pointed out that “suu<br />
Kyi’s struggle is one of the most extra ordinary<br />
examples of civil courage in Asia in recent<br />
decades… in awarding the <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize<br />
for 1991 to Aung san suu Kyi, the Norwegian<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> committee wishes to honour this woman<br />
for her unflagging efforts and to show its support<br />
for the many people throughout the world who<br />
are striving to attain democracy, human rights<br />
and ethnic conciliation by peaceful means.”<br />
Aung san suu Kyi was not present at the<br />
award ceremony on december 10. she had<br />
been placed under house arrest on 20 July<br />
1989. in the 1990 elections in Burma (she<br />
always insisted on Burma, not Myanmar) her<br />
party, the National League for democracy, had<br />
won 59 per cent of the votes resulting in 80<br />
per cent of the parliamentary seats. offered her<br />
freedom if she left the country, she refused. so,<br />
at the award ceremony she was represented by<br />
her husband Michael Aris and their two sons<br />
Alexander and Kim.<br />
Alexander spoke movingly on behalf of his<br />
mother, expressing the hope that the “elements<br />
for moderation and reconciliation among those<br />
now in authority may make their sentiments<br />
felt in Burma’s hour of deepest need.”<br />
For a long time, Alexander’s hopes seemed<br />
misplaced. Aung san suu Kyi remained under<br />
house arrest for 15 of the next 21 years. even<br />
in her brief periods of relative freedom she<br />
was seriously threatened. it was becoming ever<br />
clearer that her struggle was indeed “one of the<br />
most extraordinary examples of civil courage<br />
in Asia in recent decades.” she was becoming<br />
Asia’s Mandela.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Norwegian <strong>Nobel</strong> committee wondered<br />
when she would be able to come to oslo<br />
and give her <strong>Nobel</strong> Lecture. By going abroad<br />
she would also meet her family again. When<br />
her husband Michael died in 1999 it had been<br />
more than three years since they had last met.<br />
Yet, the <strong>Nobel</strong> committee applied absolutely<br />
no pressure on her to come to oslo. she stated<br />
more than once that, when the time was right,<br />
Norway was the first country she would visit.<br />
<strong>The</strong> time never seemed right.<br />
in November 2010 suu Kyi was finally<br />
released from house arrest. in 2011 she held<br />
talks with the government. Many political<br />
prisoners were released; trade unions were<br />
legalized. <strong>The</strong> country was in serious economic<br />
difficulties, it had become dependent on china<br />
and isolated from the West. No reform was<br />
credible without the release of Aung san suu<br />
Kyi. <strong>The</strong> isolated lady had to give her stamp of<br />
approval before contacts with the West could<br />
be resumed.<br />
on June 15, <strong>2012</strong> she finally arrived in oslo<br />
to give her <strong>Nobel</strong> Lecture the following day. it<br />
was a special moment for her. it was certainly<br />
a very special moment for the members of the<br />
Norwegian <strong>Nobel</strong> committee and for the Norwegian<br />
people. she insisted that she had chosen<br />
her course entirely on her own, but “When the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> committee chose to honour me, the road<br />
i had chosen of my own free will became a less<br />
lonely path to follow. For this i thank the committee,<br />
the people of Norway and peoples all<br />
over the world whose support has strengthened<br />
my faith in the common quest for peace.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> struggle in Burma is far from over. <strong>The</strong><br />
path towards human rights and democracy is<br />
still not irreversible. But Aung san suu Kyi has<br />
definitely made the world a better place.<br />
11
<strong>The</strong> story of<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong><br />
Hans Mehlin was an early user of the World<br />
Wide Web. in the beginning of the 1990s, he<br />
produced online resources as part of a bioinformatics<br />
initiative for researchers at Karolinska<br />
institutet (Ki). <strong>The</strong> internet, essentially a system<br />
of interconnected computer networks, had<br />
been used at universities and colleges for some<br />
time but was yet to be of major interest to the<br />
general public. To help broaden the appeal of<br />
the web, Mehlin built websites in his spare time<br />
on a variety of topics from literature to art and<br />
music. As a post-doctoral researcher he soon<br />
considered creating a science-related site, and<br />
asked himself, “what could be more interesting<br />
than the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize”?<br />
At Ki, Mehlin’s workplace neighboured<br />
that of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Assembly and Professor Nils<br />
ringertz, secretary of the <strong>Nobel</strong> committee for<br />
Physiology or Medicine. during a coffee break,<br />
Mehlin posed the question whether the committee<br />
would consider publishing the upcoming<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Prize announcement online. it was<br />
1994, the website was given the green light and<br />
recorded 12,000 hits that year.<br />
ringertz, who also sat on the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
Board of directors, quickly realised<br />
the site’s potential. By the following year, he<br />
convinced the other prize-awarding institutions<br />
to join in the effort. Press releases announcing<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize in Physics, chemistry, Literature<br />
and Peace as well as the economic sciences<br />
Prize were all published online. <strong>The</strong> timing in<br />
12<br />
1997<br />
1998<br />
it began as a side project at a research institute – two molecular<br />
biologists took on the task of publishing information about the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Prize on the internet. Agneta Wallin Levinovitz and Hans<br />
Mehlin tell the story of the first online prize announcement that<br />
lay the groundwork for the official website of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize.<br />
fact coincided with the centennial of Alfred<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>’s writing of his testament.<br />
<strong>The</strong> team was soon joined by dr Agneta<br />
Wallin Levinovitz, who currently serves as<br />
editor-in-chief and coo at <strong>Nobel</strong> Media AB.<br />
Together with ringertz’s secretary, gudrun<br />
Franzén, they began publishing the biographies<br />
of <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates along with illustrated presentations<br />
of the work for which Laureates had<br />
been awarded the prize. <strong>The</strong> project was initially<br />
funded with grants from the Knowledge<br />
<strong>Foundation</strong> and later from riksbankens Jubileumsfond.<br />
Most of the site content was sourced<br />
from Les Prix <strong>Nobel</strong>, the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
yearbook since 1901, featuring each year’s<br />
prize motivations, award ceremony speeches<br />
along with the Laureates’ <strong>Nobel</strong> Lectures and<br />
biographies.<br />
“We published ten years’ worth of material<br />
at a time,” explains Wallin Levinovitz. “We<br />
started with the most recent years and worked<br />
backwards.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> website was being constructed at the<br />
same time as the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s board<br />
discussed the possibility of establishing a <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Museum. ringertz advocated the site as a valuable<br />
complement to a physical museum – “a place<br />
accessible to all, at all times”. in 1996, the project<br />
was approved as the official website of the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>, or the ‘<strong>Nobel</strong> e-Museum’.<br />
in the late 1990s, the prize announcements,<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Lectures and award ceremonies were<br />
2000
2006<br />
all broadcast live on the site for the first time.<br />
Mehlin recalls how the images transmitted were<br />
no bigger than a postage stamp; the technical<br />
solutions were far from ideal and internet<br />
connections were rather slow at the time. still,<br />
as the number of personal computers increased<br />
worldwide, the number of visitors to the website<br />
exceeded 2.5 million in 2000.<br />
<strong>The</strong> team soon broadened their scope to<br />
reach out to, and inspire a younger audience<br />
through the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize. in May 2001, an<br />
educational programme financed by the Knut<br />
and Alice Wallenberg <strong>Foundation</strong> was launched.<br />
<strong>The</strong> staff expanded to include educators, writers,<br />
illustrators and experts in interactive technology.<br />
Multidisciplinary teams collaborated to create<br />
teaching tools along with interactive games<br />
based on the awarded work of <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates.<br />
At the height of the initiative, up to 10–12<br />
educational games were produced each year.<br />
“it’s somewhat unique,” explains Mehlin,<br />
“we created all of the content on the site inhouse,<br />
with the exception of one single game.”<br />
since 2004, the website is called <strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong><br />
and is no longer considered the<br />
official site of the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> but that<br />
of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize itself. Working with an<br />
<strong>org</strong>anisation and a brand that has existed<br />
since 1901 – and hopefully far into the future<br />
– involves both technical and content-related<br />
challenges. As Head of digital Media and<br />
director of Technology, Mehlin has avoided<br />
fixed solutions that could paint the website into<br />
a corner, favouring the flexibility offered by<br />
open standards and platforms instead. He has<br />
often been quick to adopt new technology that<br />
he considers viable in the long-term.<br />
“one of the reasons for our early success in<br />
handling peaks in visitor traffic was our ability<br />
to quickly scale down the site on our own, during<br />
prize announcements for example.”<br />
during 2013, the site’s layout will be<br />
revamped to improve navigation using pages<br />
that are more search and filter-driven as well as<br />
2013<br />
device responsive in their design.<br />
even so, Wallin Levinovitz feels it is difficult<br />
to predict what the <strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong> site will<br />
look like in five to ten years.<br />
“Personally, i believe in a greater spread of<br />
the content. <strong>The</strong>re is less focus on publishing<br />
exclusively on your own site these days, but<br />
rather on allowing content to exist where the<br />
user is. That’s why we’re working on YouTube<br />
with our videos, on the animated educational<br />
site BrainPoP for our games, and through our<br />
social media channels in general.”<br />
Wallin Levinovitz would like to see more<br />
animated explanations of the awarded research.<br />
greater collaboration with the prize-awarding<br />
institutions might for instance lead to more<br />
interactive prize announcements and further<br />
help visualise the press releases.<br />
When asked about how the website has been<br />
affected by the social media boom, she acknowledges<br />
the importance of these new platforms.<br />
“social media increase dialogue while at<br />
the same time presenting a challenge given that<br />
you don’t know what direction that dialogue<br />
will take. At present the tone of the site is not<br />
sufficiently open. To succeed in broadening<br />
the message about the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize, we have<br />
to be willing to take chances and devote more<br />
resources to the task.”<br />
each year, the editorial team at <strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong><br />
receive around 12,000 comments<br />
on the website and more than 50,000 e-mails.<br />
Approximately half of all visitors to <strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<br />
<strong>org</strong> come from the usA and one-quarter from<br />
europe. in recent years, there has been a major<br />
increase in the number of visitors from Asia.<br />
Two decades have passed since the first<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Prize announcement was published<br />
online. <strong>The</strong> internet, which was seen back then<br />
as a passing fad for the devoted few, is now an<br />
indispensable part of our everyday lives; and<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize has an important role to play<br />
as a source of inspiration and commitment in<br />
the service of mankind.<br />
13
A brief history<br />
of the finances<br />
<strong>The</strong> capital bequeathed by Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> shall be managed in<br />
such a way that the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize can be awarded in perpetuity.<br />
For more than a century, this has been one of the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>’s most important tasks.<br />
in his will, Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> wrote that “the capital,<br />
invested in safe securities by my executors,<br />
shall constitute a fund, the interest on which<br />
shall be annually distributed in the form of<br />
prizes to those who, during the preceding year,<br />
shall have conferred the greatest benefit to<br />
mankind.” <strong>The</strong> wealthy industrialist and inventor<br />
left no more guidance than this regarding<br />
