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Since 1901 , the awarding of the Nobel Prizes has been among the most tight watched — and , at times , the most controversial — ceremony in the world . And the 2013 Nobel Prizes , which will be announced over several days beginning Monday ( Oct. 7 ) , will not be any different .

Alfred Nobel(1833 - 1896 ) ground the Nobel Prizes in his last will and testament . Nobel stipulated that prizes should be given in five categories : Physics , Chemistry , Physiology or Medicine , Literature and Peace . In 1968 , a 6th category was added : Economic Sciences .

alfred-nobel

The profile of Alfred Nobel appears on the side of the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway.

The winners are take by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences , the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet , the Swedish Academy and the Norwegian Nobel Committee . The winner are denote in October , and then the prizes are given to recipients in December at a stately observance in Stockholm , Sweden ; the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo , Norway . The observance takes place each twelvemonth on Dec. 10 , the day of remembrance of Alfred Nobel ’s death . [ The 10 Noblest Nobel Prize Winners of All Time ]

This year , the award for Physiology or Medicine will be announced on Monday , Oct. 7 ; the accolade for Physics will be announced on Tuesday , Oct. 8 ; the award for Chemistry will be announced on Wednesday , Oct. 9 ; the award for Peace will be announce on Friday , Oct. 11 ; and the award for Economic Sciences will be announced on Monday , Oct. 14 . The Literature Prize succeeder will be announced on a to - be - settle date . The honour announcement will also be webcast live on NobelPrize.org .

Despite the prestigious nature of theNobel Prizes — or , perhaps , because of it — the choice of whom to accolade has been steep in controversy . This may be appropriate , because the awarding were themselves suffer in controversy : Alfred Nobel became wealthy through his invention of dynamite and other explosives , many of which were used in war , though Nobel was widely jazz to be a pacifist . Historians believe the prize were a mode for Nobel to ensure his legacy would be about more than death and destruction .

A headshot of Jens Holst in the centre against an enlarged, blurred version of the same photo.

One controversial award was the 1949 prize for Physiology or Medicine , which went to neurologist António Egas Moniz , who developed the prefrontal lobotomy . Another was the 1918 award for Chemistry , give to Fritz Haber , who actively promoted the use of chemical artillery in war .

The accolade have also been accuse of get a left - extension bias , particularly the Peace prize . In 2009 , President Barack Obama won the Peace prize , though he had been in office less than 10 months . ( Obama himself declare that he did not deserve the prize . ) And in 2007 , Al Gore and theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Changewere awarded the Peace Prize , outraging many political conservativist .

headshots of Dr. Alberto Ascherio and Dr. Stephen Hauser

Split image of Skull Hill on Mars and an artificially stimulated retina

digital eye

Split image of a "cosmic tornado" and a face depiction from a wooden coffin in Tombos.

Split image of merging black holes and a woolly mice.

Catherine the Great art, All About History 127

A digital image of a man in his 40s against a black background. This man is a digital reconstruction of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, which used reverse aging to see what he would have looked like in his prime,

Xerxes I art, All About History 125

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, All About History 124 artwork

All About History 123 art, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II

Tutankhamun art, All About History 122

An image comparing the relative sizes of our solar system�s known dwarf planets, including the newly discovered 2017 OF201

a view of a tomb with scaffolding on it

an illustration showing a large disk of material around a star

A small phallic stalagmite is encircled by a 500-year-old bracelet carved from shell with Maya-like imagery

a person holds a GLP-1 injector

A man with light skin and dark hair and beard leans back in a wooden boat, rowing with oars into the sea

an abstract illustration depicting the collision of subatomic particles