Starting this week, committees in Stockholm and Oslo will reveal the winners of the 2026 Nobel Prizes, the annual awards considered among the highest honors in science, literature and public service. Six prizes are announced in total: physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, peace, and economic sciences, each recognizing work deemed to have brought the greatest benefit to humankind.
The prizes trace back to the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, who left his fortune to fund the awards after his death in 1896. They have been handed out since 1901, with the physiology or medicine prize traditionally opening the week’s announcements. Sweden’s Royal Academy of Sciences selects the laureates in science and economics, while a Norwegian committee independently chooses the peace prize winner, reflecting a historical arrangement between the two countries.
Each prize carries a gold medal, a diploma and a multimillion-kronor cash award, worth roughly $1.1 million at current exchange rates. Winners are formally honored in December at ceremonies in Stockholm, for most categories, and in Oslo, for the peace prize, drawing global attention to researchers, authors and activists whose work might otherwise go unnoticed by the wider public.
To follow this week’s announcements and learn who takes home this year’s honors, read the full article at The New York Times.
Source: Nobel Prizes 2026: What to Know (rss.nytimes.com).
Image: sneakerdog, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).