Editing Nobel Prize (section)

== Reception and controversies ==
{{Main|Nobel Prize controversies}}
{{unbalanced section|date=May 2024}}
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=== Controversial recipients ===
[[File:Henry A. Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State, 1973-1977.jpg|thumb|upright|When it was announced that [[Henry Kissinger]] was to be awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in [[1973 Nobel Peace Prize|1973]], two of the Norwegian Nobel Committee members resigned in protest.]]
Among other criticisms, the Nobel Committees have been accused of having a political agenda, and of omitting more deserving candidates. They have also been accused of [[Eurocentrism]], especially for the Literature Prize.<ref name="Abramsxiv">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. xiv.</ref><ref name="Feldman65">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 65.</ref><ref name="Sarasota">{{Cite news |last=Tuohy |first=William |date=20 September 1981 |title=Literature Award Hardest for Nobel Prize Panel |page=58 |work=[[Sarasota Herald Tribune]] |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19810920&id=FZ0cAAAAIBAJ&pg=6245,2424225 |access-date=9 March 2010 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415223203/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19810920&id=FZ0cAAAAIBAJ&pg=6245,2424225 |url-status=live }}</ref>

;Peace Prize

Among the most criticised Nobel Peace Prizes was the one awarded to [[Henry Kissinger]] and [[Lê Đức Thọ]]. This led to the resignation of two Norwegian Nobel Committee members.<ref name="topten">{{Cite news |last=de Sousa |first=Ana Naomi |date=9 October 2009 |title=Top ten Nobel Prize rows |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6868007.ece |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100234/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Kissinger and Thọ were awarded the prize for negotiating a ceasefire between [[North Vietnam]] and the United States in January 1973 during the [[Vietnam War]]. However, when the award was announced, both sides were still engaging in hostilities.<ref name="Abrams219">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 219.</ref> Critics sympathetic to the North announced that Kissinger was not a peace-maker but the opposite, responsible for widening the war. Those hostile to the North and what they considered its deceptive practices during negotiations were deprived of a chance to criticise Lê Đức Thọ, as he declined the award.<ref name="Feldman315">[[#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 315</ref><ref name="Abrams315">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 315.</ref> The satirist and musician [[Tom Lehrer]] has remarked that "political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."<ref name="Lehrer">{{Cite news |last=Purdom |first=Todd |title=When Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize, satire died |work=The Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/jul/31/artsfeatures1 |url-status=live |access-date=26 September 2020 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140531212217/http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/jul/31/artsfeatures1 |archive-date=31 May 2014}}</ref>

[[Yasser Arafat]], [[Shimon Peres]], and [[Yitzhak Rabin]] received the Peace Prize in 1994 for their efforts in making peace between Israel and Palestine.<ref name="Feldman315" /><ref name="Levinovitz183">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 183.</ref> Immediately after the award was announced, one of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members denounced Arafat as a terrorist and resigned.<ref name="Feldman15-16">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], pp. 15–16.</ref> Additional misgivings about Arafat were widely expressed in various newspapers.<ref name="Abrams302-306">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], pp. 302–306.</ref>

