What Are the Nobel Prizes? Their History and the 2026 Laureates

Where the Nobel Prizes come from

The prizes trace back to Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist and inventor best known for dynamite, who died on 10 December 1896. His will directed that most of his fortune — about 94% of his assets, roughly 31 million Swedish kronor at the time — be used to fund annual prizes for people whose achievements had brought major benefit to humanity, according to the English-language Wikipedia summary of the will's terms.

Nobel named five original fields: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. The first prizes were handed out in 1901, on the fifth anniversary of his death; the inaugural Physics Prize went to Wilhelm Röntgen for discovering X-rays.

How laureates are chosen

Each September, nomination forms go out to roughly 3,000 academics, past laureates and other qualified nominators. From the nominations received, Nobel Committees narrow the field to about 300 candidates before the relevant awarding institution selects winners by majority vote. Nomination records are sealed for 50 years, so the shortlists behind any given year's prize are not made public at the time.

Four separate institutions run the selection process, each responsible for different fields, a division that has stayed essentially unchanged since 1901.

The Economic Sciences prize is not one Alfred Nobel created. It was endowed by Sweden's central bank, Sveriges Riksbank, in 1968 to mark the bank's 300th anniversary, and it is formally called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It is announced and presented alongside the original five but is administered separately.

The 2026 Nobel Prizes: Literature and Peace

On 8 October 2026, the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to Canadian poet and writer Anne Carson, 76, citing an inventive body of work that engages playfully with classical tradition while creating new literary forms, according to Al Jazeera's report on the announcement. Carson, a classics professor who has published more than 20 books mixing poetry, prose and translation of ancient Greek texts, was born in Toronto and now holds Icelandic citizenship as well.

The following day, 9 October 2026, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, an 85-year-old South African-born jurist, recognizing her work to advance peace and international law, according to CBS News. Pillay served as a judge on the International Criminal Court from 2003 to 2008, later became United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and currently sits as an ad hoc judge on the International Court of Justice. CBS News reported she also led a UN inquiry that concluded Israel's actions in Gaza constituted genocide, and that the award drew strong condemnation from Israel and the Trump administration, with the US announcing additional sanctions against the ICC hours after the announcement.

Both 2026 prizes carry the same monetary award: 12 million Swedish kronor, about $1.2 million, per CBS News and Al Jazeera.

The prizes by the numbers

• As of 2026, 633 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 1,018 individuals and organizations, per Wikipedia's tally.
• Five people have won two Nobel Prizes; Marie Curie is the only laureate honored in two different scientific fields.
• The Curie family holds the record for a single family: four prizes shared among five family members.
• The United States has produced more laureates than any other country, with 427 recorded.

The award ceremonies for the 2026 prizes are expected to follow the traditional 10 December date — the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death — as in previous years, though a precise ceremony date for 2026 was not specified in the reports reviewed.