Nobel laureates gathered in Stockholm for their first in-person ceremony of award. The event included a formal banquet and formal ceremonies since the COVID-19 epidemic that severely disrupted events over the last two years.
At 1500 GMT, the ceremony begins. It features elegant formal wear with both men and women wearing white tie and tails. The 2020 and 2021 ceremonies were reduced in size and no banquet was held.
This year, many laureates of 2020 and 2021 as well as 2022 winners will attend. Last year there was an event but no laureates as their medals were collected in their homeland countries.
The laureates took part in numerous activities throughout the week, including panel discussions and news conferences. They also found time to visit schools to give lectures and to attend lights shows.
Vidar Helgesen (executive director, Nobel Foundation) stated, “Given all the difficulties the world faces it feels particularly important to highlight Alfred Nobel’s idea of international communit,”
After a secret nomination process for 50 years, five of six Nobel Prizes are given each year in Stockholm. Oslo is the location where the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded. Separate celebrations are also held.
Alfred Nobel, the inventor of Dynamite, left 31 million crowns. That’s approximately 1.8 billion crowns (or $174.2 million in current money). These crowns were used to pay Foundation prizes each year for scientific and literary achievements since 1901.
Ben Bernanke (ex-chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve) is one of the 2022 laureates. He was awarded the Nobel Economics Prize with Philip Dybvig and economists Douglas Diamond for their research about how to prevent an economic recession from getting worse.
The Swedish central bank has added the economics prize to its original list of prizes.
Following the ceremony there will be a dinner at City Hall attended by members of Sweden’s royal family as well as government officials, dignitaries, and business leaders.
The banquet is always open to leaders of Swedish parties. Jimmie Akesson (leader of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats), which was elected second largest party in the country in September’s election, was not invited to the banquet, as his party wasn’t considered in line with the prize’s tenets.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, the Nobel Foundation also ignored Belarus and Russia’s ambassadors. Ales Byalyatski was convicted as a Belarusian activist. Memorial, a Russian rights group and the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.