Another controversial Peace Prize was that awarded to [[Barack Obama]] [[2009 Nobel Peace Prize|in 2009]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Erlanger |first1=Steven |last2=Stolberg |first2=Sheryl Gay |date=9 October 2009 |title=Surprise Nobel for Obama Stirs Praise and Doubts |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?_r=1 |access-date=1 April 2010 |archive-date=5 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105204618/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?_r=1 |url-status=live }}</ref> Nominations had closed only eleven days after Obama took office as [[President of the United States]], but the actual evaluation occurred over the next eight months.<ref name="philp">{{Cite news |last=Philp |first=Catherine |date=10 October 2009 |title=How the Nobel Peace Prize winner is decided |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6868833.ece |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100235/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Obama himself stated that he did not feel deserving of the award, or worthy of the company in which it would place him.<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 October 2009 |title=Obama is surprise winner of Nobel Peace Prize |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5981JK20091009?sp=true |access-date=9 October 2009 |archive-date=12 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091012134156/https://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5981JK20091009?sp=true |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=9 October 2009 |title=Remarks by the President on winning the Nobel Peace Prize |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-Winning-the-Nobel-Peace-Prize/ |access-date=1 April 2010 |website=[[whitehouse.gov]] |via=[[NARA|National Archives]] }}</ref> Past Peace Prize laureates were divided, some saying that Obama deserved the award, and others saying he had not secured the achievements to yet merit such an accolade. Obama's award, along with the previous Peace Prizes for [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Al Gore]], also prompted accusations of a [[Liberalism|liberal]] bias.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Naughton |first=Philippe |date=9 October 2009 |title=President Obama humbled: I do not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/president-obama-humbled-i-do-not-deserve-the-nobel-peace-prize-f2c2vxwz7hj |access-date=6 January 2022 |archive-date=6 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106032627/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/president-obama-humbled-i-do-not-deserve-the-nobel-peace-prize-f2c2vxwz7hj |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Aung San Suu Kyi]] was awarded the Peace Prize in 1993. However, in 2015, when she came into power in [[Myanmar]], she was criticized for being silent on human rights violation under her rule and especially over the [[Rohingya genocide]] and calls were made to strip her of her Nobel Peace Prize.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-11-03 |title=Aung San Suu Kyi: Myanmar democracy icon who fell from grace |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11685977 |access-date=2024-06-07 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Ellis-Petersen |first=Hannah |date=2018-11-23 |title=From peace icon to pariah: Aung San Suu Kyi's fall from grace |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/23/aung-san-suu-kyi-fall-from-grace-myanmar |access-date=2024-06-07 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

;Literature Prize

The award of the 2004 Literature Prize to [[Elfriede Jelinek]] drew a protest from a member of the Swedish Academy, [[Knut Ahnlund]]. Ahnlund resigned, alleging that the selection of Jelinek had caused "irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art". He alleged that Jelinek's works were "a mass of text shovelled together without artistic structure".<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 October 2005 |title=Who deserves Nobel prize? Judges don't agree |work=[[Today (U.S. TV program)|Today]] |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/who-deserves-nobel-prize-judges-don-t-agree-wbna9665122 |access-date=18 March 2019 |archive-date=8 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508051921/https://www.today.com/popculture/who-deserves-nobel-prize-judges-don-t-agree-wbna9665122 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=11 October 2005 |title=Nobel judge steps down in protest |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4329962.stm |access-date=1 April 2010 |archive-date=31 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331111632/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4329962.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> The 2009 Literature Prize to [[Herta Müller]] also generated criticism. According to ''[[The Washington Post]]'', many US literary critics and professors were ignorant of her work.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jordan |first=Mary |date=9 October 2009 |title=Author's Nobel Stirs Shock-and-'Bah' |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/08/AR2009100800965.html |access-date=1 April 2010 |archive-date=4 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091104035508/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/08/AR2009100800965.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This made those critics feel the prizes were too Eurocentric.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=8 October 2009 |title=NOBEL PRIZE WINNER: Herta Muller |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/08/nobel-prize-winner-herta_n_313577.html |journal=The Huffington Post |access-date=31 March 2010 |archive-date=10 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091010040101/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/08/nobel-prize-winner-herta_n_313577.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The 2019 Literature Prize to [[Peter Handke]] received heavy criticisms from various authors, such as [[Salman Rushdie]] and [[Hari Kunzru]], and was condemned by the governments of [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Kosovo]], and [[Turkey]], due to his history of [[Bosnian genocide denial]]ism and his support for [[Slobodan Milošević]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 October 2019 |title=Outrage in Bosnia, Kosovo over Peter Handke's Nobel prize win |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/outrage-bosnia-kosovo-peter-handke-nobel-prize-win-191010183645296.html |access-date=28 June 2022 |publisher=Al Jazeera |archive-date=29 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200829061001/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/outrage-bosnia-kosovo-peter-handke-nobel-prize-win-191010183645296.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Cain |first=Sian |date=10 October 2019 |title='A troubling choice': authors criticise Peter Handke's controversial Nobel win |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/10/troubling-choice-authors-criticise-peter-handke-controversial-nobel-win |access-date=28 June 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en |archive-date=15 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220615070941/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/10/troubling-choice-authors-criticise-peter-handke-controversial-nobel-win |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=7 December 2019 |title=Kosovo to boycott Nobel ceremony over Handke's literature prize |agency=Al Jazeera |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/kosovo-boycott-nobel-ceremony-handke-literature-prize-191207143607923.html |access-date=28 June 2022 |archive-date=9 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909093959/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/kosovo-boycott-nobel-ceremony-handke-literature-prize-191207143607923.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