the management of the capital he left behind.<br />
since it was established in 1900, the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong> has been responsible for managing<br />
the capital bequeathed by <strong>Nobel</strong>. on the<br />
whole, this has worked well; today the <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
invested capital totals seK 3.1 billion.<br />
<strong>The</strong> portfolio has retained its value, adjusted<br />
for inflation, and the same is true of the prize<br />
sum. But it has not shown stable performance.<br />
on the contrary, for a long period the portfolio’s<br />
performance was quite weak, and during<br />
the post-war period good periods have<br />
alternated with periods of both stagnation and<br />
declining assets (see chart 1).<br />
During tHe PerioD until the early 1950s, the<br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>’s invested capital lost around 60<br />
per cent of its value. This downward trend was<br />
largely due to the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s regulations,<br />
based on <strong>Nobel</strong>’s formulation about<br />
“safe securities”. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> invested only<br />
in fixed-interest bonds and loans, which was<br />
obviously a poor strategy in times of inflation.<br />
Another part of the picture was that until 1946<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> paid taxes; in some<br />
years, the <strong>Foundation</strong> was one of the largest<br />
taxpayers in stockholm.<br />
in 1953 the swedish government approved<br />
amendments to the statutes of the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong> that opened up the opportunity to<br />
invest in additional asset classes. This included<br />
large-scale investments in the stock market,<br />
in residential properties around sweden and<br />
in agricultural properties in the area of Lake<br />
Mälaren and province of småland. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
began investing in the stock market at a<br />
favourable time, and the overall performance<br />
14<br />
of its fund capital during the 1950s and 60s<br />
was somewhat more successful than previously,<br />
with an annual real return of more than 1 per<br />
cent. By the early 1970s, the portfolio consisted<br />
of about 60 per cent equities and properties.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 1970s were problematic for all wealth<br />
management in sweden; weak growth went<br />
hand in hand with high inflation. For the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>’s fund capital, this meant a slightly<br />
negative performance in real terms. But meanwhile<br />
the <strong>Foundation</strong> implemented a number of<br />
changes that had a positive impact on its fund<br />
capital during the 1980s, when it nearly tripled<br />
in real terms. This success during the 1980s was<br />
largely due to strong stock market growth, but<br />
also to a highly successful property transaction.<br />
in 1987 the large office property holdings that<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> had purchased in stockholm<br />
were combined into a single property<br />
company called Beväringen, which the <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
sold with a good capital gain shortly before<br />
the big property price slide of the early 1990s.<br />
during the 1990s the <strong>Foundation</strong> adopted<br />
more modern asset management, based on<br />
newer financial theories and a clearer portfolio<br />
philosophy. Assets were diversified more than<br />
previously, not only among equities, fixedincome<br />
investments and properties in sweden<br />
but to a large extent also to other countries.<br />
generally speaking, property holdings were<br />
reduced. since 1999 the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> has<br />
only owned the two properties where it conducts<br />
its activities in stockholm and oslo. Meanwhile,<br />
its stock market holdings were high, at times<br />
exceeding 65 per cent of the portfolio.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s investments in 1990s<br />
were generally very successful, especially<br />
because of strong global growth in share prices.<br />
on average, the portfolio grew by a nominal<br />
8.6 per cent annually during the decade, and<br />
by the turn of the millennium it was three times<br />
larger in real terms than in 1901.<br />
tHe Past DecaDe has been more problematic.<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, nominal return aver-
CHart 1<br />
SEK m<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s assets in Swedish kronor.<br />
Adjusted for inflation.<br />
aged 1.4 per cent annually. since the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong> had as much as 65 per cent of its<br />
fund capital invested in equities in early 2000,<br />
perhaps this is not so surprising. during the first<br />
decade of the 21st century, stock markets generally<br />
performed very weakly. during each of the<br />
dramatic stock market collapses of 2002 and<br />
2007–2008, the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> lost as much<br />
as one fourth of its capital. its profits were also<br />
adversely affected when the value of its foreign<br />
holdings fell as the swedish krona rose in value.<br />
More favourable asset growth since the<br />
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 <strong>2012</strong><br />
early 1950s, when investment regulations<br />
were changed, made it possible to successively<br />
increase the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize. in kronor terms, the<br />
prize sum changed from seK 150,782 in 1901<br />
and seK 175,000 in 1953 to seK 400,000 in<br />
1970, seK 6 million in 1991, seK 10 million<br />
in 2001 and seK 8 million today (see chart 2).<br />
This means that adjusted for inflation in sweden,<br />
the level of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize today is about<br />
as high as when the first prizes were awarded.<br />
HoW tHe assets of tHe founDation change is<br />
of course affected not only by its inflow, which<br />
is essentially a matter of returns on the capital<br />
bequeathed by Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong>, but also on how<br />
much money it spends. <strong>The</strong> largest single cost<br />
item is the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prizes, which averaged about<br />
43 per cent of outflow during the past decade.<br />
other major cost items are compensation to the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Prize-awarding institutions for their prize<br />
adjudication work, which constituted 26 per cent<br />
of outflow, and the expenses of the <strong>Nobel</strong> festivities<br />
in stockholm and oslo, which accounted<br />
for 12 per cent. <strong>The</strong> remaining 19 per cent was<br />
divided between administration, the official<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Prize website <strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong> and various<br />
smaller items including the <strong>Nobel</strong> symposia.<br />
expenses other than the prizes have been<br />
10<br />
8<br />
6<br />
4<br />
2<br />
CHart 2<br />
SEK m<br />
mdkr mdkr mdkr mdkr<br />
5 000 5 000<br />
12 12<br />
4 000 4 000<br />
3 000 3 000<br />
2 000 2 000<br />
1 000 1 000<br />
0 0<br />
0 0<br />
0 0<br />
1900 1900 1920 1920 1940 1940 1960 1960 1980 1980 2000 <strong>2012</strong> 2000 <strong>2012</strong><br />
1900 1900 1920 1920 1940 1940 1960 1960 1980 1980 2000 <strong>2012</strong> 2000 <strong>2012</strong> 1900 1900 1920<br />
12<br />
10<br />
8<br />
6<br />
4<br />
2<br />
12<br />
10<br />
8<br />
6<br />
4<br />
2<br />
0 0<br />
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 <strong>2012</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize amount in Swedish kronor. Nominal value.<br />
12 12<br />
10<br />
8<br />
6<br />
4<br />
10<br />
8<br />
6<br />
4<br />
2<br />
comparatively 10 stable over the years, but since<br />
the early 1990s there has been a slight upturn.<br />
This did not represent a major problem during<br />
8<br />
the 1990s, given the returns that the <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
was receiving at that time. But it has been<br />
6<br />
a growing problem over the past decade, with<br />
total outflow on average exceeding the <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
4 total returns.<br />
2 During 2 <strong>2012</strong> various stePs were taken to<br />
2 2<br />
address this imbalance. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> has<br />
managed its assets mainly according to the<br />
0 0<br />
0 0<br />
1900 1900 1920 1920 1940 1940 1960 1960 1980 1980 2000 <strong>2012</strong> 2000 <strong>2012</strong> 1900 1900 1920<br />
same principles as before. But the day-to-day<br />
decisions are now made by an investment<br />
committee, which includes external expertise.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> has meanwhile taken a<br />
number of steps to cut expenses. during <strong>2012</strong><br />
it lowered the prize sum by 20 per cent and the<br />
compensation to the prize-awarding institutions<br />
by 10 per cent. it also implemented cost-cutting<br />
measures in connection with the <strong>Nobel</strong> festivities.<br />
cost-cutting efforts are now continuing,<br />
while some of the <strong>Foundation</strong>’s previous activities<br />
will be taken over in the future by the various<br />
companies related to the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>.<br />
More than a century has passed since the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Prize was awarded for the first time.<br />
Adjusted for inflation, both the <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
capital and the prize sum are at the same high<br />
level today as they were then. But perhaps the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> should set its ambition even<br />
higher. <strong>The</strong> growth of the prize sum has not<br />
quite kept pace with the trend of real income.<br />
in 1901 the prize was equivalent to about 20<br />
times the annual salary of a professor, but it is<br />
not as much today. This may be of secondary<br />
importance to a scientific researcher, author or<br />
peace worker who receives a <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize, but it<br />
is nevertheless a challenge for the <strong>org</strong>anisation<br />
that manages Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong>’s capital.<br />
15<br />
12<br />
10<br />
8<br />
6<br />
4<br />
2<br />
12<br />
10<br />
8<br />
6<br />
4<br />
12<br />
10<br />
8<br />
6<br />
4<br />
2<br />
12<br />
10<br />
8<br />
6<br />
4
16<br />
Alfred i San Remo.<br />
Home is<br />
where I work and I<br />
work everywhere.<br />
ALFred NoBeL
Bust oF aLFrED NoBEL,<br />
pHoto: HaNs mEHLiN.<br />
Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> was both an inventor and entrepreneur as well as<br />
a very successful businessman, continually travelling between his<br />
factories. To many people’s surprise, he left a large part of his<br />
fortune for a prize that would reward significant efforts within<br />
the different fields that interested him most during his life.<br />
Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> was born in stockholm in 1833.<br />
His father immanuel was an inventor and<br />
engineer and his mother Andriette came from<br />
a wealthy family. When his father’s company<br />
went bankrupt, his father moved to russia<br />
and found success within the war industry. in<br />
1842 the rest of the family followed and Alfred<br />
and his brothers received a first-class education<br />
from private tutors. At 17 years of age,<br />
Alfred spoke five languages: swedish, russian,<br />
english, French and german.<br />
At the time, he was interested in poetry<br />
and wrote his own prose. His father disliked<br />
Alfred’s interest in literature and sent him<br />
abroad to study with more of a focus on the<br />
natural sciences. He visited a number of countries<br />
and finally ended up in Paris where he<br />
studied chemistry under Professor T. J. Pelouze.<br />
Here, Alfred came into contact with nitroglycerin,<br />
which had been invented by the italian<br />
Ascanio sobrero. This was a highly explosive<br />
liquid that was considered far too dangerous to<br />
be useful. Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> returned to sweden and<br />
soon began experimenting with nitroglycerin.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se experiments were dangerous and led to<br />
several fatal accidents. in one of these, Alfred’s<br />
younger brother emil was killed. Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
was finally able to solve the problem with the<br />
highly explosive nitroglycerin by mixing it<br />
with a type of sand; kiselguhr. <strong>The</strong> result was<br />
a formable mass, which was easier to handle<br />
and package and which could be shipped and<br />
handled safely. This was patented in 1867<br />
under the name ’dynamite’. With the patenting<br />
of different forms of dynamite together with<br />
the detonator or blasting cap, which he had<br />
previously invented, Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> achieved his<br />
major technical and industrial breakthroughs.<br />
Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> led a fast-paced exploitation<br />
of his inventions and built factories and<br />
laboratories around the world – vinterviken in<br />
sweden, Krümmel in germany and Ardeer in<br />
scotland were some of the first. He eventually<br />
built just over 90 factories in 20 countries. His<br />
brothers robert and Ludvig stayed in russia,<br />
where they continued developing their father’s<br />
manufacturing industries and successfully<br />
developed oil fields in Baku in Azerbaijan.<br />
Alfred’s life primarily consisted of work<br />
and travel and he never formed a family.<br />
