The Nobel Prizes are some of the best known and highly sought-after awards for different fields. The prizes were set up using Alfred Nobel’s fortune, and his will stated that they should be given to “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.” But how is that decided?
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is managed by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and every year it asks for nominations for the prize. Those nominations, and those for the other prizes, remain secret for at least 50 years and stay that way while the nominator and nominee are alive. After that, the data are added to a publicly available database of nominations that is managed by the Nobel Foundation.
