OSLO, NORWAY – DECEMBER 10: A plaque depicting Alfred Nobel at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony 2008 in Oslo City Hall on December 10, 2008 in Oslo, Norway. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008 to Martti Ahtisaari for his important efforts, on several continents and more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts. The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. His will stated that the prize should be awarded by a committee of five people elected by the Norwegian Parliament. The Peace Prize is presented annually in Oslo, Norway, in the presence of the king, on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA) will on Tuesday announce who will be awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, the second Nobel decision this week.
Last year, the prize was awarded to quantum physicists John Clarke (United Kingdom), Michel Devoret (France), and John Martinis (US).
The Nobel Prizes trace their origins back to Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), the inventor of dynamite and founder of the prizes.In his will, he stipulated that the prizes should be awarded to those who, in the previous year, had been of the greatest benefit to humanity in the various prize categories.Physics was the first category mentioned by Nobel in his will.
The first winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1901, was the German Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen for his discovery of X-rays, named after him.
The Nobel Prizes are traditionally presented on the anniversary of Nobel’s death, 10 December.
Physics was the first category mentioned by Nobel in his will.