Health problems, religious doubts and loneliness<br />
marked his private life. He had homes in<br />
Paris, san remo, scotland and other places<br />
and Alfred’s last swedish home was Björkborn<br />
Manor in Karlskoga. At his death, he had 355<br />
patents and left behind an enormous fortune.<br />
Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> was a man of his time, embodying<br />
many of the enlightenment’s main ideas,<br />
both in his practical work and in his philosophy.<br />
He wove his religious doubt with a belief in the<br />
natural sciences, he was a true optimist about<br />
technology and an entrepreneur who actively<br />
took part in the industrialisation process.<br />
Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> died on 10 december 1896<br />
in his home in san remo, italy, and his will<br />
attracted significant attention when it was published.<br />
He had given most of his fortune for the<br />
use of awarding major efforts within physics,<br />
chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature<br />
and peace. <strong>The</strong> will was challenged by relatives,<br />
by authorities in several countries and by swedish<br />
King oscar ii.<br />
A long journey began to realise Alfred<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>’s vision. After a few years of complicated<br />
legal processes, led by the executors of the will<br />
ragnar sohlman and rudolf Lilljequist, the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> was formed in 1900 and the<br />
next year the first <strong>Nobel</strong> Prizes were awarded.<br />
Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> is buried at Norra Begravningsplatsen,<br />
just outside of stockholm.<br />
17
David J. Wineland holding his <strong>Nobel</strong> Lecture<br />
18<br />
… to those<br />
who, during the preceding<br />
year, shall have conferred<br />
the greatest benefit to<br />
mankind … whether he be<br />
a Scandinavian or not.<br />
John B. Gurdon
aWarD CErEmoNy,<br />
pHoto: aLEx LJuNGDaHL.<br />
NoBEL prizE mEDaL®,<br />
pHoto: Lovisa ENGBLom.<br />
JoHN B. GurDoN’s BaNquEt<br />
spEECH & DaviD J. WiNELaND’s<br />
NoBEL LECturE, pHoto: orasis.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize<br />
When Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong>’s will was read, it caused something of a<br />
sensation and was widely reported on in international media<br />
and debated extensively. it stated that his fortune was to<br />
be used as an endowment, the interest on which would be<br />
awarded “… to those who, during the preceding year, shall<br />
have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind … whether he<br />
be a scandinavian or not”.<br />
in accordance with Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong>’s wishes,<br />
five <strong>Nobel</strong> Prizes were established: in physics,<br />
chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature<br />
and peace. <strong>The</strong>se five categories are a unique<br />
mix of disciplines. <strong>The</strong>y make the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize<br />
an interdisciplinary prize and reflect both<br />
Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> as a person and the interests and<br />
activities that engaged him during his lifetime.<br />
His will clearly stated that no regard<br />
should be given to the recipient’s nationality, a<br />
condition that was widely debated in sweden,<br />
which at the time was strongly marked<br />
by nationalist sentiment. <strong>Nobel</strong>’s will also<br />
specified the prize-awarding institutions: the<br />
royal Academy of sciences would select the<br />
Laureates in Physics and chemistry, Karolinska<br />
institutet would be responsible for the prize<br />
in Physiology or Medicine, the swedish<br />
Academy would oversee the prize in Literature<br />
and a committee selected by the Norwegian<br />
Parliament (storting) in oslo would select<br />
Peace Prize Laureates.<br />
<strong>The</strong> sveriges riksbank Prize in economic<br />
sciences in Memory of Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> was<br />
established in 1968, on the occasion of the<br />
riksbank’s (sweden’s central bank) 300th<br />
anniversary. <strong>The</strong> first prize was awarded the<br />
following year. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> then<br />
made a decision in principle not to establish<br />
any additional prizes. <strong>The</strong> royal Academy of<br />
sciences is responsible for selecting economic<br />
sciences Laureates, though it is the riksbank<br />
that funds the prize.<br />
<strong>The</strong> reason why Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> decided that<br />
the Peace Prize should be awarded in Norway<br />
and that the committee should be elected by<br />
the Norwegian Parliament (storting) is not<br />
specified in his will, nor is it mentioned in any<br />
other document. <strong>Nobel</strong> may have taken into<br />
consideration the fact that sweden was unified<br />
with Norway at the time and that one of the<br />
prize-awarding institutions should therefore<br />
be based there. He may also have believed that<br />
Norway was better positioned to nominate<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates. Norway did not have the<br />
same military traditions and strong links to<br />
the royal court as sweden and at the close of<br />
the 19th century, the Norwegian Parliament<br />
(storting) was also strongly committed to the<br />
inter-parliamentary union and its work in<br />
support of conflict resolution.<br />
over the years, the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize has<br />
acquired a unique standing for a number of<br />
reasons. one is that it is considered to be the<br />
first ever international prize, in as much as<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>’s will directs that no regard be given<br />
to nationality in the selection of Laureates.<br />
Another is that the prize money awarded has<br />
often been substantial. But most important is<br />
the prize-awarding institutions’ independent<br />
work of selecting Laureates – a task which is<br />
performed with the highest level of expertise<br />
and thoroughness.<br />
At most, three Laureates may share any<br />
one <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize and each receives their share<br />
of the prize money, a diploma and a medal.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize Medals for physics, chemistry,<br />
physiology or medicine and literature were<br />
created by engraver erik Lindberg. Norwegian<br />
sculptor gustav vigeland fashioned the Peace<br />
Prize Medal, while the economics Prize Medal<br />
was designed by gunvor svensson-Lundqvist.<br />
All Laureates are invited to stockholm or<br />
oslo, to give a <strong>Nobel</strong> Lecture and to receive<br />
the prize. since 1901, 863 Laureates have been<br />
selected, 835 individuals and 21 <strong>org</strong>anisations.<br />
19
<strong>The</strong> OrganisaTiOnal<br />
sTrucTure Of<br />
<strong>The</strong> nObel Prize<br />
tHe nobel Prize is surrounded by<br />
several <strong>org</strong>anisations and institutions<br />
with different tasks related to the prize.<br />
over the past decade, the <strong>org</strong>anisational<br />
structure has grown, particularly in<br />
areas tasked with spreading information<br />
about the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize.<br />
WHo finances tHe<br />
nobel Prize?<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize is financed by the<br />
nobel founDation, a private institution<br />
established in 1900 based on the<br />
will of Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong>.<br />
<strong>The</strong> main task of the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
is thus to manage the assets<br />
made available through the will and<br />
the significant intellectual property<br />
rights related to the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize that<br />
have developed over the years. <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong> finances the prize-awarding<br />
institutions’ work to select <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Laureates and also provides the prize<br />
sum. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> does not<br />
have the right or mandate to influence<br />
the nomination and selection procedures<br />
for <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates.<br />
orGaNisatioNaL struCturE<br />
iN apriL 2013<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> approves the composition of the boards of the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> rights association,<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Group interests aB and the <strong>Nobel</strong> peace Center <strong>Foundation</strong>. <strong>Nobel</strong> Group interests aB owns the limited<br />
liability companies and has an overall function as the umbrella <strong>org</strong>anisation for these entities as well as the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> peace Center <strong>Foundation</strong>.<br />
20<br />
NobEl<br />
FouNdATioN<br />
NobEl PEAcE<br />
cENTER<br />
FouNdATioN<br />
NobEl -<br />
muSEum Ab<br />
WHo selects tHe nobel<br />
laureates?<br />
<strong>The</strong> process of independently and<br />
expertly selecting <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates,<br />
in accordance with Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong>’s<br />
intentions, is exclusively handled by<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize awarding institutions<br />
named in his will:<br />
tHe royal sWeDisH acaDemy of<br />
sciences – the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize in Physics<br />
and chemistry as well as the sveriges<br />
riksbank Prize in economic sciences<br />
in Memory of Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
tHe nobel assembly at karolinska<br />
institutet – the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize in<br />
Physiology or Medicine<br />
tHe sWeDisH acaDemy – the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Prize in Literature<br />
tHe norWegian nobel committee, a<br />
committee of five persons appointed by<br />
the Norwegian Parliament (storting) –<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize<br />
read more about the prize-awarding<br />
institutions and how they select <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Laureates on pages 22–23.<br />
informational activities<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> sphere also includes a number<br />
of externally financed units with the<br />
primary task of disseminating informa-<br />
NobEl FouNdATioN RighTS ASSociATioN<br />
NobEl gRouP iNTERESTS Ab<br />
NobEl<br />
mEdiA Ab<br />
NobEl-<br />
huSET Ab<br />
NobEl<br />
PEAcE PRizE<br />
RESEARch &<br />
iNFo. AS<br />
tion about the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize and inspiring<br />
people around the world through the<br />
stories of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates. <strong>The</strong><br />
non-profit <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> rights<br />
Association has since 1999 served as an<br />
umbrella <strong>org</strong>anisation for these units.<br />
during <strong>2012</strong>, the association established<br />
the wholly owned limited liability<br />
company <strong>Nobel</strong>huset AB for the<br />
purpose of creating a <strong>Nobel</strong> center on<br />
the Blasieholmen peninsula in central<br />
stockholm. during the latter part of the<br />
year, the wholly owned limited liability<br />
company <strong>Nobel</strong> group interests AB<br />
was also established for the purpose of<br />
facilitating financial and administrative<br />
coordination between the companies.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> rights Association’s<br />
shareholding in the other limited<br />
liability companies was then transferred<br />
to <strong>Nobel</strong> group interests AB, which<br />
thus took over the role as the umbrella<br />
<strong>org</strong>anisation for the following entities:<br />
nobel meDia ab, stockholm<br />
nobel museum ab, stockholm<br />
nobelHuset ab, stockholm<br />
nobels freDsPris – forskning og<br />
informasJon as (<strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize –<br />
research and information), oslo<br />
stiftelsen nobels freDssenter (<strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Peace center <strong>Foundation</strong>), oslo<br />
<strong>The</strong> units above are all externally<br />
financed, e.g. via subsidies from state<br />
or local governments, corporate sponsors,<br />
educational <strong>org</strong>anisations or<br />
philanthropic entities.<br />
<strong>The</strong> companies within the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
sphere have no influence over or access<br />
to the nomination or selection procedures<br />
connected with the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize.<br />
only after the public announcement of<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates can these companies<br />
begin spreading information about<br />
each year’s Laureates.<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> posters. photo: orasis. >
insTiTuTiOns selecTing<br />
<strong>The</strong> nObel laureaTes<br />
in His Will, Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> stipulated<br />
which institutions should select <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Laureates in each prize category. He<br />
probably chose the academic institutions<br />
that he considered to be best<br />
suited to the task. Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> was<br />
less specific regarding the <strong>org</strong>anisation<br />
that was to manage his assets. What<br />
would eventually become the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong> was only mentioned in his<br />
will as “a fund”.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize’s unique international<br />
