The Nobel Prizes (Swedish: Nobelpriset) are awarded for Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine. More recently the Bank of Sweden has been awarding a non-official, but associated, Nobel memorial prize for "Economics". The first five prizes were instituted by the Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel through his will in 1895; they were first awarded in 1901. The prize for economics, The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was instituted by Sweden's central bank in 1968. The first prize in economics was awarded in 1969. All six prizes are widely regarded as the supreme commendations in their subject areas. With the exception of the peace prize, which is handed out in Oslo, Norway, they are all handed out in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
The process of selecting Nobel Laureates is made in a screening process: for the Memorial Prize in Economics, a committee comprising six members; for the Prize in Literature, a committee of five; for the other four Nobel Prizes, a committee comprising five members respectively. In its first stage, several thousand people are asked to nominate candidates. These names are scrutinized and discussed by experts in their specific disciplines until only the winners remain. This slow and thorough process, insisted upon by Alfred Nobel, is arguably what gives the prize its importance. Despite this, there have been questionable awards and questionable omissions over the prize's century-long history.