Nobel Prizes
The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, and based on the fortune of Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor and entrepreneur. Each Prize consists of a medal, a personal diploma, and a cash award. Nobel Prizes every year awarded for outstanding work done for greatest work done to mankind in six disciplines i.e., Physics, Chemistry, Physiology & Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economic sciences. On 27 November1895, a year before his death, Alfred Nobel signed the famous will which would implement some of the goals to which he had devoted so much of his life. Nobel stipulated in his will that most of his estate, more than SEK 31 million (today approximately SEK 1,712 million) should be converted into a fund and invested in “safe securities.” The income from the investments was to be “distributed annually in the form of prizes to those who during the preceding year have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind” mainly in five fields: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology & Medicine, Literature and Peace. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) established Nobel prize in Economic Sciences in the memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize. Between 1901 and 2017, the Nobel Prizes in all six categories have been awarded 585 times to 923 people and organizations. A person or organization awarded the Nobel Prize is called Nobel Laureate. The word “laureate” refers to being signified by the laurel wreath. In ancient Greece, laurel wreaths were awarded to victors as a sign of honor. The Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious award and thus becoming of a Nobel laureate, not only brings name and fame to the person but it (Nobel Prize) also carries a good amount of money. The prize money in 1901 started with SEK 150 782 have reached to an amount of SEK 8 256 457 in 2016.
There is no other prize in the intellectual realm with the prestige of the Nobel Prizes. They also have a visibility that can hardly be compared to any other. In an age of science and technology in which we are gradually losing whole sets of values, fundamentally humanistic ones, the Nobel Prizes are one of our last bastions. We seek in them a reference, not only of excellence, but of honesty, enthusiasm, commitment to ideals, that inspires both laymen and professionals. Many of the winners were recognized among his peers as unique individuals, long before they were awarded the Prize. And afterwards they have continued to behave like people with great human qualities. That is why knowing about them (Nobel Laureates) and their contribution (awarded discoveries) towards science and technology can be a tremendous inspiration and example for the young students from all over the world. Of all the Nobel Prizes have a more fundamental character and there is a degree of truth associated with them and they all help build what we might call the “Great Humanity”. Their findings not only generate progress and allow society to develop, but also help us to know ourselves. Detailed knowledge about the laws and mechanisms governing Nature may have no immediate application, but make us aware of our own place in the Universe, help us be more modest, more aware of our environment.
Some quick facts about Nobel Prizes
- The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Nobel Prize in Physics, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
- The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- The Swedish Academy grants the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded not by a Swedish organization but by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
- People can’t nominate themselves for the Nobel Prize, and doing so results in automatic disqualification.
- The prizes for chemistry, economics, literature, medicine, and physics can only be awarded to an individual. The prize for peace, however, can be awarded to an individual or an organization/institution.
- The names of the nominees must remain secret and can’t be disclosed for 50 years
- The awards are final and decisions can’t be appealed.
- The prize ceremonies take place annually in Stockholm, Sweden (with the exception of the peace prize, which is held in Oslo, Norway).
- Each recipient, or laureate, receives a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of money that has been decided by the Nobel Foundation.
- Medals made before 1980 were struck in 23 carat gold, and later from 18 carat green gold plated with a 24 carat gold coating.
- In thestatutes of the Nobel Foundation it says: “A prize amount may be equally divided between two works, each of which is considered to merit a prize. If a work that is being rewarded has been produced by two or three persons, the prize shall be awarded to them jointly. In no case may a prize amount be divided between more than three persons.”
- The inscription on the Nobel Peace medal is- “Pro pace et fraternitate gentium,” which means – “For the peace and brotherhood of men.”
- Nobel Peace Prizes since 1901 were not awarded on 19 occasions: in 1914-1916, 1918, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1939-1943, 1948, 1955-1956, 1966-1967 and 1972.
- The award process is similar for all of the Nobel Prizes; the main difference is in who can make nominations for each of them.
- Posthumous nominations can’t be made for Nobel Prizes. If during consideration, the nominee dies, his name is removed. But if a person dies after being announced as the winner, a posthumous award is given.
- The Curies (Marie and Pierre Curie) comprised a very successful ‘Nobel Prize family’. Marie Curie herself was awarded two Nobel Prizes.