standing depends largely on<br />
the century-long, independent work<br />
of the prize-awarding institutions in<br />
selecting <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates. <strong>The</strong> fact<br />
that these <strong>org</strong>anisations have engaged<br />
knowledgeable individuals within their<br />
own <strong>org</strong>anisations, as well as extensive<br />
international expertise has played a<br />
vital role in achieving this standing.<br />
tHe royal sWeDisH acaDemy of sciences<br />
selects the <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates in Physics<br />
and chemistry. <strong>The</strong> royal swedish<br />
22<br />
Academy of sciences also selects the<br />
recipient(s) of the sveriges riksbank<br />
Prize in economic sciences in<br />
Memory of Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong>, established<br />
in 1968 on the occasion of the<br />
riksbank’s (sweden’s central bank)<br />
300th anniversary. <strong>The</strong> Academy<br />
has approximately 440 swedish and<br />
175 foreign members.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Assembly at Karolinska<br />
institutet selects the <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates in<br />
Physiology or Medicine. <strong>The</strong> Assembly<br />
has 50 members.<br />
<strong>The</strong> swedish Academy selects<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates in Literature. <strong>The</strong><br />
Academy has 18 members.<br />
All of these institutions appoint<br />
special <strong>Nobel</strong> committees of three<br />
to five members, a secretary and (in<br />
some cases) also deputies. Members<br />
are elected for a term of three years<br />
and may sit for a maximum of three<br />
consecutive terms.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> committees evaluate<br />
nominations for the respective <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Prizes and conduct extensive evaluations<br />
concerning a selection of these<br />
nominees. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> committees<br />
subsequently present their proposals<br />
for <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates to their respective<br />
prize-awarding institutions. As such,<br />
the actual decision as to who will be<br />
awarded a <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize is not made by<br />
the respective <strong>Nobel</strong> committee, but<br />
by all members of the prize-awarding<br />
institution.<br />
concerning the Peace Prize, Alfred<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> assigned the storting (national<br />
parliament) in Norway as the prizeawarding<br />
institution. <strong>The</strong> storting<br />
appoints the five members of the Norwegian<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> committee. <strong>The</strong> Norwegian<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> committee differs from<br />
the other prize-awarding institutions<br />
in as much as it is responsible both for<br />
assessing the nominees and selecting<br />
the final recipient(s).<br />
in sePtember of eacH year the respective<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> committees send out
sELECtiNG NoBEL LaurEatEs<br />
nomination<br />
forms are<br />
sent out<br />
DeaDline for<br />
submissions<br />
individual invitations to thousands of<br />
members of academies, university professors<br />
and other scientists in numerous<br />
countries, previous Laureates,<br />
members of parliamentary assemblies<br />
and others. <strong>The</strong> recipients are chosen<br />
in such a way so as to ensure that as<br />
many countries and universities as<br />
possible are represented over time.<br />
Those who receive an invitation have<br />
the opportunity to nominate <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Prize candidates for the coming year.<br />
Nominations, which are confidential,<br />
must be received by the committees<br />
no later than 31 January of the year in<br />
which the prize will be awarded.<br />
<strong>The</strong> procedures may vary somewhat<br />
between the <strong>Nobel</strong> committees, but the<br />
selection process is largely similar for all<br />
prize categories. <strong>The</strong> committees first<br />
confirm that the nominations have been<br />
assessment of canDiDates WitH<br />
tHe assistance of external exPerts<br />
committee submits<br />
recommenDations<br />
submitted by individuals who have the<br />
right to nominate. since a nomination is<br />
only valid for the current year, it is common<br />
for some candidates to be nominated<br />
several times. some candidates<br />
may also be nominated by more than<br />
one person in the same year. Nominations<br />
are recorded and compiled in a<br />
list. This list is processed in a series of<br />
phases during the spring. initially, it<br />
consists of a large selection of names,<br />
which is then gradually narrowed down<br />
to a smaller number of candidates.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se candidates are then evaluated in<br />
depth with the assistance of domestic<br />
and foreign experts. during the summer<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> committee members produce<br />
a comprehensive report detailing the<br />
candidate or candidates proposed as<br />
Laureates for the year’s <strong>Nobel</strong> Prizes.<br />
Proposals are presented to the members<br />
<strong>The</strong> announcement of the <strong>2012</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize in Physics<br />
nobel Prize<br />
aWarD ceremony<br />
nobel laureates<br />
are cHosen anD announceD<br />
sePtember 31 January february–august sePtember oktober 10 December<br />
of the prize-awarding institutions in<br />
september. <strong>The</strong> final selection of <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Laureates is conducted by a vote. <strong>The</strong><br />
final decisions are announced by the<br />
respective prize-awarding institutions<br />
immediately after voting, usually during<br />
the first half of october.<br />
According to the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
statutes, prizes can be equally<br />
shared between two works, though<br />
by not more than three individuals.<br />
All documents related to the nomination<br />
process and evaluations are kept<br />
confidential for 50 years.<br />
more information about the prize-awarding<br />
institutions is available on their respective websites:<br />
www.kva.se<br />
www.nobelprizemedicine.<strong>org</strong><br />
www.svenskaakademien.se<br />
www.nobelpeaceprize.<strong>org</strong><br />
pHoto: markus marCEtiC / © kuNGL. vEtENskapsakaDEmiEN.<br />
23
<strong>The</strong> nObel fOundaTiOn<br />
tHe nobel founDation is a private<br />
institution established in 1900 based<br />
on the will of Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong> and the<br />
founding statutes promulgated in connection<br />
with the will. one central task<br />
of the <strong>Foundation</strong> is to manage Alfred<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>’s fortune. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> is<br />
to manage <strong>Nobel</strong>’s assets in such a<br />
manner that ensures a secure financial<br />
standing for the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize in the<br />
long-term, as well as the independence<br />
of the prize-awarding institutions in<br />
their work of selecting Laureates. <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> also manages the<br />
intellectual property assets that have<br />
developed over the more than one<br />
hundred years that the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize has<br />
been awarded. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
also strives to safeguard the prizeawarding<br />
institutions’ common interests<br />
and to represent the <strong>Nobel</strong> sphere.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s work<br />
intensifies during the autumn in connection<br />
with the <strong>Nobel</strong> Week that takes<br />
place in stockholm in december. This is<br />
a week that includes a busy schedule for<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates and that culminates in<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize Award ceremony and<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Banquet held on december<br />
10. Both of these events are planned<br />
and <strong>org</strong>anised by the <strong>Foundation</strong>.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> is also<br />
responsible for the publication of the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Lectures on <strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong>, the<br />
official website of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize, and<br />
administering and funding the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
symposia within each prize category.<br />
Three <strong>Nobel</strong> symposia were held in<br />
<strong>2012</strong>: Nanoscale Energy Converters,<br />
Economic Growth and Development<br />
and Physics with Radioactive Beams.<br />
<strong>The</strong> latter symposium for instance,<br />
held in gothenburg, gathered over<br />
thirty leading scientists from around<br />
the world to discuss exotic, short-lived<br />
nuclei, which <strong>org</strong>anisers describe as<br />
a “a textbook example of purely scientific,<br />
curiosity-driven basic research<br />
that is a prerequisite for technologybased<br />
society”.<br />
24<br />
tHe norWegian nobel institute was<br />
established in 1904 and serves as<br />
the Norwegian <strong>Nobel</strong> committee’s<br />
secretariat and the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
representative in oslo. <strong>The</strong> institute<br />
administers the activities related to the<br />
awarding of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize,<br />
such as the prize ceremony and the<br />
banquet.<br />
tHe market value of the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>’s total invested capital<br />
amounted to seK 3,075 million at<br />
the end of <strong>2012</strong>. investment capital<br />
is distributed as 51 per cent equities,<br />
16 per cent fixed-income assets and<br />
33 per cent alternative assets. in June<br />
<strong>2012</strong> the Board of directors decided to<br />
lower the Prize sum from seK 10 to 8<br />
million, a measure aimed at avoiding<br />
an undermining of the <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
capital in a long-term perspective. At<br />
the same time, a decision was made to<br />
reduce the average compensation to<br />
the Prize committees by ten per cent.<br />
Measures were also taken to lower the<br />
costs of the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s central<br />
administration and the <strong>Nobel</strong> festivities.<br />
<strong>The</strong> total cost for all <strong>Nobel</strong> Prizes<br />
and operating expenses was seK 107,9<br />
million. This was divided among three<br />
main categories: the prizes and compensation<br />
paid to the prize-awarding<br />
institutions (nearly seK 70,1 million);<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Week in stockholm and the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> days in oslo (seK 15,6 million);<br />
and administration, the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
symposia, etc. (seK 22,2 million).<br />
Additional information about the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s financial management<br />
is available in the <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
annual report for <strong>2012</strong>, published on<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong>.<br />
tHe nobel Prize aWarDing institutions<br />
elect, for two calendar years, fifteen<br />
trustees to the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>. six<br />
representatives are chosen by the Academy<br />
of sciences and the other three<br />
by each of the other prize-awarding<br />
institutions. <strong>The</strong> Academy of sciences<br />
also appoints four deputies and the<br />
other institutions two deputies each.<br />
<strong>The</strong> trustees elect a chairman from<br />
their own number. <strong>The</strong> trustees’ most<br />
important task is to appoint the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>’s Board and to audit the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s accounts. At its<br />
annual meeting, usually held in late<br />
April, the trustees approve the previous<br />
year’s accounts and discharge the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s Board of directors<br />
from personal liability.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s administration<br />
and its accounts are audited<br />
annually by six auditors, who work<br />
together in the so-called “auditing<br />
team”. <strong>The</strong> trustees elect one of the<br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>’s auditors, who must<br />
be an authorised public accountant.<br />
other auditors are elected by the<br />
prize-awarding institutions, except for<br />
the chairman, who is appointed by the<br />
government. All auditors are elected<br />
for a term of one year.<br />
tHe nobel founDation’s boarD is<br />
based in stockholm and consists<br />
of seven members and two deputy<br />
members elected by the Trustees of the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>. Board members<br />
and deputies are appointed for a term<br />
of two years each. From among its<br />
own members, the Board chooses a<br />
chairman, a vice chairman and an<br />
executive director.<br />
Mr Marcus storch, Md h.c., regular<br />
member of the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
Board since 1996 and chairman since<br />
2005, resigned on 1 May 2013 as his<br />
term expired upon turning 70. Professor<br />
carl-Henrik Heldin has been elected as<br />
the new chairman from 1 May, 2013.
