The Nobel prizes are awarded under the will of Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish chemist and engineer, who died in 1896. The interest of the fund is divided annually among the persons who have made the most outstanding contributions in the fields of physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine, who have produced the most distinguished literary work of an idealist tendency, and who have contributed most toward world peace.

In 1968, a Nobel Prize of economic sciences was established by Riksbank, the Swedish bank, in celebration of its 300th anniversary. The prize was awarded for the first time in 1969.

The prizes for physics and chemistry are awarded by the Swedish Academy of Science in Stockholm, the one for physiology or medicine by the Caroline Medical Institute in Stockholm, that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm, and that for peace by a committee of five elected by the Norwegian Storting. The distribution of prizes was begun on December 10, 1901, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The amount of each prize varies with the income from the fund and currently and in 2002 is worth more than one million dollars. No Nobel prizes were awarded for 1940, 1941, and 1942; prizes for literature were not awarded for 1914, 1918, and 1943.

Nobel Prize Winners of 2005

* Peace: Mohamed ElBaradei (Egypt) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for “their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way”

* Literature: Harold Pinter (United Kingdom) “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms”

* Physics: Roy J. Glauber (U.S.) for “his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence,” and John L. Hall (U.S.) and Theodor W. Hänsch (Germany) for “their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique”

* Chemistry: Yves Chauvin (France), Robert H. Grubbs (U.S.), and Richard R. Schrock (U.S.) for “the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis”

* Physiology or Medicine: Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren (both Australia) for their discovery that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori causes gastritis and peptic ulcer disease

* Economics: Robert J. Aumann (U.S.) and Thomas C. Schelling (U.S.) for “having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis”