Nobel Diplomas, Medals, and Prize Money Are Handed out in Sweden

Thursday Sweden's King Carl Gustaf handed out $1.4 million in Nobel Prizes.

Photo: Nobel Diplomas, Medals, and Prize Money Are Handed out in Sweden

Awards in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and economics were presented during a glitzy ceremony at Stockholm's concert hall.

The prestigious ceremony is followed by a lavish banquet in the Swedish capital's city hall, where recipients are served a delicious three-course gala dinner although the menu remains top secret.

The awards were created by the 1895 will of prize founder Alfred Nobel, which stipulates that the prizes be given to those who have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.

The prizes were first awarded in 1901 and only 40 women - including Marie Curie - have taken the prestigious honour, Monsters and Critics.com reports.

In the meantime, a resident of the Waretown section of Ocean Township in Ocean County, he was in Stockholm, Sweden, accepting the Nobel Prize in physics.

If not for a slow walking pace, he might not have been alive to see the day. Twelve years ago, he and his wife narrowly avoided a suicide bomb attack that killed 15 people in Jerusalem.

"If we had just been walking a little bit faster I would have never been able to pick up the Nobel Prize," Smith, 79, told The Associated Press. "We were less than 100 meters away and walking towards the place where they blew themselves up."

But Smith survived, and Thursday he walked across the Stockholm Concert Hall stage, shook hands with King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, and received the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Smith said it was "marvelous" to get the prize and said he would "never fly in economy class again," Press of Atlantic City reports.

It was also reported, t he Royal Swedish Academy recognized the work of Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom, the first women to win the economics prize since that specific award was established in 1968.

"Mankind has prospered from science, but prosperity will endure only if organizational innovation keeps a pace of technological innovation," he said. "In the years to come, we will have to develop complex new rules, agreements and enforcement mechanisms. In doing so, we are blessed to be able to build upon your foundations. In its 271st year, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences could not have awarded a more timely prize."

In addition to their diplomas, medals, and prize money, a lavish banquet capped off the day for the recipients, Voice of America reports.