Reception at the Nordic Museum on 9 December,<br />
hosted jointly by the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> and the<br />
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences<br />
Press conference at the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> in December <strong>2012</strong><br />
Board of Directors. From the left: Tomas Nicolin, Peter Englund, Kaci Kullmann Five, Astrid Gräslund,<br />
Staffan Normark, Lars Bergström. Seated: Lars Heikensten, Marcus Storch and Göran K. Hansson<br />
rECEptioN & BoarD oF DirECtors, pHoto: orasis. prEss CoNFErENCE, pHoto: NikLas ELmEHED.<br />
no. of employees: 11<br />
ceo: Lars Heikensten<br />
established: 1900<br />
corporate iD no.: 802002-4468<br />
address: sturegatan 14, stockholm, sweden<br />
contact: info@nobel.se, +46 8 663 09 20<br />
Website: www.nobelprize.<strong>org</strong>/<br />
nobel_<strong>org</strong>anizations/nobelfoundation/<br />
BoarD oF DirECtors<br />
Marcus Storch, mD h.c., Chairman<br />
(until 30 april, 2013)<br />
Carl-Henrik Heldin, professor, Chairman<br />
(from 1 may, 2013)<br />
Göran K. Hansson, professor, vice Chairman,<br />
secretary of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Committee for<br />
physiology or medicine<br />
Lars Heikensten, Dr, Executive Director<br />
Peter Englund, professor, permanent secretary<br />
of the swedish academy<br />
Tomas Nicolin, msc<br />
Kaci Kullmann Five, Deputy Chair of the<br />
Norwegian <strong>Nobel</strong> Committee<br />
Staffan Normark, professor, secretary General<br />
of the royal swedish academy of sciences<br />
Lars Bergström, professor, secretary of<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Committee for physics, Deputy<br />
member<br />
Astrid Gräslund, professor, secretary of the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Committee for Chemistry, Deputy<br />
member<br />
25
nObel grOuP inTeresTs ab<br />
over tHe last DecaDe, information<br />
efforts related to the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize have<br />
expanded considerably. since the funds<br />
of the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> are primarily<br />
intended to be used for the work in<br />
selecting <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates and for the<br />
sum of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize, it has become<br />
necessary to form completely new units<br />
to conduct and develop communication<br />
efforts.<br />
With this in mind, the non-profit<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> rights Association<br />
was established in 1999. <strong>The</strong> Association<br />
has had an overall function as the<br />
umbrella <strong>org</strong>anisation for the following<br />
units: the limited liability companies<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Media AB, <strong>Nobel</strong>museet<br />
AB and <strong>Nobel</strong>huset AB in stockholm<br />
as well as <strong>Nobel</strong>s Fredspris – Forskning<br />
og informasjon As (<strong>Nobel</strong> Peace<br />
Prize – research and information) and<br />
stiftelsen <strong>Nobel</strong>s Fredssenter in oslo.<br />
26<br />
During <strong>2012</strong>, the association established<br />
the wholly owned limited<br />
liability company <strong>Nobel</strong>huset AB<br />
for the purpose of creating a <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
center on the Blasieholmen peninsula<br />
in central stockholm. during the latter<br />
part of the year, the wholly owned<br />
limited liability company <strong>Nobel</strong> group<br />
interests AB was also established for<br />
the purpose of facilitating financial and<br />
administrative coordination between<br />
the companies. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
rights Association’s shareholding in<br />
the other limited liability companies<br />
was then transferred to <strong>Nobel</strong> group<br />
interests AB, which thus took over the<br />
role as the umbrella <strong>org</strong>anisation for<br />
the other entities within the group. <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>org</strong>anisational structure is presented<br />
on page 20.<br />
all of tHese <strong>org</strong>anisations share the<br />
task of spreading information and<br />
knowledge about the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize<br />
and <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates’ efforts and of<br />
stimulating interest in science and<br />
humanism.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>org</strong>anisations base their<br />
activities on the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
intellectual property assets, such as<br />
trademarks and copyrighted material.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir informational efforts should<br />
therefore be undertaken with a view to<br />
maintaining, preserving and carefully<br />
developing the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
trademarks and to safeguard the longterm<br />
position of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize.<br />
Examples of activities <strong>org</strong>anised within the<br />
subsidiaries of <strong>Nobel</strong> Group interests aB >
<strong>Nobel</strong> Week Dialogue<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Museum gift shop<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Museum<br />
NoBEL Group iNtErEsts aB<br />
no. of employees: 1<br />
ceo: Lars Heikensten<br />
established: <strong>2012</strong><br />
corporate iD no.: 556903-4613<br />
address: sturegatan 14, stockholm,<br />
sweden<br />
contact: info@nobel.se,<br />
+46 8 663 09 20<br />
Website: www.nobelprize.<strong>org</strong>/<br />
nobel_<strong>org</strong>anizations/<br />
nobelfoundation/<br />
NoBEL WEEk DiaLoGuE, pHoto: aLEx LJuNGDaHL. NoBEL musEum, pHoto: HELENa karLssoN / © NoBELmusEEt aB.<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates Steven Chu, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard<br />
and Craig Mello at <strong>Nobel</strong> Week Dialogue<br />
BoarD oF DirECtors<br />
Marcus Storch, mD h.c., Chairman<br />
(until 30 april, 2013)<br />
Carl-Henrik Heldin, professor, Chairman<br />
(from 1 may, 2013)<br />
Göran K. Hansson, professor, vice Chairman, secretary of<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Committee for physiology or medicine<br />
Lars Heikensten, Dr, Executive Director<br />
Peter Englund, professor, permanent secretary of the<br />
swedish academy<br />
Tomas Nicolin, msc<br />
Kaci Kullmann Five, Deputy Chair of the Norwegian<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Committee<br />
Staffan Normark, professor, secretary General of the<br />
royal swedish academy of sciences<br />
Lars Bergström, professor, secretary of the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Committee for physics, Deputy member<br />
Astrid Gräslund, professor, secretary of the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Committee for Chemistry, Deputy member<br />
27
nObel Media ab<br />
tHe task of tHe comPany <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Media AB is to safeguard the longterm<br />
position of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize and<br />
developing media rights connected with<br />
the prize. operations include a range<br />
of productions, such as the website<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong>, live broadcasts and Tv<br />
collaborations from the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize<br />
announcements and the <strong>Nobel</strong> Week in<br />
december. <strong>Nobel</strong> Media also produce<br />
interview programmes with the year’s<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates, independent science<br />
documentaries, the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize concert<br />
as well as international lecture series<br />
and events. Print media is also included<br />
in its portfolio.<br />
nobelPrize.<strong>org</strong> is the official website<br />
of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureate<br />
section presents information<br />
about all <strong>Nobel</strong> Prizes since 1901,<br />
including biographies of the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Laureates, <strong>Nobel</strong> Lectures, interviews,<br />
photographs, articles, video clips and<br />
information about <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize-awarded<br />
works. during the announcement<br />
of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates and <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Week, <strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong> serves as a news<br />
channel. several of the events held in<br />
stockholm and oslo at this time are<br />
broadcast live on the site.<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong> also contains an<br />
educational section with some 50 productions,<br />
including knowledge-based<br />
games and productions with special<br />
themes. <strong>The</strong> games are interactive multimedia<br />
productions aimed at secondary<br />
school students. in <strong>2012</strong>, <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Media launched its first official <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Prize app for mobile platforms.<br />
<strong>2012</strong> also saw the launch of <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Media’s project to make available fundamental<br />
information about the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
28<br />
Prize and <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates in the form<br />
of open and linked data on <strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong>.<br />
<strong>The</strong> project, which aims to<br />
encourage the development of new<br />
and exciting applications, was made<br />
possible with a grant from the swedish<br />
governmental innovation agency<br />
vinnova.<br />
nobel meDia annually commissions<br />
swedish Television (svT), swedish<br />
radio (sr) and Norsk rikskringkasting<br />
(NrK) to produce broadcasts from<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize Awards ceremonies in<br />
stockholm and oslo and the broadcast<br />
from the <strong>Nobel</strong> Banquet in stockholm.<br />
All programme rights are held<br />
by <strong>Nobel</strong> Media. in cooperation with<br />
several renowned international production<br />
companies, the company also produces<br />
a number of documentaries in<br />
addition to the discussion programme<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Minds, featuring the year’s<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates. <strong>The</strong> programmes<br />
reach a potential viewer audience of<br />
several hundred million, being distributed<br />
via global Tv-stations such as<br />
BBc World News, Public Broadcasting<br />
service (PBs), cNN as well as through<br />
international news agencies, national<br />
Tv networks and radio stations.<br />
in <strong>2012</strong>, nobel Week Dialogue became a<br />
new addition to the events forming the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Week in stockholm. This free<br />
to attend, one day science seminar featured<br />
lectures, debates and discussions<br />
about the role of science in society,<br />
aiming to create a meeting place for<br />
scientists and the interested public. <strong>The</strong><br />
inaugural event, under the heading <strong>The</strong><br />
Genetic Revolution and its Impact on<br />
Society, featured 36 leading scientists,<br />
debaters and policy makers in discussions<br />
before an audience of around a<br />
thousand attendees.<br />
as Part of the AstraZeneca <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Medicine initiative, four lecture events<br />
took place during <strong>2012</strong> during which<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates got to share their<br />
experiences and inspiring stories with<br />
students and fellow scientists. in conjunction<br />
with the initiative, a half-hour<br />
long science documentary on infectious<br />
diseases, <strong>The</strong> War Against Microbes,<br />
was produced.<br />
continuing the previous year’s collaboration<br />
with the National geographic<br />
society, three events were<br />
held in Washington, dc where <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Laureates were paired with National<br />
geographic explorers for discussions<br />
under the heading <strong>The</strong> Big Idea.<br />
nobel meDia also <strong>org</strong>anised the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Prize concert for the eight consecutive<br />
year. This year’s soloist was violinist<br />
ray chen who performed Max Bruch’s<br />
first violin concerto together with<br />
the royal stockholm Philharmonic<br />
orchestra, conducted by the charismatic<br />
christoph eschenbach. <strong>The</strong><br />
concert commenced and ended with<br />
works by Beethoven and Mahler.<br />
nobel meDia’s main sponsors and<br />
partners are AstraZeneca, ericsson,<br />
Akamai, carl Bennet AB, the city of<br />
gothenburg, region västra götaland,<br />
stockholm concert Hall <strong>Foundation</strong>,<br />
dNB, and on the media side svT,<br />
NrK and BBc World News.
