Due to the monetary donations left behind by Alfred Nobel the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to worthy individuals each year. This has been taking place since 1901 to reward individuals for their work in the areas of physics, literature, chemistry, medicine, and efforts for peace.
The winner is honored with a cash prize, a diploma, and a medal of honor. The amount of money the winner is awarded varies each year but it is quite substantial. The first amount awarded in 1901 was $150,782 and the amount given in 2007 was $10 million. The amount annually is divided among the winners for that year.
Since 1901 766 people have had the honor of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. One 33 of them have been women. There is a nomination process which is where the names for the winners who are chosen come from. There are several different Nobel Peace Prize committees, one for each area that is covered under the awards. Thousands of letters are sent by the committees to professors, businesses, scientists, medical professionals, and others asking them to nominate any person they feel is worthy of receiving a Nobel Peace Prize.
Only those who receive a nomination letter from a Nobel Prize committee can nominate someone. The people nominated have to still be alive. The person nominated doesn’t need to give their consent in order to be considered. However many organizations find it a nice gesture to inform the individual that they have been nominated.
On average the committees receive several hundred nominations each year. The information submitted for each person is carefully reviewed and evaluated before the final decisions are made. The names of the people who are nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize are not revealed. They become public knowledge 50 years after the year in which they were submitted. The only way individuals know is if the organization nominating them informed them or if they win.
The statistics for winning a Nobel Peace Prize reveal some interesting facts. Only four winners have done so the first year that they were nominated. Robert Koch was nominated 55 times before he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 for his medical contributions to Tuberculosis. Many people find it hard to believe that Gandhi never won a Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to world peace. Records show he was nominated though 12 years in a row from 1937 to 1948.
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