- Laureates can’t speak off the cuff during the awards ceremony banquet, according to 2013 Nobelist Randy Schekman. Schekman says the text for that speech must be turned in to the Nobel Foundation more than 24 hours in advance to allow for translation into Swedish.
Alternative to Nobel Prize in Engineering
It’s October and that means Nobel Prize season, when the public spotlight briefly shines on a newly anointed class of laureates in medicine, physics, and chemistry. But for engineers – who typically create the very tools behind the Nobel-winning discoveries – it is business as usual. It’s not entirely accurate to say that the Nobels give engineering the total cold shoulder. Historically, innovations such as the radio, the transistor, and opto-electronic devices such as the CCD and fiber-optics have earned laurels for their inventors. Many times the science-focused prizes had a strong technological flavor to them, recognizing feats made possible only through machinery: machines that model and predict chemical processes; machines that reveal the origin of mass; machine-like biological processes that regulate communication between cells. The fruits of engineering range from nano-scale devices that get medicines to where they are needed in the body to the world’s biggest – and greenest – buildings; from the pinpoint accuracy of surgical robots to the growth and development of the world wide web. From hi-tech fabrics that make the smart clothes of the future to clean, green energy sources that power the world.
Engineers now have an unlikely friend in one of the highest, most visible places on the world media stage: The Queen of England. She has taken note of engineering’s lack of Nobel-level recognition. As a 60-year eyewitness to technology’s transformation of modern life, the monarch has thrown her royal support behind a new U.K.-based prize that could become engineering’s answer to the Nobel. The Queen Elizabeth (QE) Prize for engineering is her tip of the crown to an often-misunderstood profession that touches everything in our lives. The QEPrize demonstrates the importance of engineering in humanity, by celebrating and promoting engineering. The inaugural prize in 2013 celebrated the most global of all technical achievements – the internet (fundamental architecture, World Wide Web and Mosaic Web browser). The QEPrize is awarded every two years, for an innovation that has been of global benefit. While doing so, the prize also celebrates engineering as a discipline and career choice, shining light on the excitement and importance of engineering and inspiring young people to get involved in the subject. The QEPrize celebrates stories of these engineering successes, raising the profile of engineering and inspiring new generations of engineers to take up the challenges of the future.
Contribution towards Electronics
The aim of this compilation is to introduce some basics about the Nobel prizes to the curious readers of any discipline and to highlight the contribution of Nobel Prize discoveries in the growth of electronics. Every engineering invention has its scientific base is the statement which generally most of the engineering students in India do not agree easily. When a science teacher in general and physics teacher in particular tell his engineering students that Mechanics in Physics has grown to mechanical engineering, heat and thermodynamics to chemical engineering, electricity, magnetism and electrodynamics to electronics and many more like this, students only listen but do not follow the intention of the teacher behind the statement. Discussion on Nobel Prizes also draws a flake from engineering people as they think that Alfred Nobel and later the Nobel foundation have been too partial towards engineering disciplines by not constituting the award of Nobel Prizes in engineering disciplines. Famous scientists and inventors of different scientific disciplines shaped electronics to its present form. If it weren’t for them, the electronics industry today wouldn’t be what it is. The research work done by researchers in the areas of Physics, Chemistry and Medicine sometimes leading to the award of Nobel prize guide towards different advances in the world of electronics technology which we are enjoying today in many day to day applications in the fields of communication, medical, entertainment and household electronics applications.
From smartphones, tablets, radio, and computers, everything that is related with electronics engineering all came from the development of the electricity, which is primarily the concern of electrical engineering. Often interchanged with each other, electronics engineering and electrical engineering are different fields of study. But the two are related with each other – both involve moving electricity around a circuit to power devices and machines – yet they are different in terms of circuitry being studied. What sets electronic circuits different from electrical circuits is its ability to make decisions, process information, and interpret a signal or instruction to perform a task. The components are usually small, using direct current (DC) voltages. On the other hand, electrical circuits simply power machines with electricity. They are almost always larger, which require alternating current (AC) voltages. This relationship between the two tells that the histories of both are almost aligned at the start, during the development of electricity. This is why that some people who revolutionized the engineering of electric power are also part of the flourish of electronic devices and computers. Table 1 highlights those famous scientist and inventors (Nobel Laureates) from Physics, Chemistry and Medicine categories whose inventions helped in shaping the electronics to present level.
Table 1: Gives the contribution of Nobel prizes in Physics, chemistry and medicine towards electronics