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List of Nobel laureates

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121-667: The Nobel Prizes ( Swedish : Nobelpriset , Norwegian : Nobelprisen ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences , the Swedish Academy , the Karolinska Institutet , and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in the fields of chemistry , physics , literature , peace , and physiology or medicine . They were established by

242-707: A cerebral haemorrhage . He was 63 years old. Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime. He composed the last over a year before he died, signing it at the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895. To widespread astonishment, Nobel's last will specified that his fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics , chemistry , physiology or medicine , literature , and peace . Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million SEK (c. US$ 186 million, €150 million in 2008), to establish

363-456: A point-contact transistor that achieved amplification. By the next month, Bell Labs ' patent attorneys started to work on the patent applications. Bell Labs' attorneys soon discovered that Shockley's field effect principle had been anticipated and patented in 1930 by Julius Lilienfeld , who filed his MESFET -like patent in Canada on October 22, 1925. Shockley publicly took the lion's share of

484-459: A French newspaper. It was Alfred's brother Ludvig who had died; the obituary was eight years premature. The article disconcerted Nobel and made him apprehensive about how he would be remembered. This inspired him to change his will . Historians have been unable to verify this story and some dismiss the story as a myth. On 10 December 1896, Alfred Nobel died in his villa in San Remo, Italy , from

605-612: A Victorian poet. The first Physiology or Medicine Prize went to the German physiologist and microbiologist Emil von Behring . During the 1890s, von Behring developed an antitoxin to treat diphtheria , which until then had been causing thousands of deaths each year. The first Nobel Peace Prize went to the Swiss Jean Henri Dunant for his role in founding the International Red Cross Movement and initiating

726-616: A ceremony at the University of Illinois. His citation reads: "Theoretical physicist John Bardeen (1908–1991) shared the Nobel Prize in Physics twice—in 1956, as co-inventor of the transistor and in 1972, for the explanation of superconductivity. The transistor paved the way for all modern electronics, from computers to microchips. Diverse applications of superconductivity include infrared sensors and medical imaging systems." The other scientists on

847-954: A code of moral values and behavior. John Bardeen's children were taken to church by his wife, who taught Sunday school and was a church elder. Despite this, he and his wife made it clear that they did not have faith in an afterlife and other religious ideas. He was the father of James M. Bardeen , William A. Bardeen , and daughter Elizabeth. Bardeen died of heart disease at age 82 at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston , Massachusetts , on January 30, 1991. Although he lived in Champaign-Urbana , he had come to Boston for medical consultation. Bardeen and his wife Jane (1907–1997) are buried in Forest Hill Cemetery , Madison, Wisconsin. They were survived by three children, James , William and Elizabeth Bardeen Greytak, and six grandchildren. Near

968-470: A common understanding, and at points Josephson repeatedly asked Bardeen, "Did you calculate it? No? I did." In 1963, experimental evidence and further theoretical clarifications were discovered supporting the Josephson effect, notably in a paper by Philip W. Anderson and John Rowell from Bell Labs . After this, Bardeen came to accept Josephson's theory and publicly withdrew his previous opposition to it at

1089-671: A conference held in August 1963. Bardeen also invited Josephson as a postdoc in Illinois for the academic year of 1965–1966, and later nominated Josephson and Giaever for the Nobel Prize in Physics, which they received in 1973. In 1972, Bardeen shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Leon N Cooper of Brown University and John Robert Schrieffer of the University of Pennsylvania "for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called

1210-402: A consequence of his patent claims, Nobel was eventually involved in a patent infringement lawsuit over cordite. Nobel amassed a fortune during his lifetime, with most of his wealth coming from his 355 inventions, of which dynamite is the most famous. There is a popular story about how, in 1888, Nobel was astonished to read his own obituary , titled "The Merchant of Death Is Dead", in

1331-464: A foundation established by Alfred Nobel would reward those who serve humanity. The Nobel Prize was funded by Alfred Nobel's personal fortune. According to the official sources, Alfred Nobel bequeathed most of his fortune to the Nobel Foundation that now forms the economic base of the Nobel Prize. The Nobel Foundation was founded as a private organisation on 29 June 1900. Its function is to manage

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1452-450: A medal, a diploma and a monetary award that has varied throughout the years. In 1901, the recipients of the first Nobel Prizes were given 150,782 SEK , equivalent to 10.8 million SEK in 2023. In 2017, the laureates were awarded a prize amount of 9 million SEK. The awards are presented in Stockholm in an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. In years in which

1573-691: A prize if their impact is realised after the discoverers have died. Except for the Peace Prize, the Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm, Sweden, at the annual Prize Award Ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The recipients' lectures are normally held in the days prior to the award ceremony. The Peace Prize and its recipients' lectures are presented at the annual Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, usually on 10 December. The award ceremonies and

1694-599: A problem in solid-state physics . Before completing his thesis, he was offered a position as junior fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University in 1935. He spent the next three years there, from 1935 to 1938, working with to-be Nobel laureates in physics John Hasbrouck van Vleck and Percy Williams Bridgman on problems in cohesion and electrical conduction in metals,and also did some work on level density of nuclei. He received his Ph.D. in mathematical physics from Princeton in 1936. From 1941 to 1944, Bardeen headed

1815-472: A professor for almost 40 years at the University of Illinois, he was best remembered by neighbors for hosting cookouts where he would prepare food for his friends, many of whom were unaware of his accomplishments at the university. He would always ask his guests if they liked the hamburger bun toasted (since he liked his that way). He enjoyed playing golf and going on picnics with his family. Lillian Hoddeson said that because he "differed radically from