;Science prizes

In 1949, the neurologist [[António Egas Moniz]] received the Physiology or Medicine Prize for his development of the [[Lobotomy|prefrontal lobotomy]]. The previous year, [[Walter Jackson Freeman II|Walter Freeman]] had developed a [[Lobotomy#Transorbital lobotomy|version of the procedure]] which was faster and easier to carry out. Due in part to the publicity surrounding the original procedure, Freeman's procedure was prescribed without due consideration or regard for modern [[medical ethics]]. Endorsed by such influential publications as ''[[The New England Journal of Medicine]]'', leucotomy or "lobotomy" became so popular that about 5,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States in the three years immediately following Moniz's receipt of the Prize.<ref name="Feldman286-289">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], pp. 286–289.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Day |first=Elizabeth |date=12 January 2008 |title=He was bad, so they put an ice pick in his brain... |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jan/13/neuroscience.medicalscience |access-date=31 March 2010 |archive-date=20 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020075415/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jan/13/neuroscience.medicalscience |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Overlooked achievements ===
[[File:MKGandhi.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Mohandas Gandhi]], although nominated five times, was never awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.]]
[[File:Revolutionary Joyce Better Contrast.jpg|thumb|upright|[[James Joyce]], one of the controversial omissions of the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]]]]
Although [[Mohandas Gandhi]], an icon of [[nonviolence]] in the 20th century, was nominated for the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] five times, in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and a few days before he was assassinated on 30 January 1948, he was never awarded the prize.<ref name="Gandhi">{{Cite web |last=Tønnesson |first=Øyvind |date=1 December 1999 |title=Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/peace/gandhi/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705224937/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/peace/gandhi/ |archive-date=5 July 2013 |access-date=24 October 2020 |publisher=Nobel Foundation}}</ref><ref name="Levinovitz181-186">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], pp. 181–186.</ref><ref name="Nobel Also Rans">{{Cite news |last=Kenner |first=David |date=7 October 2009 |title=Nobel Peace Prize Also-Rans |pages=1–7 |work=Foreign Policy |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/07/nobel_peace_prize_also_rans |url-status=dead |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100125073527/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/07/nobel_peace_prize_also_rans |archive-date=25 January 2010 }}</ref>

In 1948, the year of [[Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi|Gandhi's death]], the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to make no award that year on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate".<ref name="Gandhi" /><ref name="Abrams147-148">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], pp. 147–148.</ref>

In 1989, this omission was publicly regretted, when the [[14th Dalai Lama]] was awarded the Peace Prize, the chairman of the committee said that it was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Aarvik |first=Egil |title=The Nobel Prize in Peace 1989 – Presentation Speech |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1989/presentation-speech.html |access-date=24 October 2020 |publisher=[[The Nobel Foundation]] |archive-date=27 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110127192457/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1989/presentation-speech.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Geir Lundestad]], 2006 Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee, said, {{Blockquote
|text=The greatest omission in our 106-year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace Prize. Whether the Nobel committee can do without Gandhi, is the question.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ghosh |first=Avijit |date=October 17, 2006 |title='We missed Mahatma Gandhi' |work=The Times of India |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/we-missed-mahatma-gandhi/articleshow/2181375.cms |access-date=4 November 2022 |archive-date=23 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523225928/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/we-missed-mahatma-gandhi/articleshow/2181375.cms |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110915025114/http://www.icrs.ugm.ac.id/wednesday-forum-schedule/111-relevance-of-gandhian-philosophy-in-the-21st-century Relevance of Gandhian Philosophy in the 21st century]. icrs.ugm.ac.id</ref>}}

