The Nobel Foundation, which manages the Nobel Prizes, cancelled its traditional December banquet due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nobel Prize winners for 2020 will be announced but the banquet, which is always held on December 10 and normally draws around 1,300 guests, will not happen.
“There are two problems. You cannot gather that many people next to each other. And it is uncertain whether people can travel to Sweden to the extent they want,” said Nobel Foundation Chairman Lars Heikensten. This will be the first time in over half a century that the banquet will not be held. The last time it was cancelled was in 1956, in protest against the Soviet Union’s invasion of Hungary. It was also cancelled during World War One and Two. Heikensten added that the laureates would be highlighted in different ways along with their discoveries and works. All the announcements will be streamed live at nobelprize.org this year.
The year’s prize winners are invited to Stockholm for talks and the award ceremony. Housed in Stockholm’s City Hall, the winners, together with the Swedish royal family and some 1,300 guests, are treated to a multi-course dinner and entertainment.
The announcement of the prizes (Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace and Economics) will still be scheduled between 5 and 12 October and the award ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10 will also be held in “new forms”.
About Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize is awarded to ‘those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind’. Prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace have been awarded since 1901 – and economic sciences since 1968.
Man Behind The Nobel Prize Legacy
The Nobel Prize is the legacy of Sweden’s Alfred Nobel (1833–1896). A chemist, engineer, inventor and entrepreneur, Nobel was devoted to the study of explosives, and his inventions include a blasting cap, dynamite and smokeless gunpowder. When Nobel died, he held 355 patents in different countries and had made a fortune. His last will, signed in 1895, is the reason that the Nobel Prize is awarded every year.
