The Nobel Prize

Jane Addams was a social work pioneer, feminist and peace maker. In 1910 Addams received the first honorary degree ever awarded to a women at Yale University. She dedicated her life to getting great powers to conclude peace agreements and helping the poor. She ran Hull House in Chicago with the mission "to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises, and to investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago." After being nominated on 91 occasions for the Nobel Peace Prize, Addams was finally awarded the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize together with Nicholas Murray Butler. Addams became the second woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, after Bertha von Suttner. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3gdYgSz Photo: Jane Addams, 1906. Painting by George de Forest Brush. Credit: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; partial gift of Mrs. Nancy Pierce York and Mrs. Grace Pierce Forbes.

When asked what his best quality is, physicist Pierre Agostini said “precision”. Perhaps this is not surprising if you consider he won the Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 for helping to develop super short pulses of light. But Agostini wasn’t always quite so precise. “I remember once we had a glass setup in the lab. It had to be heated to a gas to purify the atmosphere inside. Once we were heating it, and I forgot went for lunch, and when we came back, it was melting. It was horrible! And it was all my fault… From that time, I think I've tried to be aware of things.” Watch to hear Agostini’s advice about recovering from failure: https://lnkd.in/eTEHQSg2

“It is always better if you have a diverse group with people coming from different countries and different genders. This really helps to have a more dynamic group,” says physics laureate Anne L’Huillier. “Of course, you can have your own ideas that pop up, but very often it’s […] within a group discussion.” She believes that having a group comprising people with different backgrounds and expertise is beneficial, as well as a good atmosphere to promote discussion and “where people are happy to be in that group and to contribute, [so they can] do great research”. Watch her Nobel Prize lecture to better understand L’Huillier’s research: https://lnkd.in/e2TMZunY

On 28 April 1962 Linus Pauling (shown left, holding sign) joined protesters in front of the White House to protest against the testing of nuclear weapons. After World War II Pauling, a celebrated scientist, was at the forefront of voices speaking out against the emerging nuclear arms race, despite his actions labelling him a suspected communist. Ultimately his efforts paid off – a treaty banning nuclear testing came into force on 10 October 1963. On the same day, Pauling was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work. It was his second award, having previously received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3k4g1n7

Albert Lutuli was Africa's first Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Lutuli was a Zulu Chief, teacher and trade unionist. He was known by his Zulu name Mvumbi, which means continuous rain. In 1952, Lutuli became president of the African National Congress (ANC) liberation movement. He was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence and became the spokesman for a civil disobedience campaign against South Africa's apartheid and racial segregation policies. He spearheaded several demonstrations and strikes against the white minority government. Lutuli was arrested along with other opponents of South Africa's racial segregation. He and other activists were subjected to government surveillance, imprisonment and abuse. At the time he received the Nobel Peace Prize, the South African government had banned him from travelling outside a fifteen-mile radius of his home. The government lifted this restriction for ten days so Lutuli and his wife could attend the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies in Oslo. Discover more Lutuli's incredible life: https://bit.ly/2BKS56m #FreedomDay

Literature laureate Nadine Gordimer was deeply involved in the South African anti-apartheid struggle. Gordimer started writing from an early age, and published her first story at 15. Her works comprise novels and short stories in which the consequences of apartheid form the central theme. Under apartheid, several of Gordimer's books were banned in South Africa. Her novels depict complicated personal and social relationships, set against the backdrop of the emerging resistance movement against apartheid and later, liberated South Africa. She was awarded the Nobel Prize as a prosaist "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity." #FreedomDay

Nelson Mandela casts his vote in the first South African elections held without racial discrimination against voters on this day in 1994. Everyone of a legal voting age was allowed to vote. It was the first time in his life Mandela had voted because, under apartheid, black South Africans were not allowed to vote. Nearly 20 million South Africans participated in the 1994 elections out of around 22.7 million eligible voters. Mandela was awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the dismantling of South Africa's apartheid regime. On 10 May 1994, he was sworn in as South Africa's first democratically elected president. #FreedomDay

When Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson attempted to listen to microwave signals transmitted from our solar system using a large radio antenna their efforts were hampered by the presence of an annoying background hiss. After a year spent persistently and painstakingly trying to identify and remove all possible causes for the unwanted noise – from radio signals from neighbouring cities to pigeons nesting in the horn-shaped antenna – they concluded that this interference was due to microwaves present throughout the universe and at a temperature of around three degrees above absolute zero. The source of the noise didn't come from Earth or even our own galaxy. The cosmic background radiation was left over from the Big Bang! The same afterglow from the early universe could also be seen as the snowy static on analogue televisions. The picture shows the full-sky image of the temperature fluctuations (shown as colour differences) in the cosmic microwave background, over nine years. In 1978, Wilson and Penzias received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation." Read more about 1978 physics prize: https://bit.ly/2VMa5Uc

“I'll never forget my first political lesson when I was 10 years old,” said John Hume, who shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with David Trimble for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland. “The Nationalist Party were holding an election meeting at the top of the street and waving their flags and my father - who was unemployed - saw that I was getting emotional too. Then he put his hand on my shoulder he says, "don't get involved in that stuff, son'. I says, 'why not, da?' He says, 'you can't eat a flag'. Think of the wisdom of that. That real politics shouldn't be about waving flags, it should be about developing the standard of living of all sections of your people.” Watch Hume’s speech from the Nobel Centennial Symposia in 2001, for more insights into his role in the Northern Ireland peace process: https://lnkd.in/e4isFvEm

"You couldn't see the radiation, or touch it, or smell it ... The world around was both familiar and unfamiliar. When I traveled to the zone, I was told right away: don't pick the flowers, don't sit on the grass, don't drink the water from a well ... Death hid everywhere." In 1997, investigative journalist and author Svetlana Alexievich published 'Voices from Chernobyl', a powerful and moving compilation of interviews with those affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015. Read an excerpt to mark International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day: https://bit.ly/2QyqXvK