Other high-profile individuals with widely recognised contributions to peace have been overlooked. In 2009, an article in ''[[Foreign Policy]]'' magazine identified seven people who "never won the prize, but should have". The list consisted of Gandhi, [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], [[Václav Havel]], [[Ken Saro-Wiwa]], [[Sari Nusseibeh]], [[Corazon Aquino]], and [[Liu Xiaobo]].<ref name="Nobel Also Rans" /> Liu Xiaobo would go on to win the [[2010 Nobel Peace Prize]] while imprisoned.

In 1965, UN Secretary General [[U Thant]] was informed by the Norwegian Permanent Representative to the UN that he would be awarded that year's prize and asked whether or not he would accept. He consulted staff and later replied that he would. At the same time, Chairman [[Gunnar Jahn]] of the Nobel Peace prize committee, lobbied heavily against giving U Thant the prize and the prize was at the last minute awarded to [[UNICEF]]. The rest of the committee all wanted the prize to go to U Thant, for his work in defusing the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]], ending the war in the Congo, and his ongoing work to mediate an end to the Vietnam War. The disagreement lasted three years and in 1966 and 1967 no prize was given, with Gunnar Jahn effectively vetoing an award to U Thant.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Peace Prize 1901–2000 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/peace/lundestad-review/ |access-date=25 February 2014 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=18 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618204330/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/peace/lundestad-review/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nassif |first=Rames |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vdUsAAAAMAAJ&q=Nobel+Prize |title=U Thant in New York: A Portrait of the Third Secretary-General of the United Nations |date=31 December 1988 |publisher=Hurst |isbn=978-1-85065-045-4 |url-access=subscription |access-date=18 November 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100248/https://books.google.com/books?id=vdUsAAAAMAAJ&q=Nobel+Prize |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Literature Prize also has controversial omissions. [[Adam Kirsch]] has suggested that many notable writers have missed out on the award for political or extra-literary reasons. The heavy focus on European and Swedish authors has been a subject of criticism.<ref name="KirschNoClue">{{Cite journal |last=Kirsch |first=Adam |date=3 October 2008 |title=The Nobel Committee has no clue about American literature |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2201447/ |journal=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |access-date=31 March 2010 |archive-date=5 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605164728/http://www.slate.com/id/2201447/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Fristorp |first=Mimmi |date=8 October 2008 |title=Akademien väljer helst en europé |language=sv |work=Dagens Nyheter |url=https://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/bocker/akademien-valjer-helst-en-europe/ |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100218021516/http://www.dn.se/dnbok/akademien-valjer-helst-en-europe-1.789000 |archive-date=18 February 2010 }}</ref> The Eurocentric nature of the award was acknowledged by [[Peter Englund]], the 2009 Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, as a problem with the award and was attributed to the tendency for the academy to relate more to European authors.<ref>{{Cite news |date=6 October 2009 |title=Judge: Nobel literature prizes 'too Eurocentric' |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/8742797 |access-date=3 February 2010 |archive-date=2 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002173301/http://www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/8742797 |url-status=live }}</ref> This tendency towards European authors still leaves many European writers on a list of notable writers that have been overlooked for the Literature Prize, including [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Anton Chekhov]], [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], [[Émile Zola]], [[Marcel Proust]], [[Vladimir Nabokov]], [[James Joyce]], [[August Strindberg]], [[Simon Vestdijk]], [[Karel Čapek]], the [[New World]]'s [[Jorge Luis Borges]], [[Ezra Pound]], [[John Updike]], [[Arthur Miller]], [[Mark Twain]], and Africa's [[Chinua Achebe]].<ref name="Feldman56-57">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], pp. 56–57.</ref>