1936-546: A solid funding base for the prizes and the administrative activities. The Nobel Foundation is exempt from all taxes in Sweden (since 1946) and from investment taxes in the United States (since 1953). Since the 1980s, the foundation's investments have become more profitable and as of 31 December 2007, the assets controlled by the Nobel Foundation amounted to 3.628 billion Swedish kronor (c. US$ 560 million). According to

2057-480: A super-current flow across a barrier, effect which later became known as the Josephson effect . Bardeen challenged Josephson's theory on a note in his own paper received ten days later by Physical Review Letters : In a recent note, Josephson uses a somewhat similar formulation to discuss the possibility of superfluid flow across the tunneling region, in which no quasi-particles are created. However, as pointed out by

2178-803: Is 11,000,000 kr , amounting to approximately US$ 1,035,000 . A prize may not be shared among more than three individuals, although the Nobel Peace Prize can be awarded to organisations of more than three people. Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously , but if a person is awarded a prize and dies before receiving it, the prize is presented. The Nobel Prizes, beginning in 1901, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, beginning in 1969, have been awarded 609 times to 975 people and 25 organisations. Five individuals and two organisations have received more than one Nobel Prize. Alfred Nobel

2299-473: Is also frequently included, as it is also administered by the Nobel Foundation . The Nobel Prizes are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards available in their respective fields. The prize ceremonies take place annually. Each recipient, known as a laureate , receives a green gold medal plated with 24 karat gold, a diploma , and a monetary award. As of 2023, the Nobel Prize monetary award

2420-414: Is announced immediately after the vote. A maximum of three laureates and two different works may be selected per award. Except for the Peace Prize, which can be awarded to institutions, the awards can only be given to individuals. The winners are announced by the awarding institutions during the first two weeks of October. Although posthumous nominations are not presently permitted, individuals who died in

2541-926: Is decided annually by the Nobel Foundation. Different organisations are responsible for awarding the individual prizes; the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, and Economics; the Swedish Academy awards the Prize in Literature; the Karolinska Institute awards the Prize in Physiology or Medicine; and the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Prize in Peace. Each recipient receives

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2662-570: Is similar for all of the Nobel Prizes, the main difference being who can make nominations for each of them. Nomination forms are sent by the Nobel Committee to about 3,000 individuals, usually in September the year before the prizes are awarded. These individuals are generally prominent academics working in a relevant area. Regarding the Peace Prize, inquiries are also sent to governments, former Peace Prize laureates, and current or former members of

2783-691: The Economic Sciences prize of 16.5 Million kronor is paid by the Sveriges Riksbank . Once the Nobel Foundation and its guidelines were in place, the Nobel Committees began collecting nominations for the inaugural prizes. Subsequently, they sent a list of preliminary candidates to the prize-awarding institutions. The Nobel Committee's Physics Prize shortlist cited Wilhelm Röntgen 's discovery of X-rays and Philipp Lenard 's work on cathode rays . The Academy of Sciences selected Röntgen for

2904-426: The Nobel Prize in Physics with William Shockley of Semiconductor Laboratory of Beckman Instruments and Walter Brattain of Bell Telephone Laboratories " for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect ". At the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm , Brattain and Shockley received their awards that night from King Gustaf VI Adolf . Bardeen brought only one of his three children to

3025-753: The Rohingya genocide and calls were made to strip her of her Nobel Peace Prize. The award of the 2004 Literature Prize to Elfriede Jelinek drew a protest from a member of the Swedish Academy, Knut Ahnlund . Ahnlund resigned, alleging that the selection of Jelinek had caused "irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art". He alleged that Jelinek's works were "a mass of text shovelled together without artistic structure". The 2009 Literature Prize to Herta Müller also generated criticism. According to The Washington Post , many US literary critics and professors were ignorant of her work. This made those critics feel

3146-540: The transistor ; and again in 1972 with Leon N. Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer for a fundamental theory of conventional superconductivity known as the BCS theory . The transistor revolutionized the electronics industry, making possible the development of almost every modern electronic device, from telephones to computers , and ushering in the Information Age . Bardeen's developments in superconductivity—for which he

3267-470: The trustees . However, since 1995, all the members of the board have been chosen by the trustees, and the executive director and the deputy director appointed by the board itself. As well as the board, the Nobel Foundation is made up of the prize-awarding institutions (the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute, the Swedish Academy, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee ),

3388-404: The 1895 will of Alfred Nobel , which dictates that the awards should be administered by the Nobel Foundation . An additional prize in memory of Alfred Nobel was established in 1968 by the Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden's central bank ) for outstanding contributions to the field of economics . Each recipient, a Nobelist or laureate , receives a gold medal , a diploma , and a sum of money which

3509-445: The 1895 will of Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist Alfred Nobel , in the year before he died. Prizes were first awarded in 1901 by the Nobel Foundation . Nobel's will indicated that the awards should be granted in the fields of Physics , Chemistry , Physiology or Medicine , Literature , and Peace . A sixth prize for Economic Sciences , endowed by Sweden 's central bank, Sveriges Riksbank , and first presented in 1969,

3630-536: The 1926 Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his purported discovery of a parasite that caused cancer. To avoid repeating this embarrassment, the awards increasingly recognised scientific discoveries that had withstood the test of time. According to Ralf Pettersson, former chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology or Medicine, "the criterion 'the previous year' is interpreted by the Nobel Assembly as

