Nobel Prize controversies

Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel established the Nobel Prizes upon his death in 1895. Annual prizes are awarded for service to humanity in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. Similarly, the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is awarded along with the Nobel Prizes. Since the first award in 1901, the proceedings, nominations, awardees and exclusions have engendered criticism

Nobel Prizes are not awarded in many scientific and cultural fields, most controversially, in mathematics. An early theory that jealousy led Nobel to omit a prize to mathematician Gösta Mittag-Leffler Both the Fields Medal and the Abel Prize have been described as the "Nobel Prize of mathematics".

Nobel sought to reward "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind". One prize, he stated, should be given "to the person who shall have made the most important...
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