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Minds programme,<br />
moderated by BBC’s Zeinab Badawi<br />
Soloist at the <strong>2012</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize Concert<br />
was the young violinist Ray Chen<br />
proGrammE 2013<br />
as part of the <strong>Nobel</strong> prize inspiration<br />
initiative, <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates<br />
participate in an international<br />
lecture programme held at various<br />
universities and astrazeneca’s<br />
research centres around the world.<br />
the events will be held in russia and<br />
Japan for the first time<br />
may<br />
the documentary Unlocking the<br />
Secrets of our Cells, produced with<br />
support from Ericsson, is released for<br />
disribution on pBs in the usa<br />
the first<br />
official<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> prize<br />
app.<br />
oktoBEr<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong> broadcasts <strong>The</strong> 2013<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Prize Announcements live<br />
6 DECEmBEr<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong> interview this year’s<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates<br />
7–8 DECEmBEr<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong> broadcasts the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Lectures live<br />
8 DECEmBEr<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> prize Concert at the<br />
stockholm Concert Hall, conducted<br />
by riccardo muti<br />
9 DECEmBEr<br />
the open science seminar <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Week Dialogue in Gothenburg<br />
10 DECEmBEr<br />
Live broadcasts from the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
prize award Ceremonies in oslo and<br />
stockholm<br />
11 DECEmBEr<br />
taping of the discussion programme<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Minds<br />
NoBEL miNDs, pHoto: NikLas ELmEHED. BruCE BEutLEr, pHoto: mark BusHy. NoBEL prizE CoNCErt, pHoto: aLEx maHmouD.<br />
Q&A with Bruce Beutler, 2011<br />
Medicine Laureate during an<br />
AstraZeneca <strong>Nobel</strong> Medicine<br />
Initiative event<br />
<strong>The</strong> Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the<br />
direction of conductor Christoph Eschenbach<br />
no. of employees: 11 in stockholm and 3 in London<br />
turnover: sEk 44,989k<br />
ceo: Camilla Hyltén-Cavallius (until February, 2013),<br />
mattias Fyrenius (from February, 2013)<br />
established: 2004<br />
corporate iD no.: 556667-5194<br />
address: sturegatan 14, stockholm<br />
contact: info@nobelmedia.se, +46 8 663 17 22<br />
Website: www.nobelprize.<strong>org</strong>/<br />
nobel_<strong>org</strong>anizations/nobelmedia<br />
BoarD oF DirECtors<br />
Lars Heikensten, Dr, Executive Director of the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>, Chairman<br />
Patrik Hadenius, Editor-in-Chief and managing Director of<br />
Forskning & Framsteg<br />
Ove Joanson, CEo of media Conglomerate<br />
Lisa Lindström, CEo of Doberman<br />
Geir Lundestad, professor, Director of the Norwegian<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> institute<br />
Marie Nilsson, CEo of mediavision<br />
Eva Swartz Grimaldi, Chairman of Norstedts publishing<br />
Group<br />
Gunnar von Heijne, professor, former Chairman of the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Committee for Chemistry<br />
Barbro Jonsson, Head of administration, <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>, Deputy member<br />
29
nObelMuseeT ab<br />
nobelmuseet ab’s mission is to safeguard<br />
the long-term position of the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Prize by operating the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Museum as well as providing information<br />
and conducting research related to<br />
the prize. Activities include exhibitions,<br />
educational programmes, touring<br />
exhibitions and a research library. <strong>The</strong><br />
museum is located at stort<strong>org</strong>et in<br />
gamla stan, stockholm’s old town.<br />
in conjunction with the naming of<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Museum in 2000, its founders<br />
considered the classical concept<br />
of the Mouseion – ‘a temple for the<br />
Muses’. originally the Mouseion<br />
denoted a kind of research institution<br />
in which the library was a central part.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Museum is a museum in the<br />
traditional sense that it strives to share<br />
knowledge in various subject areas<br />
through exhibitions where different<br />
objects play an important roll. That<br />
said, it is also a cultural centre and a<br />
multifaceted meeting place where visitors<br />
can attend discussions, lectures,<br />
family programmes and much more.<br />
Like the classical Mouseion, the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Museum has its own library<br />
where research provides an important<br />
basis for the museum’s activities.<br />
visiting researchers have access to the<br />
library, school pupils can explore scientific<br />
methods in the laboratory and<br />
students are paired up with research<br />
teams based at swedish universities<br />
through the Forskarhjälpen (research<br />
Aid) project. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Museum<br />
diverges from traditional museums in<br />
one significant way however, its most<br />
important collection does not consist<br />
of artefacts but rather of a collection<br />
of stories about creativity, determination<br />
and individuals who through their<br />
work have conferred great benefit<br />
upon mankind, in line with Alfred<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>’s vision.<br />
<strong>2012</strong> began with the opening of the<br />
museum’s exhibition on Marie curie,<br />
in which her persona was depicted,<br />
stirring a pot filled with pitchblende.<br />
it was an exhibition about determination<br />
and devotion, but also about the<br />
30<br />
love shared by a pair of researchers and<br />
passion for science. in one section of<br />
the exhibition, Marie and Pierre curie’s<br />
method for measuring radioactivity<br />
was reconstructed as a lucid illustration<br />
of their search for something new and<br />
unknown. during the stockholm culture<br />
Night event, close to 5,000 visitors<br />
learned more about curie’s story.<br />
<strong>The</strong> curie exhibition was followed<br />
by Sketches of Science – a collaboration<br />
with the <strong>org</strong>anisers of the annual<br />
conference for <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates and<br />
young researchers held in Lindau,<br />
germany – in which the photographer<br />
volker steger’s portraits of past Laureates<br />
illustrate playfulness, creativity<br />
and a desire to communicate. <strong>The</strong><br />
portraits were complemented with ”at<br />
home with”-style interviews held in<br />
some of the <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates’ laboratories.<br />
Through interviews and film<br />
sequences, visitors to the exhibition<br />
are invited to enter the world of the<br />
scientist’s everyday life.<br />
in september, the Herta Müller<br />
exhibition Life’s Cold Jewellery<br />
opened, with emphasis on the Literature<br />
Laureate’s time in romania.<br />
This exhibition was a production on<br />
loan from Litteraturhaus München in<br />
germany that had been adapted to suit<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Museum’s spaces. Naturally,<br />
one of the highlights of the exhibition<br />
was when Müller herself came to speak<br />
about her authorship and what life is<br />
like for a writer in exile.<br />
Parallel to Life’s Cold Jewellery,<br />
another smaller exhibition showcased<br />
artefacts from the museum’s collection<br />
in honour of the 50th anniversary of<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize in Physiology or Medicine<br />
to Francis crick, Maurice Wilkins<br />
and James Watson, for their discoveries<br />
pertaining to the structure of dNA.<br />
for tHe seconD year running, a<br />
collaborative project was carried out<br />
with Beckmans college of design in<br />
which fashion students interpreted the<br />
<strong>2012</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Prizes in the exhibition<br />
Fashion Innovation 2. Another creative<br />
installation was the presentation of<br />
Literature Laureate Wisława szymborska’s<br />
works using audio and text in the<br />
museum’s café and cloakroom, among<br />
other places. According to annual<br />
tradition, reproductions of the year’s<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> diplomas were displayed in the<br />
museum’s bistro from 11 december.<br />
in may, psychiatrist and author oliver<br />
sacks rounded off the Neale Wheeler<br />
Watson lecture series with a talk entitled<br />
Narrative and Medicine: <strong>The</strong> Case<br />
History. over the years, these lectures<br />
held by some of the world’s leading<br />
academics have attracted large audiences<br />
to the <strong>Nobel</strong> Museum.<br />
in the late summer, a collaborative<br />
concert project with stockholm cathedral<br />
featured composer ge<strong>org</strong> riedel<br />
along with other musicians in performance<br />
of a number of newly written<br />
pieces based on Literature Laureate<br />
Tomas Tranströmer’s lyric poetry.<br />
tHe nobel museum is more than its<br />
exhibitions. Through literature talks,<br />
book groups, science cafés, research<br />
seminars, guided tours and lectures,<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Museum engages a broad<br />
audience in every corner of its limited<br />
floor space. A conversation in its<br />
restaurant over a plate of good food is<br />
just as important a part of the museum<br />
as the artefact on display. <strong>The</strong> intriguing<br />
assortment in the museum’s gift<br />
shop, including literature for more<br />
in-depth study, clever toys and quality<br />
souvenirs, enhance the experience and<br />
attract many to the museum. in <strong>2012</strong>,<br />
the museum had 168, 000 visitors and<br />
welcomed 600 school groups.<br />
<strong>The</strong> museum’s main sponsor is<br />
Handelsbanken. Project sponsors are<br />
Akzo <strong>Nobel</strong>, Bonnier AB, samsung<br />
and <strong>The</strong> confederation of swedish<br />
enterprise (svenskt Näringsliv). <strong>The</strong><br />
city of stockholm as well as the Ministries<br />
of culture and education support<br />
the operations with annual grants<br />
while the swedish research council<br />
and the swedish <strong>Foundation</strong> for<br />
strategic research fund the museum’s<br />
research activities.