3751-420: The 1980s, when the prize money was 880,000 SEK per prize (c. 2.6 million SEK altogether, US$ 350,000 today). In 2009, the monetary award was 10 million SEK (US$ 1.4 million). In June 2012, it was lowered to 8 million SEK. If two laureates share the prize in a category, the award grant is divided equally between the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of dividing

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3872-507: The 2022 Chemistry Prize for click chemistry . Two organisations have received the Peace Prize multiple times. The International Committee of the Red Cross received it three times: in 1917 and 1944 for its work during the world wars; and in 1963 during the year of its centenary. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been awarded the Peace Prize twice for assisting refugees: in 1954 and 1981. The Curie family has received

3993-525: The BCS-theory". This was Bardeen's second Nobel Prize in Physics. He became the first person to win two Nobel Prizes in the same field. Bardeen brought his three children to the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm. Bardeen gave much of his Nobel Prize money to fund the Fritz London Memorial Lectures at Duke University . In the late 1960s, Bardeen felt that Cooper and Schrieffer deserved

4114-749: The Century." Bardeen is the first of only three people to have won multiple Nobel Prizes in the same category (the others being Frederick Sanger and Karl Barry Sharpless in chemistry), and one of five persons with two Nobel Prizes . Bardeen was born in Madison, Wisconsin , on May 23, 1908. He was the son of Charles Bardeen , the first dean of the University of Wisconsin Medical School. Bardeen attended University of Wisconsin High School in Madison. He graduated from

4235-567: The Geneva Convention, and jointly given to French pacifist Frédéric Passy , founder of the Peace League and active with Dunant in the Alliance for Order and Civilization. In 1938 and 1939, Adolf Hitler 's Third Reich forbade three laureates from Germany ( Richard Kuhn , Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt , and Gerhard Domagk ) from accepting their prizes. They were all later able to receive

4356-468: The John Bardeen Professor is Yurii Vlasov . At the time of Bardeen's death, then-University of Illinois chancellor Morton Weir said, "It is a rare person whose work changes the life of every American; John's did." Bardeen was honored on a March 6, 2008, United States postage stamp as part of the "American Scientists" series designed by artist Victor Stabin . The $ 0.41 stamp was unveiled in

4477-471: The King and Queen of Norway. In total, about 250 guests attend. According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, each laureate is required to give a public lecture on a subject related to the topic of their prize. The Nobel lecture as a rhetorical genre took decades to reach its current format. These lectures normally occur during Nobel Week (the week leading up to the award ceremony and banquet, which begins with

4598-517: The Mint of Norway, located in Kongsberg, made the medals. The Nobel Prize medals are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation. Each medal features an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the obverse . The medals for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature have identical obverses, showing the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death. Nobel's portrait also appears on

4719-435: The Nobel Peace Prize." Yasser Arafat , Shimon Peres , and Yitzhak Rabin received the Peace Prize in 1994 for their efforts in making peace between Israel and Palestine. Immediately after the award was announced, one of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members denounced Arafat as a terrorist and resigned. Additional misgivings about Arafat were widely expressed in various newspapers. Another controversial Peace Prize

4840-569: The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm occurs when each Nobel laureate steps forward to receive the prize from the hands of the King of Sweden . In Oslo, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway and the Norwegian royal family . At first, King Oscar II did not approve of awarding grand prizes to foreigners. After

4961-465: The Nobel Prize ceremony. King Gustav chided Bardeen because of this, and Bardeen assured the King that the next time he would bring all his children to the ceremony. He kept his promise. In 1957, Bardeen, in collaboration with Leon Cooper and his doctoral student John Robert Schrieffer , proposed the standard theory of superconductivity known as the BCS theory (named for their initials). Bardeen became interested in superconducting tunnelling in

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5082-539: The Nobel Prize is not awarded due to external events or a lack of nominations, the prize money is returned to the funds delegated to the relevant prize. The Nobel Prize was not awarded between 1940 and 1942 due to the outbreak of World War II . Between 1901 and 2017, the Nobel Prizes and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 585 times to 923 people and organizations. With some receiving

5203-533: The Nobel Prize more than once, this makes a total of 892 individuals (including 844 men, 48 women) and 24 organizations. Six Nobel laureates were not permitted by their governments to accept the Nobel Prize. Adolf Hitler forbade four Germans, Richard Kuhn (Chemistry, 1938), Adolf Butenandt (Chemistry, 1939), Gerhard Domagk (Physiology or Medicine, 1939) and Carl von Ossietzky (Peace, 1936) from accepting their Nobel Prizes. The Chinese government forbade Liu Xiaobo from accepting his Nobel Prize (Peace, 2010) and

5324-519: The Nobel prize for BCS. He was concerned that they might not be awarded because of the Nobel Committee 's reticence to award the same person twice, which would be his case as a co-author of the theory. Bardeen nominated scientists who worked on superconducting tunneling effects such as the Josephson effect for the prize in 1967: Leo Esaki , Ivar Giaever and Brian Josephson . He recognized that because

5445-455: The North announced that Kissinger was not a peace-maker but the opposite, responsible for widening the war. Those hostile to the North and what they considered its deceptive practices during negotiations were deprived of a chance to criticise Lê Đức Thọ, as he declined the award. The satirist and musician Tom Lehrer has remarked that "political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded

5566-507: The Norwegian Nobel Committee fled into exile. The remaining members escaped persecution from the Germans when the Nobel Foundation stated that the committee building in Oslo was Swedish property. Thus it was a safe haven from the German military, which was not at war with Sweden. These members kept the work of the committee going, but did not award any prizes. In 1944, the Nobel Foundation, together with