Candidates can receive multiple nominations the same year. [[Gaston Ramon]] received a total of 155<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nomination Database: Gaston Ramon |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=7545 |access-date=7 January 2017 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=8 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170108190254/https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=7545 |url-status=live }}</ref> nominations in physiology or medicine from 1930 to 1953, the last year with public nomination data for that award {{as of|2016|lc=on}}. He died in 1963 without being awarded. [[Pierre Paul Émile Roux]] received 115<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nomination Database: Emile P Roux |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=7930 |access-date=7 January 2017 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=8 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170108185920/https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=7930 |url-status=live }}</ref> nominations in physiology or medicine, and [[Arnold Sommerfeld]] received 84<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nomination Database: Arnold Sommerfeld |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=8661 |access-date=7 January 2017 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=12 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212085135/https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=8661 |url-status=live }}</ref> in physics. These are the three most nominated scientists without awards in the data published {{as of|2016|lc=on}}.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Butler |first=Declan |date=11 October 2016 |title=Close but no Nobel: the scientists who never won |url=http://www.nature.com/news/close-but-no-nobel-the-scientists-who-never-won-1.20781 |journal=Nature |doi=10.1038/nature.2016.20781 |s2cid=165001434 |access-date=7 January 2017 |archive-date=2 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102071239/http://www.nature.com/news/close-but-no-nobel-the-scientists-who-never-won-1.20781 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Otto Stern]] received 79<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nomination Database: Otto Stern |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=8779 |access-date=7 January 2017 |website=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=6 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161106224218/http://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=8779 |url-status=live }}</ref> nominations in physics 1925–1943 before being awarded in 1943.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Crawford |first=Elisabeth |date=November 2001 |title=Nobel population 1901–50: anatomy of a scientific elite |work=Physics World |url=http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/14/11/7 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060203183205/http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/14/11/7 |archive-date=3 February 2006}}</ref>

The strict rule against awarding a prize to more than three people is also controversial.<ref name="Levinovitz61">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 61.</ref> When a prize is awarded to recognise an achievement by a team of more than three collaborators, one or more will miss out. For example, in 2002, the prize was awarded to [[Koichi Tanaka]] and [[John Fenn (chemist)|John Fenn]] for the development of [[mass spectrometry]] in [[protein]] chemistry, an award that did not recognise the achievements of [[Franz Hillenkamp]] and [[Michael Karas]] of the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the [[Goethe University Frankfurt|University of Frankfurt]].<ref name="Spinney">{{Cite web |last=Spinney |first=Laura |date=4 December 2001 |title=News Analysis: Nobel Prize Controversy |url=http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/20931 |access-date=28 October 2006 |website=[[The Scientist (magazine)|The Scientist]] |archive-date=27 June 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060627152315/http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/20931/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Dawidoff |first=Nicholas |date=25 April 2009 |title=The Civil Heretic |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all/ |access-date=8 June 2010 |archive-date=8 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108201111/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to one of the nominees for the prize in physics, the three person limit deprived him and two other members of his team of the honor in 2013: the team of [[C. R. Hagen|Carl Hagen]], [[Gerald Guralnik]], and [[Tom Kibble]] published a paper in 1964 that gave answers to how the cosmos began, but did not share the 2013 Physics Prize awarded to [[Peter Higgs]] and [[François Englert]], who had also published papers in 1964 concerning the subject. All five physicists arrived at the same conclusion, albeit from different angles. Hagen contends that an equitable solution is to either abandon the three limit restriction, or expand the time period of recognition for a given achievement to two years.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Goodman |first=James |title=UR prof disappointed in Nobel Prize decision |work=[[Democrat and Chronicle]] |location=Rochester, New York |url=http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/2013/10/08/ur-prof-disappointed-in-nobel-prize-decision/2941821/ |access-date=18 March 2019 |archive-date=27 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127195332/https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/2013/10/08/ur-prof-disappointed-in-nobel-prize-decision/2941821/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Similarly, the prohibition of posthumous awards fails to recognise achievements by an individual or collaborator who dies before the prize is awarded. The Economics Prize was not awarded to [[Fischer Black]], who died in 1995, when his co-author [[Myron Scholes]] received the honor in 1997 for their landmark work on option pricing along with [[Robert C. Merton]], another pioneer in the development of valuation of stock options. In the announcement of the award that year, the Nobel committee prominently mentioned Black's key role.

