The Swedish Nobel Prize Ceremony has been held every year since 1901 on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death on December 10. The Nobel Prize winners, the King and Queen of Sweden and all invites take delight in dining at "Stadshuset," Stockholm's City Hall by the harbor. The festivities celebrate those "who during the preceding year have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind," in accordance with Alfred Nobel's will. The Nobel Prize is awarded in five categories: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and work for fraternity between nations (peace). To these five prizes, the Bank of Sweden added a special prize in economics in 1968 in celebration of its tercentenary.
Over 700 men and women, leaders within their respective domains, have had their achievements and discoveries universally recognized through the Nobel Prize. Of these, by far the largest number – more than a third – have been American citizens.
Since WWII, California has been the state in the world with the highest number of Nobel Laureates, reflecting the array of excellent universities and scientific institutions located here. Glenn Seaborg won the Prize for Chemistry in 1951 and Linus Pauling won the Prize for Chemistry in 1954 and the Peace Prize 1962, just to mention two of the outstanding California scientists who have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
The total number of Nobel Laureates associated with the University of California, including Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego and Irvine, is 40 out of which 23 are still alive. In addition, there are 27 Nobel Laureates associated with the California Institute of Technology, Caltech, of which 14 are alive, and 23 Laureates associated with Stanford, of which 15 are alive. Finally, there is one Laureate at the University of Southern California (USC). Added together, California's various scientific institutions have produced about 90 Nobel Prize winners.
THE CALIFORNIA NOBEL PRIZE CENTENNIAL 2001
2001 was the 100th year of the Nobel Prize. To celebrate the anniversary and to honor the California Laureates, the Consulates General in Los Angeles and San Francisco initiated the California Nobel Prize Centennial 2001: A series of events in collaboration with CA's renowned academic institutions, the California Science Center in Los Angeles and Exploratorium in San Francisco.
For more information about the Nobel Prize, and to visit the new interactive Nobel e-Museum, please go to www.nobel.se