Manual and instructions for the nomination database, 1901-1963

Introduction

The present registry comprises candidates nominated for the Nobel Prizes since they were instituted in 1901, with one important limitation, i.e. only material older than 50 years is included, as stipulated by the statutes of the Nobel Foundation. Currently, data until 1963 is included for nominations to all Nobel Prizes except the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, that only contains data until 1953.

There might be deliberate omissions in the database regarding nominations to the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry due to information that cannot be released at this time according to the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, §8 second paragraph.

The database contains information recorded in the registry; the name of the persons and, if available, some basic information about them. If further information is desired, please contact the Nobel Prize awarding institutions.

Definitions

Nominator: The person/organization who submitted the nomination.
Nominee: The person/organization who is nominated. A maximum of three per nomination.

General notes

1. All entries use the Latin alphabet, and wherever possible the English language. Names of universities have been translated in to English; where the translation might cause confusion, the original name is given first followed by an English translation in parentheses. Non-English vowels in the names of nominees and nominators have generally been included; non-English consonants other than ‘ñ’ have generally not been included.

2. The search function is not case sensitive.

3. For Laureates, this registry uses the spelling of names as decided by the Prize Awarders.

4. Abbreviations are not punctuated. For example, the registry will show St Louis and Washington, DC.

5. Information on the specific university of a nominee or nominator is not always available to the registry, in which case only a city is listed. Therefore, a nominee working at Harvard University, for example, may be listed in Boston, MA instead of Cambridge, MA (by contrast, someone known to work at this university would be listed only under Cambridge, MA).

6. The Nobel Prize for certain years was awarded at a later date. In these cases, the year to which the award applies is listed in the field for 'Received prize' for the nominee.

7. Occasionally, nominations are declared invalid. This may be because they were received after the deadline, were submitted by ineligible nominators, and a number of other reasons. These are not included in the database.

Description of the information provided

A detailed description of the information to be found is provided below.

Year: Indicates the year when the nomination was declared valid.

Number: This is the registration number assigned to each nomination as a reference. Please cite the Nobel Prize category, year and this number as reference in case of questions. The number is presented in two fields and have different meaning in different cases:

Nominations for the Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine:

Each nomination letter is normally numbered as 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, etc. A notation like 1-1, 1-2, etc is used when several nominators, in the same nomination letter, have nominated a candidate. Each nominator is then presented in a separate entry, numbered xx-1, xx-2, etc.

For nominations for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - If there are more than five nominators in the same nomination letter, only one entry is used. 'Et al' is written after the nominator's surname followed by the surnames of the additional nominators within block parentheses. All names are searchable, though the names within block parentheses are not visible to the user. Additionally, all the nominators' names, as well as all entry numbers for the nomination, are listed in the 'Comments' field of each entry. If the number of nominators exceeds the space available in the surname field, additional entries are made in the same fashion until all names have been included.

Nominations for the Nobel Prizes in Literature and Peace:

Each nomination letter is normally numbered as 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, etc. no matter how many nominators there are within the letter. One entry corresponds to one nomination letter and all nominators are listed in the same entry. If there are several independent nomination letters for the same nominee they can on the other hand be numbered as 1-0, 1-1, 1-2, etc.

Motivation: The motivation, as presented by the nominator, for the nominee to receive the Nobel Prize.

Nominee: The person/organization who is nominated. A maximum of three per nomination.

Nominator: The person/organization who submitted the nomination. (See under 'Number' for a information regarding multiple nominators in the same letter and the two different ways to denote a single nomination letter).

The goal is that a person/organization should be one unique entity in the database for nominees and nominators and thereby make it possible to list all nominations made for, and by, a certain person/organization. This may fail in certain cases and a single person/organization may occur as several instances. The nominator and/or the Prize Awarder may have spelled the name of the candidate differently by mistake or by interpreting a handwritten letter differently. It may also be the case that different transliteration rules have been used. If you find duplicate entries for persons/organizations we will try to validate if they do refer to the same person, and in that case merge the entries together.

Name: The name of the person/organization. All entries use the Latin alphabet. Non-English vowels in the names of nominees and nominators have generally been included; non-English consonants other than ‘ñ’ have generally not been included.

The following extra information can be provided regarding the person/organization. Note that this information is only provided if available. We aim to provide as complete information as possible. If you know the missing information you are welcome to send it to us together with a reference. If we can validate it we may include it in the database.

Gender: Gender of the candidate. 'M' denotes male, 'F' denotes female.

Year, birth: Year of birth.

Year, death: Year of death.

Received prize: If the candidate has been awarded a Nobel Prize in any category, this is indicated here with the abbreviation for the category and the year the prize was received.

The following extra information can be provided for the person/organization at the time the nomination was made. Note that this information is only provided if available. This means that is you search by i.e. country, you will only search among a subset of the persons/organizations. We aim to provide as complete information as possible. If you know the missing information you are welcome to send it to us together with a reference. If we can validate it we may include it in the database.

Profession/Category: Academic title and/or profession of the candidate. Some abbreviations that have been used:

prof emer, professor em: professor emeritus
prof: professor
temp prof: temporary professorship
assoc prof: associate professor
dept head: head of department

University: Academic institution or company/organisation of employment of the candidate at the time of nomination. This is mainly used for the scientific Nobel Prizes and rarely for Literature and Peace.

The goal is that a university should be one unique entity in the database and thereby make it possible to list all nominations made for, and by, a certain university. This may fail in certain cases and a single univeristy may occur as several instances. The nominator and/or the Prize Awarder may have spelled the name of the university differently by mistake or by interpreting a handwritten letter differently. If you find duplicate entries we will try to validate if they do refer to the same university, and in that case merge the entries together.

The word 'University' has sometimes been excluded. For example, 'Chicago' refers specifically to the University of Chicago, and not to any other universities located in Chicago. Unfortunately this means that sometimes there might be two entries (with and without the word University) present in the database especially for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. We work on merging these together.

Sometimes, when available, the department has also been included after the name of the university.

In cases when an English translation of a university name might cause confusion, the foreign name is placed first, followed by the English name within parentheses.

For a list of universities available in the database, start at the list of countries and then click on the university figure at the country of interest.

City: Primarily the city in which the university is located; alternatively the city in which the person works or resides. English/international names have been used for cities. The city name in use at the time of the nomination has been used in the first instance; other names are listed within parentheses.

The goal is that a city should be one unique entity in the database and thereby make it possible to list all nominations made for, and by, a certain city. This may fail in certain cases and a single city may occur as several instances. If you find duplicate entries we will try to validate if they do refer to the same city, and in that case merge the entries together.

For a list of cities present in the database, start at the list of countries and then click on the city figure at the country of interest.

Country: Names and two-letter codes have been used, according to the ISO 3166-1 standard. See the list of countries for a list of all countries present in the database. Additionally, for the United States and Canada, two-letter codes have been used to indicate state or province. For cities where borders have changed, the country at the time of the nomination is listed.

The abbreviation 'SU' has been used for all regions of the former U.S.S.R. (with the exception of the Baltic states 'LV', 'EE', 'LT'), regardless of the year of nomination.

The abbreviations 'CZ' and 'YU' have been used for all regions of former Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia respectively, regardless of the year of nomination.

A country is one unique entity in the database and thereby makes it possible to list all nominations made for, and by, a certain country.

Browsing the Database

Browse by category and year

Browse by category and year provides an easy way to list all nominations to a Nobel Prize category one specific year. Just choose the category and year and click on list.

The result is displayed as a table with one nomination per line. Click on "Show" to display the complete nomination record, or click on the name of a person to learn more about this person.

Browse by countries, cities and universities

Browse by countries, cities and universities offers an easy way to view the nominations connected to specific countries, cities and universities. Note that since not all nominations have this information, you only browse among the subset of the nominations.

Searching the database

Search for persons

Search for persons offers an easy way to search for a person in the database. Simply write a part of the name and press "List". You will get a list of persons that matches your search criteria. Click on the person of interest to get more information about this specific person.

Advanced search

Advanced search offers the possibility to search for nominations in a specific prize category and within in a specific range of years. You can also search for the name, city, university and country for both nominees and nominators. Note that all criteria has to be fulfilled in order to match a nomination, so the more you specify, the fewer nominations will be listed. Note that since not all nominations have information about city, university and country, you will restrict your search to a subset of the nominations if you include this in your search.

Disclaimer
Every effort has been made to secure content and data quality. Please notify the publishers regarding corrections.