-Shirin Ebadi-

-Alexei A Abrikosov-

-Toni Morrison-

What do these individuals have in common?

They all won the Nobel Prize.

Shirin Egadi from Iran won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work as a human rights activist and lawyer. Alexei A. Abrikosov from Russia and US won the Physics prize for his theories about superconductivity in 2003. Toni Morrison won the Literature prize in 1993 for her writing.

The Nobel Prize is one of the highest awards one can obtain in life. Such an award brings recognition to the individual while providing sufficient funds for him or her to continue pursuing the cause. The Prize is awarded each year to individuals of all nationalities and in six areas: peace, literature, physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and economic science. Those who “during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind” received the Nobel Prize.

Do you know how the Nobel Prize came about?

Alfred B. Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, and talented inventor who discovered the dynamite and also held more than 350 patents. Throughout his lifetime he made an enormous amount of money, of which he left $9 million in his will to establish the Nobel prizes. At first his family members contested Nobel's will, but to no avail. The first awards were given out in 1901, which was the fifth anniversary of his death. Additionally, the Swedish bank established the economics prize, the Stockholm Royal Swedish Academy in Sciences the physics and chemistry prizes, the Royal Caroline Medical Institute the physiology or medicine prize, and the Swedish Academy oversaw the in literature prize. The five-member committee chosen by the Norwegian parliament called Norwegian Storting awards the peace prize.

Some interesting facts:

-There have only been 10 women peace prize recipients.

- Awards cannot be made posthumously (after a person dies)

-An individual receives a medal, diploma, and a sum of money, which translates to about 1 million dollars.

-So, do you want to become the next Nobel Prize winner? Ok, maybe you just need some help in your school research or would like to enlighten your mind…

Check out: www.nobel.se

This is an awesome new sight online- the Nobel e-Museum . Not only does it list information pertaining to the prize but it provides a database of research and academic information from a variety of disciplines, to which Nobel Prize Laureates have contributed. You can e xplore the work and the ideas of more than 700 creative minds who have received the prize.

So get to work. You never know what valuable contribution to the humanity YOU can produce.