Nobel Prize 2013

Nobel Prize, considered the most prestigious and coveted awards on the planet, have been declared in all categories for the year 2013.                                  

The Winners

Economics 

• US trio Lars Peter Hansen, Eugene Fama and Robert Shiller "for their empirical analysis of asset prices".
• Such is the extent of US domination in this category of Nobel that 17 out of the last 20 laureates in the past 10 years have come from the US Nobel Prize 2013.

Peace

• Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) “for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons”.
• It is the only Nobel award given in Norway (Oslo) and not in Sweden (Stockholm).

Literature

• Canadian writer Alice Munro, regarded as a modern Chekhov, wins 2013 Literature Nobel Prize.     
• She is the first Canadian (second Canada-born) and 13th female literature laureate and 44th female winner overall in the 112-year history of the Nobel Prizes.

Chemistry

• Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel for development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems.
• Their model allowed chemists to use computers instead of test tubes to understand chemical processes, and helped in the creation of new drugs as well as more efficient industrial products.

Physics

• Belgium's Francois Englert and Britain's Peter Higgs for theorizing the 'god particle' Higgs Boson. 

Medicine

• James Rothman, Randy Schekman (both Americans) and Thomas Sudhof (Germany-born) for mapping how cells transfer vital materials such as hormones and brain chemicals to other cells. 

Interesting facts about Nobel Prizes

• Prizes can only be awarded to individuals, except the Peace Prize.
• Each award can be given to a maximum of three people per year.
• Each prize constitutes a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of money.
• If there are multiple winners of one subject, the award money is split equally among the winners.
• The Literature and Peace Prizes are considered to be controversial as the award criteria is subjective.
• Someone cannot be nominated posthumously. Yet, if someone was alive when nominated but died before the award was given, they may be awarded posthumously.

Multiple Laureates

• Four people have received two Nobel Prizes
• Marie Curie: 1903 (Physics), 1911 (Chemistry); only laureate in two different sciences
• Linus Pauling: 1954 (Chemistry), 1962 (Peace) ;only laureate of two unshared prizes
• John Bardeen: 1956 and 1972 Prizes for Physics
• Frederick Sanger: 1958 and 1980 for Chemistry

Most awarded

• Red Cross- Thrice, in 1917, 1944 and 1963

Female Laureates

• 44 women in total (45 times) have been awarded the Nobel Prize so far; with Marie Curie twice 

Laureates who declined the award

• Jean-Paul Sartre and Le Duc Tho are the only two in history to have rejected their Nobel prizes in Literature and Peace respectively. 

The oldest recipient

• 90 year old Leonid Hurwicz, who won it in 2007 for his contributions to economics.

The youngest recipient

• 25 years old Lawrence Bragg who won the prize in 1915 for his contributions to the field of physics.