5687-405: The Norwegian Nobel Committee. The deadline for the return of the nomination forms is 31 January of the year of the award. The Nobel Committee nominates about 300 potential laureates from these forms and additional names. The nominees are not publicly named, nor are they told that they are being considered for the prize. All nomination records for a prize are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of

5808-543: The Physiology or Medicine Prize for his development of the prefrontal leucotomy . The previous year, Walter Freeman had developed a version of the procedure which was faster and easier to carry out. Due in part to the publicity surrounding the original procedure, Freeman's procedure was prescribed without due consideration or regard for modern medical ethics . Endorsed by such influential publications as The New England Journal of Medicine , leucotomy or "lobotomy" became so popular that about 5,000 lobotomies were performed in

5929-536: The Physiology or Medicine Prize in 1959; Kornberg's son Roger later received the Chemistry Prize in 2006. Arthur Schawlow received the 1981 Physics prize, and was married to the sister of 1964 Physics laureate Charles Townes . Two members of the Hodgkin family received Nobels in consecutive years: Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin shared in the Nobel for Physiology or Medicine in 1963, followed by Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin ,

6050-403: The United States in the three years immediately following Moniz's receipt of the Prize. John Bardeen John Bardeen ( / b ɑːr ˈ d iː n / ; May 23, 1908 – January 30, 1991) was an American physicist and electrical engineer . He is the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of

6171-595: The University of Wisconsin. Despite taking a year off to work in Chicago, he graduated in 1928. Taking all the graduate courses in physics and mathematics that had interested him, Bardeen graduated in five years instead of the usual four. This allowed him time to complete his master's thesis, supervised by Leo J. Peters. He received his Master of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1929 from Wisconsin. Bardeen furthered his studies by staying on at Wisconsin, but he eventually went to work for Gulf Research Laboratories ,

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6292-567: The associated banquets are typically major international events. The Prizes awarded in Sweden's ceremonies are held at the Stockholm Concert Hall , with the Nobel banquet following immediately at Stockholm City Hall . The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has been held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905–1946), at the auditorium of the University of Oslo (1947–1989), and at Oslo City Hall (1990–present). The highlight of

6413-419: The author (reference 3), pairing does not extend into the barrier, so that there can be no such superfluid flow. The matter was further discussed on the 8th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics held September 16 to 22, 1962 at Queen Mary University of London . While Josephson was presenting his theory, Bardeen rose to describe his objections. After an intense debate both men were unable to reach

6534-782: The award ceremony in Sweden, a banquet is held in the Blue Hall at the Stockholm City Hall , which is attended by the Swedish Royal Family and around 1,300 guests. The Nobel Peace Prize banquet is held in Norway at the Oslo Grand Hotel after the award ceremony. Apart from the laureate, guests include the president of the Storting , on occasion the Swedish prime minister, and, since 2006,

6655-683: The award due to the situation Vietnam was in at the time. Seven laureates have received more than one prize; of the seven, the International Committee of the Red Cross has received the Nobel Peace Prize three times, more than any other. UNHCR has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize twice. Also the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John Bardeen twice, as was the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Frederick Sanger and Karl Barry Sharpless . Two laureates have been awarded twice but not in

6776-483: The award, and others saying he had not secured the achievements to yet merit such an accolade. Obama's award, along with the previous Peace Prizes for Jimmy Carter and Al Gore , also prompted accusations of a liberal bias. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded Peace Prize in 1993 however in 2015 when she came into power in Myanmar , she was criticized for being silent on human rights violation under her rule and especially over

6897-510: The conducting wires with electrolytes . Moore built a circuit that allowed them to vary the frequency of the input signal easily and suggested that they use glycol borate (gu), a viscous chemical that did not evaporate. Finally, they began to get some evidence of power amplification when Pearson, acting on a suggestion by Shockley, put a voltage on a droplet of gu placed across a p–n junction . On December 23, 1947, Bardeen and Brattain were working without Shockley when they succeeded in creating

7018-467: The credit for the invention of the transistor; this led to a deterioration of Bardeen's relationship with him. Bell Labs management, however, consistently presented all three inventors as a team. Shockley eventually infuriated and alienated Bardeen and Brattain, essentially blocking the two from working on the junction transistor. Bardeen began pursuing a theory for superconductivity and left Bell Labs in 1951. Brattain refused to work with Shockley further and

7139-409: The decision in question was made. Specific General Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( / n oʊ ˈ b ɛ l / noh- BEL ; Swedish : Nobelpriset [nʊˈbɛ̂lːˌpriːsɛt] ; Norwegian : Nobelprisen [nʊˈbɛ̀lːˌpriːsn̩] ) are five separate prizes awarded to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind, as established by

7260-409: The decision to award Steinman the prize "was made in good faith", it would remain unchanged, and the prize would be awarded. Nobel's will provided for prizes to be awarded in recognition of discoveries made "during the preceding year". Early on, the awards usually recognised recent discoveries. However, some of those early discoveries were later discredited. For example, Johannes Fibiger was awarded

7381-467: The decisive factor that enabled the Nobel Prizes to be established". Another important task of the Nobel Foundation is to market the prizes internationally and to oversee informal administration related to the prizes. The foundation is not involved in the process of selecting the Nobel laureates . In many ways, the Nobel Foundation is similar to an investment company , in that it invests Nobel's money to create

