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Nobel Prize: Nobel Prizes
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Many have commented that it appears that Nobel had drafted the provisions of his will dealing with the Peace Prize with his old friend the professional pacifist Baroness von Suttner in mind. Suttner wrote tirelessly on peace and was honourary president of the Permanent International Peace Bureau. She was ... overlooked as the peace laureate during the first four years of the award causing "a good deal of dismay."28 This led Nobel's nephew Emanuel Nobel, a family member who had refused to join with the others in their attempt to contest the will, to intervene. He informed committee member Björnson that he knew from his uncle's remarks that the Prize was intended for Suttner. One of the witnesses of the will, Lieutenant Ehrenburg, wrote to Björnson in a similar vein, and the following year the Baroness was duly awarded the Prize. At the awarding ceremony Björnson declared that the choice of Bertha von Suttner was "a duty to Nobel's memory."29
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A particular claimed weakness of the Nobel Peace Prize awarding process is the swiftness of recognition. The scientific and literary Nobel Prizes are usually issued in retrospect, often two or three decades after the awarded achievement... representing a time-proven confirmation and balance of approval by the established academic community, seldom contradicted by newer developments. In contrast, the Nobel Peace Prize at times takes the form of summary judgment, being issued in the same year as or the year immediately following the political act. Some commentators have suggested that to award a peace prize on the basis of unquantifiable contemporary opinion is unjust or possibly erroneous, especially as many of the judges cannot themselves be said to be impartial observers. In pro-democracy struggles, it may be said that the 'real' peace-makers may not be recognized for their long-term or subtle approaches. However, others have pointed to the uniqueness of the Peace Prize in that its high profile can often focus world attention on particular problems and possibly aid in the peace-efforts themselves.
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[T]he fact that Bilirakis is not qualified to nominate Nobel Prize winners did not stop Scarborough or Hannity from referring to Hammesfahr as a Nobel Prize nominee. Hannity did so a total of eight times during a single hour-long program; Scarborough made the reference four times. Additionally, Scarborough erroneously claimed that Hammesfahr has "treated" Schiavo; in fact, Hammesfahr has merely examined her as one of five doctors approved by a Florida court in 2001 to do so. He was one of two doctors selected by Schiavo's parents; two others were selected by Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, and the fifth was chosen by the court.
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Leo Esaki (born 1925) Nobel Prize in Physics, 1973 -- Discovery of the electron “tunneling” effect, which showed that an electric current could find a way through a voltage barrier -- a breakthrough for the electronics industry. On display: Sony radio and Esaki diode (both ca. 1965) and portrait.
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Several prizes in mathematics have similarities to the Nobel Prize. The Fields Medal is often described as the Nobel Prize of mathematics, but it differs in being awarded only once every four years to people younger than forty years old. A comparison may be made with the Crafoord Prize, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences since 1982. Other comparable prizes are the Abel Prize, awarded by the Norwegian government as of 2001; the Shaw Prize in mathematical sciences given since 2004; and the Gauss Prize, first introduced by the International Mathematical Union and the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung at the 2006 International Congress of Mathematicians for practical and applied mathematics research. The Clay Mathematics Institute has set up seven "Millennium Problems" [19], the solving of which results in a significant cash award. This prize differs from the Nobel in that it has a clear, predetermined objective for its award, and these prizes can be awarded whenever a problem is solved.
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Family members were shocked when they learned that Nobel had dictated that his fortune be used to establish the Nobel Prizes. They contested his will, but his final wishes were executed and the first awards were distributed in 1901, on the fifth anniversary of his death. The prize in economics... was established in 1968 by Riksbank, the Swedish bank, in honor of its 300th anniversary. Stockholm's Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences administers the award in physics and chemistry, the Royal Caroline Medical Institute awards the prize in physiology or medicine, and the Swedish Academy oversees the prize in literature. The Norwegian Storting, or parliament, awards the peace prize.
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