The 2023 Nobel Prize season begins today with the announcement of the prize in Medicine and continues until the 9th, when the prize in Economics will be announced.
The winners of the Physics (Tuesday), Chemistry (Wednesday), Literature (Thursday) and Peace (Friday) prizes will be announced during the week. The announcement of the distinction in the field of Economic Sciences is scheduled for the 9th.
In the field of medicine, experts’ predictions include research into immune cells that can fight cancer, the study of the human microbiota and research into the causes of narcolepsy as favored candidates.
All categories will be announced in Stockholm, Sweden, except for the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be awarded as usual by the Norwegian Nobel Committee and will take place at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.
This year, 351 applications for the Nobel Peace Prize have been received, in a context where the war in Ukraine continues, the international community is fragmented and catastrophes are multiplying, raising the possibility that the prize will not be awarded this year.
“In many ways it would be appropriate if the committee did not award the prize this year,” argues Swedish professor Peter Wallensteen, a specialist in international issues.
“It would be a good way to draw attention to the seriousness of the global situation, as happened in the years after the two world wars,” he added.
But in Oslo, the inability to find a winner from the hundreds of applications received would be seen as an admission of failure.
“It is very difficult to imagine such a scenario,” Nobel Committee Secretary Olav Njølstad said, as quoted by the France-Presse agency.
“I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but the world needs something to set it on the right path,” he added, stressing that it is “really necessary” for the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded this year.
Experts put forward Iranian women as possible choices who have expressed their anger since the death of young Mahsa Amini, in September 2022, after being detained for allegedly violating the strict dress code imposed on women; War crimes investigators in Ukraine or activists fighting climate change, at a time when the summer of 2023 was the hottest summer on record in the world and bad weather, fires and floods are ravaging the entire planet.
The Fridays for Future movement, inspired by the young Swedish Greta Thunberg, the Brazilian chief Raoni Metuktire, defender of the rights of indigenous peoples, the International Criminal Court, the Iranians Narges Mohammadi and Masih Alinejad, the Afghan journalist Mahbouba Seraj and the Russian opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza are some of the names in the competition.
This year’s Nobel Prize winners will receive an additional million Swedish kronor, bringing the total amount received by the winners to 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately 925 thousand euros).
Source: DN