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7502-474: The diploma and medal. Even though Sweden was officially neutral during the Second World War, the prizes were awarded irregularly. In 1939, the Peace Prize was not awarded. No prize was awarded in any category from 1940 to 1942, due to the occupation of Norway by Germany . In the subsequent year, all prizes were awarded except those for literature and peace. During the occupation of Norway, three members of

7623-582: The electrical engineering department and one in the physics department. The research program in the electrical engineering department dealt with both experimental and theoretical aspects of semiconductors, and the research program in the physics department dealt with theoretical aspects of macroscopic quantum systems, particularly superconductivity and quantum liquids. He was an active professor at Illinois from 1951 to 1975 and then became professor emeritus . In his later life, Bardeen remained active in academic research, during which time he focused on understanding

7744-414: The end of this decade, when they begin enumerating the names of the people who had the greatest impact on the 20th century, the name of John Bardeen, who died last week, has to be near, or perhaps even arguably at, the top of the list ... Mr. Bardeen shared two Nobel Prizes and has been awarded numerous other honors. But what greater honor can there be when each of us can look all around us and everywhere see

7865-472: The finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. In accordance with Nobel's will , the primary task of the foundation is to manage the fortune Nobel left. Robert and Ludvig Nobel were involved in the oil business in Azerbaijan , and according to Swedish historian E. Bargengren, who accessed the Nobel family archive , it was this "decision to allow withdrawal of Alfred's money from Baku that became

7986-444: The five Nobel Prizes. Owing to skepticism surrounding the will, it was not approved by the Storting in Norway until 26 April 1897. The executors of the will, Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, formed the Nobel Foundation to take care of the fortune and to organise the awarding of prizes. Nobel's instructions named a Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the Peace Prize , the members of which were appointed shortly after

8107-517: The flow of electrons in charge density waves (CDWs) through metallic linear chain compounds. His proposals that CDW electron transport is a collective quantum phenomenon (see Macroscopic quantum phenomena ) were initially greeted with skepticism. However, experiments reported in 2012 show oscillations in CDW current versus magnetic flux through tantalum trisulfide rings, similar to the behavior of superconducting quantum interference devices (see SQUID and Aharonov–Bohm effect ), lending credence to

8228-418: The government of the Soviet Union pressured Boris Pasternak (Literature, 1958) to decline his award. Liu Xiaobo , Carl von Ossietzky and Aung San Suu Kyi were all awarded their Nobel Prize while in prison or detention. Two Nobel laureates, Jean-Paul Sartre (Literature, 1964) and Lê Ðức Thọ (Peace, 1973), declined the award; Sartre declined the award as he declined all official honors, and Thọ declined

8349-414: The grant equally, or awarding one-half to one recipient and one-quarter to each of the others. It is common for recipients to donate prize money to benefit scientific, cultural, or humanitarian causes. Five people have received two Nobel Prizes. Marie Curie received the Physics Prize in 1903 for her work on radioactivity and the Chemistry Prize in 1911 for the isolation of pure radium , making her

8470-546: The group were Walter Brattain , physicist Gerald Pearson , chemist Robert Gibney, electronics expert Hilbert Moore and several technicians. He moved his family to Summit, New Jersey . The assignment of the group was to seek a solid-state alternative to fragile glass vacuum tube amplifiers. Their first attempts were based on Shockley's ideas about using an external electrical field on a semiconductor to affect its conductivity. These experiments mysteriously failed every time in all sorts of configurations and materials. The group

8591-419: The group working on magnetic mines and torpedoes and mine and torpedo countermeasures at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory . During this period, his wife Jane gave birth to a son (Bill, born in 1941) and a daughter (Betsy, born in 1944). In October 1945, Bardeen began work at Bell Labs as a member of a solid-state physics group led by William Shockley and chemist Stanley Morgan. Other personnel working in

8712-426: The holders. After the war, the gold was recovered from solution, and the medals re-cast. Nobel laureates receive a diploma directly from the hands of the King of Sweden, or in the case of the peace prize, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Each diploma is uniquely designed by the prize-awarding institutions for the laureates that receive them. The diploma contains a picture and text in Swedish which states

8833-465: The idea that collective CDW electron transport is fundamentally quantum in nature. (See quantum mechanics .) Bardeen continued his research throughout the 1980s, and published articles in Physical Review Letters and Physics Today less than a year before he died. A collection of Bardeen's personal papers are held by the University of Illinois Archives. In 1956, John Bardeen shared

8954-506: The invention of the transistor and in 1972 for the theory of superconductivity . Frederick Sanger received the prize twice in Chemistry: in 1958 for determining the structure of the insulin molecule and in 1980 for inventing a method of determining base sequences in DNA. Karl Barry Sharpless was awarded the 2001 Chemistry Prize for his research into chirally catalysed oxidation reactions, and

9075-434: The laureates arriving in Stockholm and normally ends with the Nobel banquet), but this is not mandatory. The laureate is only obliged to give the lecture within six months of receiving the prize, but some have happened even later. For example, US President Theodore Roosevelt received the Peace Prize in 1906 but gave his lecture in 1910, after his term in office. The lectures are organised by the same association which selected

9196-541: The laureates. Military cemeteries in every corner of the world are silent testimony to the failure of national leaders to sanctify human life. The Nobel Foundation announced on 30 May 2012 that it had awarded the contract for the production of the five (Swedish) Nobel Prize medals to Svenska Medalj AB. Between 1902 and 2010, the Nobel Prize medals were minted by Myntverket (the Swedish Mint), Sweden's oldest company, which ceased operations in 2011 after 107 years. In 2011,

