On November 27, 1895, a year before he died, Alfred Bernhard Nobel signed his last will and testament at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. Eight years before his death the Swedish chemist, inventor and engineer who held 355 patents and made his fortune in armaments and explosives (he invented dynamite and ballistite, and owned the gun-making firm Bofors) had an unexpected change of heart. In 1888, a French newspaper erroneously published Nobel’s obituary – it was actually his brother Ludvig who had died – in which it described the inventor as “the merchant of death.”
Concerned at how he might be remembered, Nobel attempted to right his wrongs: He bequeathed 94 percent of his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes to recognize scientists and inventors whose achievements conferred “the greatest benefit on mankind” in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. In 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank (the National Bank of Sweden) instituted a prize for Economic Sciences in Nobel’s memory.
Laureates receive a medal, a diploma and a sum of money that varies in relation to the Nobel Foundation’s income that year – in 2011 each prize was worth about $1.45 million. The awards are presented annually in Stockholm, Sweden (except for the Peace Prize, which is presented in Oslo, Norway).
Concerned at how he might be remembered, Nobel attempted to right his wrongs: He bequeathed 94 percent of his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes to recognize scientists and inventors whose achievements conferred “the greatest benefit on mankind” in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. In 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank (the National Bank of Sweden) instituted a prize for Economic Sciences in Nobel’s memory.
Laureates receive a medal, a diploma and a sum of money that varies in relation to the Nobel Foundation’s income that year – in 2011 each prize was worth about $1.45 million. The awards are presented annually in Stockholm, Sweden (except for the Peace Prize, which is presented in Oslo, Norway).