Ragnar Björk

Inside the Nobel Committee on Medicine : Prize competition procedures 1901-1950 and the fate of Carl Neuberg

The present study explores some ofthe mechanisms at work in the award of theNobel Prize in medicine or physiology duringthe period 1901–1950. In his will, Nobelmentioned three explicit criteria for the NobelCommittees, but an examination of the fate ofGerman biochemist Carl Neuberg reveals howimplicit criteria came to be added. Forexample, the Nobel Committees in Medicine andChemistry were challenged by the emergence ofnew disciplines such as biochemistry, and inresponse began to rotate awards arounddifferent specialities.