9317-399: The media nor the candidates themselves of the names of the nominees. Insofar as specific names frequently appear in the early predictions of who will receive the award in any given year, this is either pure speculation or inside information from the person or people who submitted the nomination. After fifty years, the database of nominations maintained by the Nobel Committee is made available to

9438-492: The months between their nomination and the decision of the prize committee were originally eligible to receive the prize. This has occurred twice: the 1931 Literature Prize awarded to Erik Axel Karlfeldt , and the 1961 Peace Prize awarded to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld . Since 1974, laureates must be thought alive at the time of the October announcement. There has been one laureate, William Vickrey , who in 1996 died after

9559-538: The most criticised Nobel Peace Prizes was the one awarded to Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ . This led to the resignation of two Norwegian Nobel Committee members. Kissinger and Thọ were awarded the prize for negotiating a ceasefire between North Vietnam and the United States in January 1973 during the Vietnam War . However, when the award was announced, both sides were still engaging in hostilities. Critics sympathetic to

9680-425: The most prizes, with four prizes awarded to five individual laureates. Marie Curie received the prizes in Physics (in 1903) and Chemistry (in 1911). Her husband, Pierre Curie , shared the 1903 Physics prize with her. Their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie , received the Chemistry Prize in 1935 together with her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie . In addition, the husband of Marie Curie's second daughter, Henry Labouisse ,

9801-422: The name of the laureate and normally a citation of why they received the prize. None of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates has ever had a citation on their diplomas. The laureates are given a sum of money when they receive their prizes, in the form of a document confirming the amount awarded. The amount of prize money depends upon how much money the Nobel Foundation can award each year. The purse has increased since

9922-664: The obverse of the Peace Prize medal and the medal for the Economics Prize, but with a slightly different design. For instance, the laureate's name is engraved on the rim of the Economics medal. The image on the reverse of a medal varies according to the institution awarding the prize. The reverse sides of the medals for chemistry and physics share the same design. All medals made before 1980 were struck in 23 carat gold. Since then, they have been struck in 18 carat green gold plated with 24 carat gold. The weight of each medal varies with

10043-488: The only person to be awarded a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. Linus Pauling was awarded the 1954 Chemistry Prize for his research into the chemical bond and its application to the structure of complex substances. Pauling was also awarded the Peace Prize in 1962 for his activism against nuclear weapons, making him the only laureate of two unshared prizes. John Bardeen received the Physics Prize twice: in 1956 for

10164-433: The poet Sully Prudhomme for the first Nobel Prize in Literature. A group including 42 Swedish writers, artists, and literary critics protested against this decision, having expected Leo Tolstoy to be awarded. Some, including Burton Feldman , have criticised this prize because they consider Prudhomme a mediocre poet. Feldman's explanation is that most of the academy members preferred Victorian literature and thus selected

10285-453: The popular stereotype of 'genius' and was uninterested in appearing other than ordinary, the public and the media often overlooked him." When Bardeen was asked about his beliefs during a 1988 interview, he responded: "I am not a religious person, and so do not think about it very much". However, he has also said: "I feel that science cannot provide an answer to the ultimate questions about the meaning and purpose of life." Bardeen did believe in

10406-487: The prize (in Economics ) was announced but before it could be presented. On 3 October 2011, the laureates for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were announced; however, the committee was not aware that one of the laureates, Ralph M. Steinman , had died three days earlier. The committee was debating about Steinman's prize, since the rule is that the prize is not awarded posthumously. The committee later decided that as

10527-420: The prize. The Nobel Committee then prepares a report reflecting the advice of experts in the relevant fields. This, along with the list of preliminary candidates, is submitted to the prize-awarding institutions. There are four awarding institutions for the six prizes awarded: The institutions meet to choose the laureate or laureates in each field by a majority vote. Their decision, which cannot be appealed,

10648-450: The prize. In the last decades of the 19th century, many chemists had made significant contributions. Thus, with the Chemistry Prize, the academy "was chiefly faced with merely deciding the order in which these scientists should be awarded the prize". The academy received 20 nominations, eleven of them for Jacobus van 't Hoff . Van 't Hoff was awarded the prize for his contributions in chemical thermodynamics . The Swedish Academy chose

10769-412: The prizes were too Eurocentric. The 2019 Literature Prize to Peter Handke received heavy criticisms from various authors, such as Salman Rushdie and Hari Kunzru , and was condemned by the governments of Bosnia and Herzegovina , Kosovo , and Turkey , due to his history of Bosnian genocide denialism and his support for Slobodan Milošević . In 1949, the neurologist António Egas Moniz received

10890-402: The public. Statutes of the Nobel Foundation, § 10, states: A prize-awarding body may, however, after due consideration in each individual case, permit access to material which formed the basis for the evaluation and decision concerning a prize, for purposes of research in intellectual history. Such permission may not, however, be granted until at least 50 years have elapsed after the date on which

11011-666: The reminders of a man whose genius has made our lives longer, healthier and better. — Chicago Tribune editorial, February 3, 1991 In honor of Bardeen, the engineering quadrangle at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is named the Bardeen Quad . Also in honor of Bardeen, Sony Corporation endowed a $ 3 million John Bardeen professorial chair at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, beginning in 1990. Sony Corporation owed much of its success to commercializing Bardeen's transistors in portable TVs and radios, and had worked with Illinois researchers. As of 2022 ,