Political subterfuge may also deny proper recognition. [[Lise Meitner]] and [[Fritz Strassmann]], who co-discovered nuclear fission along with [[Otto Hahn]], may have been denied a share of Hahn's 1944 Nobel Chemistry Award due to having fled Germany when the [[Nazi Party|Nazis]] came to power.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Crawford |first1=Elisabeth |last2=Lewin Sime |first2=Ruth |last3=Walker |first3=Mark |display-authors=1 |year=1997 |title=A Nobel Tale of Postwar Injustice |journal=Physics Today |volume=50 |issue=9 |pages=26–32 |bibcode=1997PhT....50i..26C |doi=10.1063/1.881933}}</ref> The Meitner and Strassmann roles in the research was not fully recognised until years later, when they joined Hahn in receiving the 1966 [[Enrico Fermi Award]].

=== Emphasis on discoveries over inventions ===
Alfred Nobel left his fortune to finance annual prizes to be awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110604155708/http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/short_testamente.html Excerpt from the Will of Alfred Nobel]. nobelprize.org</ref> He stated that the Nobel Prizes in Physics should be given "to the person who shall have made the most important 'discovery' or 'invention' within the field of physics". Nobel did not emphasise discoveries, but they have historically been held in higher respect by the Nobel Prize Committee than inventions: 77% of the Physics Prizes have been given to discoveries, compared with only 23% to inventions. Christoph Bartneck and Matthias Rauterberg, in papers published in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' and ''Technoetic Arts'', have argued this emphasis on discoveries has moved the Nobel Prize away from its original intention of rewarding the greatest contribution to society.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bartneck |first1=Christoph |last2=Rauterberg |first2=Matthias |date=9 August 2007 |title=Physics Nobels should favour inventions |journal=Nature |volume=448 |issue=7154 |page=644 |bibcode=2007Natur.448..644B |doi=10.1038/448644c |pmid=17687300 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bartneck |first1=Christoph |last2=Rauterberg |first2=Matthias |year=2008 |title=The asymmetry between discoveries and inventions in the Nobel Prize in Physics |url=http://www.bartneck.de/publications/2008/nobel/bartneckTechnoeticArts2008.pdf |journal=Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research |volume=6 |page=73 |citeseerx=10.1.1.145.8130 |doi=10.1386/tear.6.1.73_1 |access-date=25 October 2017 |archive-date=26 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226225222/http://www.bartneck.de/publications/2008/nobel/bartneckTechnoeticArts2008.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Gender===
{{See also|List of female Nobel laureates|List of female nominees for the Nobel Prize}}
In terms of the most prestigious awards in [[Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics|STEM]] fields, only a small proportion have been awarded to women. Out of 210 laureates in Physics, 181 in Chemistry and 216 in Medicine between 1901 and 2018, there were only three female laureates in physics, five in chemistry and 12 in medicine.<ref>''[https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/ Nobel Prize Facts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180815021423/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/ |date=15 August 2018 }}'', Nobel Foundation, 2014. (accessed 29 October 2014)</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002315/231519e.pdf |title=A Complex Formula: Girls and Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Asia |publisher=UNESCO |year=2015 |isbn=978-92-9223-492-8 |location=Paris |pages=23 |access-date=3 May 2017 |archive-date=15 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115233123/http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002315/231519e.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>''[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-prizes-in-chemistry/ Nobel Prize in Chemistry] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523074546/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-prizes-in-chemistry |date=23 May 2020 }}'' Nobel Foundation 2018 (accessed 3 October 2018)</ref><ref>''[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-laureates-in-physiology-or-medicine/ Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523072810/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-laureates-in-physiology-or-medicine |date=23 May 2020 }}'' Nobel Foundation 2018. (accessed 3 October 2018)</ref> Factors proposed to contribute to the discrepancy between this and the roughly equal [[human sex ratio]] include biased nominations, fewer women than men being active in the relevant fields, Nobel Prizes typically being awarded decades after the research was done (reflecting a time when [[gender bias]] in the relevant fields was greater), a greater delay in awarding Nobel Prizes for women's achievements making longevity a more important factor for women (one cannot be nominated for the Nobel Prize posthumously), and a tendency to omit women from jointly awarded Nobel Prizes.