Editing Nobel Prize (section)

=== 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]].