11132-618: The research arm of the Gulf Oil Corporation that was based in Pittsburgh . From 1930 to 1933, Bardeen worked there on the development of methods for the interpretation of magnetic and gravitational surveys. He worked as a geophysicist. After the work failed to keep his interest, he applied and was accepted to the graduate program in mathematics at Princeton University . As a graduate student, Bardeen studied mathematics and physics. Under physicist Eugene Wigner , he wrote his thesis on

11253-436: The same field: Marie Curie (Physics and Chemistry) and Linus Pauling (Chemistry and Peace). Among the 892 Nobel laureates, 48 have been women; the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie , who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. She was also the first person (male or female) to be awarded two Nobel Prizes, the second award being the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, given in 1911. The Committee neither informs

11374-711: The school in 1923 at age 15. He could have graduated several years earlier, but this was postponed because he took courses at another high school and because of his mother's death. Bardeen entered the University of Wisconsin in 1923. While in college, he joined the Zeta Psi fraternity. He raised a part of the needed membership fees by playing billiards. Bardeen was initiated as a member of Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. Not wanting to be an academic like his father, Bardeen chose engineering. He also felt that engineering had good job prospects. Bardeen received his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1928 from

11495-546: The statutes, the foundation consists of a board of five Swedish or Norwegian citizens, with its seat in Stockholm. The chairman of the board is appointed by the Swedish King in Council , with the other four members appointed by the trustees of the prize-awarding institutions . An Executive director is chosen from among the board members , a deputy director is appointed by the King in Council, and two deputies are appointed by

11616-606: The summer of 1960 after consulting for the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York where he learned about experiments done by Ivar Giaever at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute which suggested that electrons from a normal material could tunnel into a superconducting one. In June 8, 1962, Brian Josephson , then 23, submitted to Physics Letters his prediction of

11737-412: The surface states through observations made while shining a bright light on the semiconductor's surface. This led to several more papers (one of them co-authored with Shockley), which estimated the density of the surface states to be more than enough to account for their failed experiments. The pace of the work picked up significantly when they started to surround point contacts between the semiconductor and

11858-547: The three members in exile, made sure that nominations were submitted for the Peace Prize and that the prize could be awarded once again. In 1968, Sweden's central bank Sveriges Riksbank celebrated its 300th anniversary by donating a large sum of money to the Nobel Foundation to be used to set up a prize in honour of Alfred Nobel. The following year, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

11979-414: The total annual cost was approximately 120 million kronor , with 50 million kronor as the prize money. Further costs to pay institutions and persons engaged in giving the prizes were 27.4 million kronor. The events during the Nobel week in Stockholm and Oslo cost 20.2 million kronor. The administration, Nobel symposium , and similar items had costs of 22.4 million kronor. The cost of

12100-461: The trustees of these institutions, and auditors . The capital of the Nobel Foundation today is invested 50% in shares , 20% bonds and 30% other investments (e.g. hedge funds or real estate ). The distribution can vary by 10 percent. At the beginning of 2008, 64% of the funds were invested mainly in American and European stocks, 20% in bonds, plus 12% in real estate and hedge funds. In 2011,

12221-407: The tunneling developments depended on superconductivity, it would increase the chances that BCS itself would be awarded first. He also reasoned that the Nobel Committee had a predilection for multinational teams, which was the case for his tunneling nominees, each being from a different country. Bardeen renewed the nominations in 1971, 1972, when BCS received the prize, and finally 1973, when tunneling

12342-416: The uncharacteristic step of urging Xerox executives to keep their California research center, Xerox PARC , afloat when the parent company was suspicious that its research center would amount to little. Bardeen married Jane Maxwell on July 18, 1938. While at Princeton, he met Jane during a visit to his old friends in Pittsburgh . Bardeen was a scientist with a very unassuming personality. While he served as

12463-714: The value of gold, but averages about 175 grams (0.386 lb) for each medal. The diameter is 66 millimetres (2.6 in) and the thickness varies between 5.2 millimetres (0.20 in) and 2.4 millimetres (0.094 in). Because of the high value of their gold content and tendency to be on public display, Nobel medals are subject to medal theft. During World War II, the medals of German scientists Max von Laue and James Franck were sent to Copenhagen for safekeeping. When Germany invaded Denmark, Hungarian chemist (and Nobel laureate himself) George de Hevesy dissolved them in aqua regia (nitro-hydrochloric acid), to prevent confiscation by Nazi Germany and to prevent legal problems for

12584-476: The wife of his first cousin, who won solo for Chemistry in 1964. Jan Tinbergen , who was awarded the first Economics Prize in 1969, was the brother of Nikolaas Tinbergen , who received the 1973 Physiology or Medicine Prize. Gunnar Myrdal , who was awarded the Economics Prize in 1974, was the husband of Alva Myrdal , Peace Prize laureate in 1982. Economics laureates Paul Samuelson (1970) and Kenneth Arrow (1972; shared) were brothers-in-law. Frits Zernike , who

12705-627: The will was approved in April 1897. Soon thereafter, the other prize-awarding organisations were designated. These were the Karolinska Institute on 7 June, the Swedish Academy on 9 June, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 11 June. The Nobel Foundation reached an agreement on guidelines for how the prizes should be awarded; and, in 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly created statutes were promulgated by King Oscar II . According to his will and testament read in Stockholm on 30 December 1896,

