Nobel Prize winners: how much is it worth?

How much does a Nobel Prize winner earn? It is not only a recognition of one’s career, of the commitment made in studies and research that can change - or changed already - the history of humanity, but there is also an economic value.

Winning a Nobel Prize is more than just a matter of prestige, as it is by far the most coveted recognition among scholars and academics around the world.

At the same time, the award also guarantees a decent check to the winner who becomes almost a millionaire.

But what is the Nobel Prize, how does it work and above all how much is the gold medal worth? Here is a guide to know all the secrets of the six recognitions - Medicine, Physics, Literature, Economy, Chemistry and Peace - which are awarded every year in October.

Nobel Prize 2023: what it is and how it works

Before asking ourselves how much a Nobel Prize is worth, let’s try to shed light on the peculiarities that make it so special. The Nobel Prize is an annual recognition given to people or organizations who have distinguished themselves for their work in various fields, from medicine to literature, and its value can be precisely quantified.

Whoever wins a Nobel Prize, among other things, has the right to spend that money in the way he deems most appropriate, so the amount earned is not tied to specific purposes.

The award was created by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist who became famous for the invention of dynamite. After having accumulated great wealth, he decided to allocate almost all of his assets to prizes to be awarded to those who "render the greatest services to humanity in the fields of chemistry, physics, medicine, literature or in promoting peaceful relations between peoples of the Earth”.

The Nobel Prizes have thus been awarded since 1901, with the Nobel Committee asking hundreds of experts in their field every year to name their names in relation to the awarding of the six awards: for obvious reasons, self-nominations are not valid.

As for the 2023 Nobel Prize, the Medicine category was awarded first. It was assigned to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their studies on mRNA which allowed COVID-19 vaccines to be obtained in record time.

How much is it worth and how much money does the winner earn

As many will know, the Nobel Prize provides the winner with a medal and a sum of money, but how much are we talking about? Until some time ago, the Nobel Prize was worth 10 million Swedish crowns, while the value of the award was subsequently cut by 20% and then grew again to the current 11 million Swedish crowns.

To date, anyone who wins a Nobel Prize is awarded both a gold medal and a check of approximately 996,524 US dollars. The value of the Nobel Prize is financed with the interest obtained on the capital donated by Alfred Nobel at the beginning of the last century and if more people win the same prize the sum is divided. This is how much a Nobel Prize is worth today.

How much is the gold medal worth

Ironically, the gold medal awarded to the winners, although without a nominal value, can be worth much more than the monetary price.

Some time ago two Nobel prize winners sold their gold medals and obtained respectively 765,002 dollars and 4.7 million dollars, both at auction.

Nobel Prize: 2022 winners

Here’s the list of winners of the 2022 edition:

• Nobel Peace Prize to Ales Bialiacki;
• Nobel Peace Prize to Center for Civil Liberties;
• Nobel Prize for Literature to Annie Ernaux;
• Nobel Prize for Physics to Alain Aspect;
• Nobel Prize for Physics to John Clauser;
• Nobel Prize for Physics to Anton Zeilinger;
• Nobel Prize for Economics to Ben Bernanke;
• Nobel Prize for Economics to Douglas Diamond;
• Nobel Prize for Economics to Philip Dybvig;
• Nobel Prize for Medicine to Svante Pääbo;
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry to Carolyn R. Bertozzi;
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry to Morten Meldal;
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry to K. Barry Sharpless;

Nobel Prize: 2021 winners

Here’s the list of winners of the 2021 edition:

• Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Ressa;
• Nobel Peace Prize to Dmitry Muratov;
• Nobel Prize for Literature to Abdulrazak Gurnah;
• Nobel Prize for Physics to Syukuro Manabe;
• Nobel Prize for Physics to Klaus Hasselmann;
• Nobel Prize for Physics to Giorgio Parisi;
• Nobel Prize for Economics to David Card;
• Nobel Prize for Economics to Joshua D. Angrist;
• Nobel Prize for Economics to Guido W. Imbens;
• Nobel Prize for Medicine to David Julius;
• Nobel Prize for Medicine to Ardem Patapoutian;
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry to Benjamin List;
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry to David W.C. MacMillan;

Nobel Prize: 2020 winners

Here’s the list of winners of the 2020 edition:

• Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Programme;
• Nobel Prize for Literature to Louise Glück;
• Nobel Prize for Physics to Andrea Ghez;
• Nobel Prize for Physics to Roger Penrose;
• Nobel Prize for Physics to Reinhard Genzel;
• Nobel Prize for Economics to Robert B. Wilson;
• Nobel Prize for Economics to Paul Milgrom;
• Nobel Prize for Medicine to Michael Houghton;
• Nobel Prize for Medicine to Charles M. Rice;
• Nobel Prize for Medicine to Harvey J. Alter;
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry to Jennifer Doudna;
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry to Emmanuelle Charpentier.

