The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and peace, on the 5th anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, December 10, 1901. Nobel, who was a Swedish chemist and the inventor of dynamite, created a fund for the prizes in his will.

Today, the Nobel Prizes are regarded as the most prestigious awards in the world. Winners have included Albert Einstein (1922), Ernest Hemingway (1954), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964), and Nelson Mandela (1993).

American Experience: The Film “A Brilliant Madness”
The Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash talks about his life, in this in-depth interview, from 2002.

NewsHour: Nobel Prize: Economics
Two American professors, Robert C. Merton and Myron S. Scholes, discuss their Nobel Prize for Economics for their mathematical formula for pricing options that is widely used by traders and investors, in an interview from Oct. 14, 1997.

NewsHour: Nobel Prize For Peace
Elizabeth Farnsworth and Selig Harrison, former northeast Asia bureau chief for The Washington Post, discuss Nobel Peace Prize winner Kim Dae Jung, president of South Korea, in an interview from Oct. 13, 2000.

NewsHour: Nobel Prize Winner
Ray Suarez talks with Chinese-born author Gao Xingjian, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature, in an interview from Feb. 27, 2001.