12826-412: The year when the full impact of the discovery has become evident." The interval between the award and the accomplishment it recognises varies from discipline to discipline. The Literature Prize is typically awarded to recognise a cumulative lifetime body of work rather than a single achievement. The Peace Prize can also be awarded for a lifetime body of work. For example, 2008 laureate Martti Ahtisaari

12947-433: Was assigned to another group. Neither Bardeen nor Brattain had much to do with the development of the transistor beyond the first year after its invention. The "transistor" (a portmanteau of "transconductance" and "resistor") was 1/50 the size of the vacuum tubes it replaced in televisions and radios, used far less power, was far more reliable, and it allowed electrical devices to become more compact. By 1951, Bardeen

13068-477: Was at a standstill until Bardeen suggested a theory that invoked surface states that prevented the field from penetrating the semiconductor. The group changed its focus to study these surface states, meeting almost daily to discuss the work. The rapport of the group was excellent and ideas were freely exchanged. By the winter of 1946, they had enough results that Bardeen submitted a paper on the surface states to Physical Review . Brattain started experiments to study

13189-604: Was awarded for his work to resolve international conflicts. However, they can also be awarded for specific recent events. For instance, Kofi Annan was awarded the 2001 Peace Prize just four years after becoming the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Similarly Yasser Arafat , Yitzhak Rabin , and Shimon Peres received the 1994 award, about a year after they successfully concluded the Oslo Accords . A controversy

13310-417: Was awarded for the first time. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences became responsible for selecting laureates. The first laureates for the Economics Prize were Jan Tinbergen and Ragnar Frisch "for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes". The board of the Nobel Foundation decided that after this addition, it would allow no further new prizes. The award process

13431-590: Was awarded his second Nobel Prize—are used in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and superconducting quantum circuits. Born and raised in Wisconsin , Bardeen received a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University . After serving in World War II , he was a researcher at Bell Labs and a professor at the University of Illinois . In 1990, Bardeen appeared on Life magazine's list of "100 Most Influential Americans of

13552-501: Was awarded the 1953 Physics Prize, was the great-uncle of 1999 Physics laureate Gerard 't Hooft . In 2019, married couple Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo were awarded the Economics Prize. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard was awarded the Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995, and her nephew Benjamin List received the Chemistry Prize in 2021. Sune Bergström was awarded the Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982, and his son Svante Pääbo

13673-577: Was awarded the same prize in 2022. Edwin McMillan , who shared the Prize in Chemistry in 1951, was the uncle of John Clauser , who was awarded the Prize in Physics in 2022. Among other criticisms, the Nobel Committees have been accused of having a political agenda, and of omitting more deserving candidates. They have also been accused of Eurocentrism , especially for the Literature Prize. Among

13794-422: Was awarded to Manne Siegbahn in 1924, followed by his son, Kai Siegbahn , in 1981. Hans von Euler-Chelpin , who received the Chemistry Prize in 1929, was the father of Ulf von Euler , who was awarded the Physiology or Medicine Prize in 1970. C. V. Raman was awarded the Physics Prize in 1930 and was the uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar , who was awarded the same prize in 1983. Arthur Kornberg received

13915-470: Was awarded. He is the only double laureate in physics , and one of three double laureates of the same prize; the others are Frederick Sanger who won the 1958 and 1980 Prizes in Chemistry and Karl Barry Sharpless who won the 2001 and 2022 Prizes in chemistry . In addition to being awarded the Nobel prize twice, Bardeen has numerous other awards including: Bardeen was also an important adviser to Xerox Corporation . Though quiet by nature, he took

14036-498: Was born on 21 October 1833 in Stockholm , Sweden, into a family of engineers. He was a chemist , engineer , and inventor . In 1894, Nobel purchased the Bofors iron and steel mill, which he made into a major armaments manufacturer . Nobel also invented ballistite . This invention was a precursor to many smokeless military explosives, especially the British smokeless powder cordite . As

14157-498: Was caused by awarding the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama during his first year as US president. Awards for physics, chemistry, and medicine are typically awarded once the achievement has been widely accepted. Sometimes, this takes decades – for example, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar shared the 1983 Physics Prize for his 1930s work on stellar structure and evolution. Not all scientists live long enough for their work to be recognised. Some discoveries can never be considered for

14278-409: Was looking for a new job. Fred Seitz, a friend of Bardeen, convinced the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign to make Bardeen an offer of $ 10,000 a year. Bardeen accepted the offer and left Bell Labs, joining the engineering and physics faculties at Illinois in 1951, where he was professor of electrical engineering and of physics. At Illinois, he established two major research programs, one in

14399-406: Was that awarded to Barack Obama in 2009 . Nominations had closed only eleven days after Obama took office as President of the United States , but the actual evaluation occurred over the next eight months. Obama himself stated that he did not feel deserving of the award, or worthy of the company in which it would place him. Past Peace Prize laureates were divided, some saying that Obama deserved

14520-527: Was the director of UNICEF when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 on that organisation's behalf. Although no family matches the Curie family's record, there have been several with two laureates. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the husband-and-wife team of Gerty Cori and Carl Ferdinand Cori in 1947, and to the husband-and-wife team of May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser in 2014 (along with John O'Keefe ). The Physics Prize in 1906

14641-423: Was won by J. J. Thomson for showing that electrons are particles, and in 1937 by his son, George Paget Thomson , for showing that they also have the properties of waves . William Henry Bragg and his son, William Lawrence Bragg , shared the Physics Prize in 1915 for inventing X-ray crystallography . Niels Bohr was awarded the Physics Prize in 1922, as was his son, Aage Bohr , in 1975. The Physics Prize

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