Nobel Prize: 2019 winners

Here’s the list of winners of the 2019 edition:

• Nobel Peace Prize to Abiy Ahmed Ali;
• Nobel Prize for Literature to Peter Handke;
• Nobel Prize for Physics to Jim Peebles;
• Nobel Prize for Physics to Michel Mayor;
• Nobel Prize for Physics to Didier Queloz;
• Nobel Prize for Economics to Michael Kremer;
• Nobel Prize for Economics to Pabhijit Banerjee;
• Nobel Prize for Economics to Esther Duflo;
• Nobel Prize for Medicine to William Kaelin Jr.;
• Nobel Prize for Medicine to Gregg L. Semenza;
• Nobel Prize for Medicine to Peter John Ratcliffe;
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry to Akira Yoshino;
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry to M. Stanley Whittingham;
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry to John B. Goodenough.

Nobel Prize: 2018 winners

Here’s the list of winners of the 2018 edition. The Nobel for Literature was not awarded due to a sex scandal involving the photographer Jean-Claude Arnault, husband of Katarina Frostenson, member of the Swedish Academy.

• Nobel Prize for Medicine: James Allison and Tasuku Honjo for their fight against cancer;
• Nobel Prize for Physics: Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou, and Donna Strickland for the innovation of laser techniques;
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Frances Arnold, George Smith and Sir. Gregory Winter for the application of the principles of evolution to the benefit of human beings;
• Nobel Peace Prize: Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for opposing sexual violence as a weapon of war;
• Nobel Prize for Economics: William Nordhaus and Paul Romer, for their contribution to the field of sustainable development;
• Nobel Prize for Literature: has not been awarded.

Nobel Prize: 2017 winners

The award ceremony began on Monday, October 2nd, 2017 when the city of Stockholm awarded the Nobel for Medicine to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young by virtue of their discovery of the molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythms. In other words, the three minds have provided an explanation for the biological clock that characterizes the life cycles of every human being.

The complete list of 2017 winners is as follows:

• Nobel Prize in Medicine: Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young for studies on the biological clock;
• Nobel Prize in Physics: Weiss, Barish and Thorne for detecting gravitational waves;
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson for developing cryo-electron microscopy;
• Nobel Peace Prize: to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons;
• Nobel Prize in Economics: Richard H. Thaler for studies on behavioral economics;
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Kazuo Ishiguro, for having been able to "reveal the abyss beyond our illusory sense of connection with the world".

Nobel Prize: 2016 winners

A little curiosity about the 2016 edition: the winners of the prestigious award were also high-sounding names including Bob Dylan as the Literature Nobel laureate.

It was the well-known songwriter who ended up on the front pages of the newspapers because, after disappearing following the victory, he announced his intention not to participate in the delivery ceremony in Stockholm due to other previously established commitments.

The continuous curiosities that have arisen about the case have once again led to the question of how much a Nobel Prize is worth and how much money the winners earn, who very often do not even seem interested in the recognition coveted by the most brilliant minds in the entire world.
Here’s the list of the 2016 winners:

• Nobel Prize for Medicine: to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his discoveries on the mechanisms of autophagy;
• Nobel Prize in Physics: to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane, and Michael Kosterlitz, for discovering unexpected behaviors of solid materials;
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry: to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J. Fraser Stoddart, and Bernard L. Feringa, for having produced molecular machines or nanomachines;
• Nobel Peace Prize: to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts to end the country’s civil war;
• Nobel Prize in Economics: to Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström, for their contribution to contract theory;
• Nobel Prize for Literature: to Bob Dylan, for having created new poetic expressions in the tradition of American song.

Original article published on Money.it Italy 2023-10-02 15:44:00. Original title: Quanto guadagna chi vince il premio Nobel?