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 October 2018 |title=Nobel Prizes still struggle with wide gender disparity |language=en |work=CBC News |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nobel-prizes-women-gender-1.4845225 |access-date=12 December 2018 |archive-date=11 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211141358/https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nobel-prizes-women-gender-1.4845225 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Feeney |first=Mary K. |date=5 October 2018 |title=Why more women don't win science Nobels |url=http://theconversation.com/why-more-women-dont-win-science-nobels-104370 |journal=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]] |language=en |access-date=12 December 2018 |archive-date=12 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181212024209/https://theconversation.com/why-more-women-dont-win-science-nobels-104370 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Rathi |first=Akshat |date=9 October 2017 |title=The Nobel Prize committee explains why women win so few prizes |url=https://qz.com/1097888/the-nobel-prize-committee-explains-why-women-win-so-few-prizes/ |access-date=12 December 2018 |website=Quartz |language=en |archive-date=14 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214024211/https://qz.com/1097888/the-nobel-prize-committee-explains-why-women-win-so-few-prizes/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Devlin |first=Hannah |date=6 October 2017 |title=Why don't women win Nobel science prizes? |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/06/women-win-nobel-science-prizes |access-date=12 December 2018 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=15 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915022136/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/06/women-win-nobel-science-prizes |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rose |first=Hilary |url=https://archive.org/details/lovepowerknowled00rose |title=Love, Power, and Knowledge: Towards a Feminist Transformation of the Sciences |date=1994 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-20907-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lovepowerknowled00rose/page/137 137] |language=en |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Siegel |first=Ethan |date=18 October 2018 |title=These 5 Women Deserved, And Were Unjustly Denied, A Nobel Prize In Physics |url=https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/these-5-women-deserved-and-were-unjustly-denied-a-nobel-prize-in-physics-7f769e28331 |journal=[[Medium (website)|Medium]] |access-date=12 December 2018 |archive-date=28 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190628012302/https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/these-5-women-deserved-and-were-unjustly-denied-a-nobel-prize-in-physics-7f769e28331 |url-status=live }}</ref> Despite these factors, Marie Curie is to date the only person awarded Nobel Prizes in two different sciences (Physics in 1903, Chemistry in 1911); she is one of only three people who have received two Nobel Prizes in sciences (see Multiple laureates below). [[Malala Yousafzai]] is the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When she received it in 2014, she was only 17 years old.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=20 October 2014 |title=Nobel Laureates by Age |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/age.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010190719/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/age.html |archive-date=10 October 2014 |access-date=20 October 2014 |publisher=nobelprize.org}}</ref>

=== Status of the Economic Sciences Prize ===
[[Peter Nobel]] describes the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel as a "false Nobel prize" that dishonours his relative Alfred Nobel, after whom the prize is named, and considers economics to be a pseudoscience.<ref>{{Cite web |date=14 October 2007 |title=The Local – Nobel descendant slams Economics prize |url=http://www.thelocal.se/2173/20050928/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014012248/http://www.thelocal.se/2173/20050928/ |archive-date=14 October 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Henderson |first=Hazel |author-link=Hazel Henderson |date=1 January 2004 |title=Abolish the Nobel in Economics, Many Scientists Agree |url=https://hazelhenderson.com/2004/01/01/abolish-the-nobel-in-economics-many-scientists-agree-2004/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027065720/https://hazelhenderson.com/2004/01/01/abolish-the-nobel-in-economics-many-scientists-agree-2004/ |archive-date=27 October 2021 |access-date=20 September 2021 }}</ref>