In his will Swedish industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel left the bulk of his fortune in trust to establish what are considered the world's most prestigious and scholarly awards—the Nobel Prizes. Each December 10, on the anniversary of Nobel's death, the prize-awarding bodies—the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Physics, Economics, and Chemistry), the Swedish Academy (Literature), the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute (Physiology or Medicine), and the Norwegian Nobel Committee (Peace)—present recipients with a financial award, a diploma, and a gold medal.

Britannica congratulates the 2008 recipients of the Nobel Prize:

• Chemistry: Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura, and Roger Y. Tsien (“for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP”)
• Economics: Paul Krugman (“for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity”)
• Literature: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (“author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization”)
• Peace: Martti Ahtisaari (“for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts”)
• Physics: Yoichiro Nambu (“for the discovery of the mechanism of spontanteous broken symmetry in subatomic physics”) and Kobayashi Makoto and Maskawa Toshihide (“for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature”)
• Physiology or Medicine: Harald zur Hausen (“for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer”) and Francoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier (“for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus”)

Encyclopædia Britannica is proud to feature the work of Nobel Prize winners. More than 100 Nobelists have contributed writings to Britannica, and some of the contributions of these luminaries are reproduced here.

Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to the Nobel Prizes features entries on every individual and institution that was awarded the honour since the program's inception in 1901. This feature focuses on Alfred Nobel the man, his will that established the award, and the prizes named for him. It details the selection process and the various prize-awarding bodies and provides tables that list the recipients alphabetically, by year, and by prize category.

We invite you to examine the Nobel Prizes with us. Just use the links on the left to find out more.