How Are Nobel Prizes Awarded?

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this morning to the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei. The New York Times reported that ElBaradei was chosen from a list of 199 nominees through a process so secretive that ElBaradei only learned he was the winner while watching the award ceremony on television. In 2003, Brendan I. Koerner explained how the Nobel committees choose nominees and winners: “Each prize has slightly different criteria regarding who may send in a nomination, but those without prestigious jobs or specific expertise needn’t bother.” Once nominees are finalized, the committees then “work for months to ax off candidates whose contributions aren’t up to snuff.”