<strong>The</strong> Herta Müller exhibition<br />
Life’s Cold Jewellery opened in <strong>2012</strong><br />
proGrammE 2013<br />
During the year, the exhibition<br />
Sketches of Science: Meetings with<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates will travel to Frankfurt,<br />
Berlin, Heidelberg and Lindau<br />
15 FEBruary – 2 JuNE<br />
Tomas Tranströmer – To Go Into<br />
Reality Itself – an exhibition about the<br />
Literature Laureate featuring artistic<br />
interpretations of his poems by an<br />
international array of book binders<br />
15 marCH<br />
Reopening of the museum’s gallery<br />
featuring artefacts of <strong>Nobel</strong> Laureates<br />
23 marCH<br />
tomas tranströmer – theme day<br />
18 apriL<br />
afternoon tea: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize in<br />
Physics– ”Invention or Discovery”?<br />
23 apriL<br />
research seminar<br />
Chemistry at Deutsches museum with<br />
producer susanne rehn-taube<br />
15 JuNi – 17 NovEmBEr<br />
Making Peace – a photo exhibition by<br />
the international peace Bureau (ipB)<br />
17 sEptEmBEr – 18 oCtoBEr<br />
Focus on peace issues and the peace<br />
prize in school programmes and<br />
general activities<br />
sEptEmBEr – DECEmBEr<br />
the research aid programme for high<br />
school, on energy and solar cells<br />
17 oktoBEr<br />
presentations of the 2013 <strong>Nobel</strong> prizes<br />
11 NovEmBEr<br />
the 2013 <strong>Nobel</strong> prize theme day –<br />
high school students meet researchers<br />
working within the different prize<br />
categories<br />
10 DECEmBEr<br />
Gold, glitter and champagne –<br />
celebrate the <strong>Nobel</strong> Day at the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
museum<br />
programme selection,<br />
for the calendar in full, please visit:<br />
www.nobelmuseum.se<br />
HErta müLLEr, pHoto: ©BEttiNa FLitNEr. FasHioN iNNovatioN 2, pHoto: orasis. skEtCHEs oF sCiENCE, pHoto: aNNa stENkuLa.<br />
Fashion students created<br />
their own interpretations<br />
of the <strong>2012</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Prizes in<br />
Fashion Innovation 2<br />
Portraits of <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Laureates in Sketches of Science<br />
no. of employees: 39<br />
turnover: sEk 42,989k<br />
ceo: olov amelin, Dr.<br />
established: 2004. operations were previously<br />
conducted through <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> rights association.<br />
corporate iD no.: 556667-5210<br />
address: stort<strong>org</strong>et 2, stockholm, sweden<br />
contact: info@nobelmuseum.se, +46 8 534 818 00<br />
Website: www.nobelmuseum.se<br />
BoarD oF DirECtors<br />
Lars Heikensten, Dr., Executive Director of the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>, Chairman<br />
Jim Bennett, professor and Director, museum of the<br />
History of science, oxford university<br />
peje Emilsson, Chairman of kreab Gavin anderson<br />
Barbro osher, Honorary Consul General of sweden in<br />
san Francisco<br />
Nina Wormbs, associate professor, royal institute of<br />
technology (ktH)<br />
per molander, Director General, swedish social insurance<br />
inspectorate<br />
klas kärre, professor, Deputy Chairman of the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
assembly at karolinska institutet and member of the<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Committee for physiology or medicine<br />
Barbro Jonsson, Head of administration, <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>, Deputy member<br />
31
nObel Peace cenTer<br />
fOundaTiOn<br />
tHrougH exHibitions, films, seminars<br />
and conferences, the <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace<br />
center, a Norwegian foundation,<br />
presents the <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize laureates<br />
and their work, Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong>, and<br />
issues related to war, peace and conflict<br />
resolution.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace center is located<br />
at rådhusplassen in oslo, housed in<br />
the old vestbane railway station. during<br />
<strong>2012</strong>, a comprehensive program<br />
of exhibitions and events made for a<br />
record 201 616 visitors, the busiest<br />
year since the center opened in 2005.<br />
Most events are streamed live online<br />
and reach an even wider audience. <strong>The</strong><br />
exhibitions and events have on the<br />
whole received very positive reviews<br />
and been widely mentioned in domestic<br />
and international media.<br />
<strong>The</strong> self-produced exhibition<br />
Transit, on the Norwegian Peace Prize<br />
laureate Fridtjof Nansen, and the situation<br />
for refugees today, was on display<br />
until 22 January.<br />
from 10 february through 2 september,<br />
the In Afghanistan exhibition was<br />
shown. it was the first time that the<br />
works of acclaimed photographers<br />
Tim Hetherington and Lynsey Addario<br />
were jointly exhibited, one on masculinity<br />
and vulnerability among American<br />
soldiers, the other portraying the<br />
lives of Afghan women. <strong>The</strong> exhibition<br />
included six short video documentaries<br />
from Kabul, and a small exhibition<br />
entitled Hope featuring photographs<br />
taken with disposable cameras by<br />
Afghan children.<br />
32<br />
proGrammE 2013<br />
7 marCH<br />
the European Identities exhibition –<br />
twelve young European photographers<br />
27 sEptEmBEr<br />
the photo exhibition Hungry Planet on<br />
the topic of food and the environment<br />
12 oCtoBEr<br />
open day to celebrate the<br />
2013 <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize<br />
in connection with Aung san suu<br />
Kyi’s historic <strong>Nobel</strong> Lecture on June<br />
16, the exhibition Mother Democracy<br />
opened. it was a tribute to the Peace<br />
Prize Laureate and the recent progress<br />
in Burma. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace center and<br />
other <strong>org</strong>anizations arranged a large<br />
celebration with speeches and music,<br />
ending with a speech by Aung san suu<br />
Kyi herself on the city Hall square,<br />
attended by 12 000 people. Prior to<br />
the celebration, a large outdoor screen<br />
broadcast Aung san suu Kyi’s <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Lecture live, and 600 Burmese in exile<br />
met “<strong>The</strong> Lady” inside the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Peace center.<br />
tHe comPreHensive exhibition Eye on<br />
Gandhi opened 21 september, consisting<br />
of two parts: <strong>The</strong> self-produced<br />
ABC of Gandhi, on his life and work,<br />
and the photo series In India by legendary<br />
photographer Henri cartier-<br />
Bresson.<br />
Eye on Gandhi told the story of<br />
why he did not get the <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace<br />
Prize. gandhi was nominated many<br />
times, and might have been awarded it<br />
in 1948 had he not been murdered. <strong>The</strong><br />
nominations of gandhi from the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
committee archive were displayed for<br />
the first time in an exhibition. <strong>The</strong> film<br />
Gandhi – <strong>The</strong> Missing Laureate was<br />
made for the exhibition, narrated by sir<br />
Ben Kingsley who played gandhi in the<br />
movie with the same name.<br />
<strong>The</strong> photographer Henri cartier-<br />
Bresson was one of the last persons to<br />
meet gandhi. cartier-Bresson spoke<br />
with gandhi only an hour before he<br />
uNtiL 26 NovEmBEr<br />
Europe from War to Peace, the<br />
<strong>2012</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize Laureate<br />
Exhibition<br />
12 DECEmBEr<br />
the 2013 <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize<br />
Laureate Exhibition. Free entrance<br />
12–30 December.<br />
was shot and killed on 30 January<br />
1948, and his photos are the last that<br />
were taken of gandhi.<br />
on october 22, the Cartoons in<br />
Conflict exhibition opened, where<br />
cartoons are utilised as a means for<br />
dialogue in israel and Palestine. <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>org</strong>anisers were <strong>The</strong> Parents circle –<br />
Families Forum, who have showed the<br />
exhibition around the world.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 2011 <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize laureate<br />
exhibition, SHEROES, about ellen<br />
Johnson sirleaf, Leymah gbowee and<br />
Tawakkul Karman, was on display<br />
until 28 November.<br />
tHe <strong>2012</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize laureate<br />
exhibition, Europe from War to Peace,<br />
on how the eu have contributed to<br />
secure a peaceful europe, was opened<br />
by the Presidents of the european<br />
commission and Parliament, José<br />
Manuel Barroso and Martin schulz, on<br />
11 december. All the <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize<br />
Laureate exhibitions are self-produced.<br />
Throughout <strong>2012</strong>, a total of 873<br />
school groups and 715 groups of<br />
adults participated in educational programmes<br />
or guided tours. <strong>The</strong> museum<br />
shop and the restaurant Alfred have<br />
also attracted visitors to the center.<br />
Both the Fritt ord <strong>Foundation</strong> and<br />
the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign<br />
Affairs have contributed to a number<br />
of events and partly funded several<br />
exhibitions. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace center’s<br />
main sponsors and collaborators are<br />
Hydro, Telenor group, orkla, ABB<br />
and <strong>The</strong> Football Association of<br />
Norway.<br />
FrEE ENtraNCE DuriNG<br />
sEvEraL LoCaL EvENts, iNCLuDiNG:<br />
21 apriL<br />
tourist in your own city<br />
8 JuNE<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong>s peace Center’s<br />
birthday<br />
18 auGust<br />
mela – World performing arts<br />
Festival<br />
13 sEptEmBEr<br />
oslo Culture Night<br />
programme selection, for the calendar in full,<br />
please visit www.nobelpeacecenter.<strong>org</strong>
<strong>The</strong> Eye on Gandhi exhibition<br />
Europe from War to Peace, the <strong>2012</strong><br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize Laureate exhibition<br />
no. of employees: 27 address: Brynjulf Bulls plass 1,<br />
turnover: Nok 52,005k rådhusplassen, oslo, Norway<br />
ceo: Bente Erichsen contact: post@nobelpeacecenter.<strong>org</strong>,<br />
established: 2005 +47 48 30 10 00<br />
corporate iD no.: 985226237 Website: www.nobelpeacecenter.<strong>org</strong><br />
BoarD oF DirECtors<br />
martiN sCHuLz aND José maNuEL Barroso, Eu-ExHiBit, pHoto: sara JoHaNNEssEN. aLL otHEr pHotos: JoHaNNEs GraNsEtH.<br />
Geir Lundestad, professor, Director of the Norwegian <strong>Nobel</strong> institute, Chairman<br />
Kaci Kullmann Five, Deputy Chair of the Norwegian <strong>Nobel</strong> Committee<br />
Siri Hatlen, msc/mBa<br />
Olav Aaraas, Historian, museum Director, Norsk Folkemuseum<br />
Olov Amelin, Dr, museum Director, <strong>Nobel</strong> museum<br />
33
nObel Peace Prize<br />
– research and<br />
infOrMaTiOn<br />
in 2013, <strong>Nobel</strong>s Fredspriskonsert<br />
As will change its name to <strong>Nobel</strong>s<br />
Fredspris – Forskning og informasjon<br />
As (<strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize – research and<br />
information).<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>org</strong>anisation receives its<br />
income from the annual <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace<br />
Prize concert and a license agreement<br />
with the Mint of Norway. <strong>The</strong> proceeds<br />
go towards funding the <strong>org</strong>anisation<br />
in its capacity as the research wing<br />
of the Norwegian <strong>Nobel</strong> institute. during<br />
<strong>2012</strong>, the political scientist Asle<br />
Toje was recruited as research director.<br />
Activities centre around research<br />
on international relations, peace and<br />
conflict in addition to international<br />
fellows programmes, seminars and<br />
lectures such as the <strong>Nobel</strong> symposia.<br />
As part of the annual teachers’<br />
seminar, 28 selected applicants among<br />
Norway’s high-school teachers were in<br />
<strong>2012</strong> invited in to the institute for an<br />
34<br />
intensive three day seminar on contemporary<br />
international relations.<br />
NoBELs FrEDspris – ForskNiNG oG iNFormasJoN as<br />
no. of employees: 1<br />
turnover: Nok 3,740k<br />
established: 2010 (formerly <strong>Nobel</strong>s Fredspriskonsert as)<br />
corporate iD no. : 996179397<br />
address: Henrik ibsens gate 51, oslo, Norway<br />
contact: +47 22 12 93 00, info@nobelpeaceprizeconcert.no,<br />
Website: nobelpeaceprize.<strong>org</strong> and nobelpeaceprizeconcert.<strong>org</strong><br />
tHe visiting felloWs Programme that<br />
was brought back to life in the early<br />
1990s is a continuation of the earliest<br />
ambitions for the Norwegian <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
institute to be a place for learning<br />
with direct access to the most recent<br />
developments in peace related research.<br />
<strong>The</strong> result is a series of well-attended<br />
lectures at the institute open to the<br />
public.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>2012</strong> programme took place<br />
under the heading Power & Polarity<br />
– After the Post Cold War, with focus<br />
on past polarity transitions in terms<br />
of stability and the role of power. <strong>The</strong><br />
programme explored how established<br />
great powers have adjusted to new<br />
systemic circumstances after the cold<br />
War, including the topic of ascending<br />
powers and their use of power. To<br />
consider these questions, twelve leading<br />
thinkers from russia, usA, Japan,<br />
india, Britain, France and china were<br />
invited to conduct their research at the<br />
Norwegian <strong>Nobel</strong> institute during the<br />
spring of <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
in co-oPeration WitH iMg and eyeworks<br />
dinamo, the <strong>org</strong>anisation annually<br />
produces the <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize<br />
concert – a tribute to the year’s <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Peace Prize Laureates featuring live<br />
music ranging from pop and rock to<br />
jazz, classical, blues and country. seal,<br />
Kylie Minogue and Jennifer Hudson<br />
were among the artists who performed<br />
during the <strong>2012</strong> concert, which was<br />
distributed to around 100 countries<br />
and supported by global benefactors<br />
Thomas L. Pearson and <strong>The</strong> Pearson<br />
Family Members Fund.<br />
BoarD oF DirECtors<br />
Geir Lundestad, professor, Director of the Norwegian<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> institute, Chairman<br />
Kaci Kullmann Five, Deputy Chair of the Norwegian<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> Committee<br />
Odd Arvid Strømstad, managing Director of Eyeworks Dinamo<br />
Asle Toje, political scientist, research Director<br />
Annika Pontikis, public relations manager, <strong>Nobel</strong>stiftelsen
Martin Schulz and José Manuel Barroso at the <strong>Nobel</strong> Peace Prize Concert<br />
proGrammE 2013<br />
14 marCH<br />
William i. Hitchcock, professor of History,<br />
university of virginia, <strong>The</strong> rise and fall of<br />
human rights? Searching for a narrative from<br />
the Cold War to the 9/11 era<br />
21 marCH<br />
torbjørn knutsen, professor of political<br />
science, Norwegian university of science<br />
and technology (NtNu), Belle époque foreign<br />
policy liberalism – a historical comparison of the<br />
1890s and the 1990s<br />
11 apriL<br />
Jean-yves Haine, professor of political science,<br />
university of toronto, Beyond sovereignty: war<br />
and in the making and unmaking of Europe<br />
18 apriL<br />
Lars trägårdh, professor of History, Ersta<br />
College, <strong>The</strong> Nordic paradox: Welfare state<br />
nationalism in bed with free market capitalism<br />
pHoto: DaNiEL saNNum-LautEN / aFp / sCaNpix<br />
25 apriL<br />
asle toje, research Director, the Norwegian<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> institute, E. H. Carr and realist visions of<br />
the post-Cold War<br />
2 may<br />
mary kaldor, professor of Global Governance,<br />
London school of Economics, <strong>The</strong> war on<br />
terror and the marginalizing of the human<br />
security discourses<br />
8 may<br />
Geir Lundestad, Director, the Norwegian<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> institute, Is the United States still number<br />
one? <strong>The</strong> most recent evidence<br />
23 may<br />
steven Lobell, professor of political science,<br />
university of utah, Power and the balance of<br />
power in the post-Cold War period<br />
28 may<br />
robert Cooper, Counsellor in the European<br />
External action service, Soft power, the<br />
postmodern state and the world order<br />
30 may<br />
paola subacchi, research Director,<br />
international Economics, Chatham House,<br />
Rethinking globalisation in the post-crisis world<br />
6 JuNE<br />
Gideon rachmann, Editor, the Financial<br />
times, From ‘enlightened self-interest to zerosum<br />
world’ – the post-Cold War and what<br />
followed<br />
13 JuNE<br />
Jonathan kirshner, professor of Government,<br />
Cornell university, From the Berlin Wall to<br />
Lehman Brothers: Ideology, interest, and the<br />
American global financial order<br />
25 JuNE<br />
Niall Ferguson, professor of History, Harvard<br />
university, When the world seemed new –<br />
visions and revisions of the post-Cold War<br />
11 DECEmBEr<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> peace prize Concert in oslo spektrum<br />
35
nObelhuseT ab<br />
tHe obJective of the company <strong>Nobel</strong>huset<br />
AB is to plan, construct, own,<br />
manage and develop the <strong>Nobel</strong> center,<br />
a building for cultural and scientific<br />
activities on the Blasieholmen peninsula<br />
in central stockholm, and to carry<br />
out related activities.<br />
on the basis of Alfred <strong>Nobel</strong>’s last<br />
will and testament, the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize<br />
is awarded to those who, through<br />
their discoveries and achievements,<br />
have conferred the greatest benefit on<br />
mankind. <strong>The</strong> future <strong>Nobel</strong> center will<br />
act in the same spirit by encouraging<br />
creativity and innovation. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
Prize fields, the Laureates’ achievements,<br />
their life stories and the future<br />
perspectives in their fields provide a<br />
rich source of inspiration on which the<br />
center will build its exhibitions, media<br />
productions and activities.<br />
With the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize as its starting<br />
point, the center will stimulate curiosity<br />
and learning among a younger generation<br />
and serve as a complement to<br />
schooling and higher education. some<br />
of its activities will more specifically be<br />
aimed towards the swedish and international<br />
scientific community. <strong>The</strong> new<br />
building will enable the <strong>Nobel</strong> sphere<br />
to arrange conferences and symposia<br />
under its own auspices as well as in<br />
collaboration with scientific institutions<br />
and <strong>org</strong>anisations. <strong>The</strong> center<br />
36<br />
NoBELHusEt aB<br />
no. of employees: 1<br />
established: <strong>2012</strong><br />
corporate iD no.: 556884-6421<br />
turnover: sEk 3,422k<br />
address: sturegatan 14, stockholm, sweden<br />
contact: nobelcenter@nobel.se<br />
will also pursue its own research about<br />
the <strong>Nobel</strong> Prize and related fields.<br />
in addition to public spaces for<br />
exhibitions, scientific conferences,<br />
meetings and events, the building will<br />
contain a library, restaurant, café and<br />
shop. <strong>The</strong> ambition is for the <strong>Nobel</strong><br />
center to be one of stockholm’s main<br />
visitor attractions.<br />
During <strong>2012</strong>, the city of stockholm<br />
and the swedish government expressed<br />
strong support for the creation of a<br />
<strong>Nobel</strong> center at Blasieholmen. Agreement<br />
was reached on construction at a<br />
city-owned site on the north side of the<br />
Blasieholm peninsula, facing Nybroviken<br />
bay – and adjacent to Nationalmuseum<br />
(the National Museum of<br />
Fine Arts) and the Museum Park.<br />
encouraging discussions are continuing<br />
with prospective donors for financing<br />
the construction. in addition, the<br />
selection process for the international<br />
architectural competition to determine<br />
the building’s design was initiated<br />
early this year. A specially appointed<br />
evaluation committee considered more<br />
than 140 architects and then selected<br />
12 finalists who will be invited to take<br />
part in the competition. <strong>The</strong> names<br />
of these architects were announced in<br />
March 2013.<br />
<strong>The</strong> site on the north side of the<br />
Blasieholmen peninsula, facing Nybroviken<br />
and adjacent to Nationalmuseum<br />
and the Museum Park, is owned by<br />
the city of stockholm. it will be made<br />
available to the <strong>Nobel</strong> center as a site<br />
leasehold. <strong>The</strong> architectural competition<br />
will include the planning of the<br />
building and land use on the site up to<br />
the waterfront. To enable the architects<br />
to create a good overall solution,<br />
they will also be allowed to include<br />
improvements to land and water areas<br />
outside the actual site in their competition<br />
proposals. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Nobel</strong> center’s<br />
location on the Blasieholmen peninsula<br />
requires careful consideration of,<br />
and sensitity towards, the urban and<br />
marine setting as well as the surrounding<br />
institutions. A well-functioning<br />
relationship between these elements is<br />
essential to the successful realisation of<br />
the project.<br />
tHe arcHitectural comPetition will<br />
begin once most of the financing has<br />
been secured. Hopefully this will occur<br />
during 2013, with an eye to starting<br />
construction in 2015 after the winning<br />
proposal has been further refined.<br />
According to this preliminary timetable,<br />
the completed <strong>Nobel</strong> center can<br />
be inaugurated in december 2018.<br />
BoarD oF DirECtors<br />
Lars Heikensten, Dr, Executive Director of the <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>, Chairman<br />
Olov Amelin, Dr, museum Director, <strong>Nobel</strong> museum<br />
Lars Anell, Chairman of the swedish research Council<br />
Staffan Normark, professor, secretary General of the royal swedish academy of sciences<br />
Anders Nylander, former Executive Director of atrium Ljungberg<br />
Hans Dalb<strong>org</strong>, Dr, former Executive Director and Chairman of Nordea<br />
Barbro Jonsson, Head of administration, <strong>Nobel</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>, deputy member
site plan of Blasieholmen, the competition site for the <strong>Nobel</strong> Center marked with (map scale 1:4000)<br />
pHoto aBovE: JEppE Wikström. iLLustratioN: aHrBom & partNEr arkitEktkoNtor.<br />
37
in 1901, 113 guests attended the first <strong>Nobel</strong> Banquet in the “Hall<br />
of Mirrors” at stockholm’s grand Hôtel. <strong>The</strong> <strong>2012</strong> banquet in<br />
stockholm’s city Hall seated 1,220 guests. <strong>The</strong> evening’s dinner<br />
was made possible with the collective effort from around 40<br />
chefs and 260 waiters. <strong>The</strong> meticulous table setting at city Hall<br />
consisted of around 470 meters of linen cloth, 7,000 porcelain<br />
pieces, 5,400 glasses and 10,000 pieces of cutlery. <strong>The</strong> floral<br />
decorations were inspired by the evening’s entertainment on the<br />
theme of “endeavour” by circus cirkör – the Blue Hall was filled<br />
with acrobats, trapeze artists, tightrope walkers, musicians, children,<br />
young and old, which reflected the full spectrum of cirkus<br />
cirkör’s activities.<br />
during the latter part of the dinner, one Laureate from each<br />
prize category gave a banquet speech while students assembled<br />
with massed standards on the grand stairway. dancing followed<br />
in the golden Hall, where the Laureates’ <strong>Nobel</strong> medals and handcrafted<br />
diplomas were displayed during the evening.<br />
vioLiNist, CaNDLELit taBLE aND roBErt J. LEFkoWitz’ BaNquEt spEECH, pHoto: orasis.<br />
aLL otHEr imaGEs oN tHE BaNquEt paGE sprEaD, pHoto: HELENa pauLiN-strömBErG.<br />
38
Cirkus Cirkör has participated in the <strong>Nobel</strong> Banquet<br />
twice. <strong>The</strong>ir first appearance in 2002 led them to new<br />
long-term partnerships in areas of pedagogics and<br />
neuroscience, which in turn resulted in innovative<br />
performances as well as interdisciplinary research<br />
projects. Photo: Niklas Elmehed.<br />
3
P.o. Box 5232, se-102 45 stockholm, sweden,<br />
Tel: +46 8 663 09 20, Fax: +46 8 660 38 47<br />
e-mail: info@nobel.se, Web: <strong>Nobel</strong>prize.<strong>org</strong>