The Nobel Prize winners will be announced next week.

The awards are regarded as some of the most esteemed recognitions worldwide for accomplishments in the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, economics, and peace.

The winners will join the pantheon of Nobel laureates, from Albert Einstein to Mother Teresa.

His nomination was also submitted in December by a Republican congresswoman in recognition of his role in negotiating the Abraham Accords, which established formal relations between Israel and several Arab nations.

Here are some things to know about the Nobel Prizes:

A history of the Nobel Prizes

The Nobel Prizes were created by Alfred Nobel, a 19th-century businessman and chemist from Sweden.

He amassed over 300 patents, but gained widespread renown before the awards for inventing dynamite, achieved by blending nitroglycerine with a stabilizing compound.

Dynamite, which became popular in construction, mining and the weapons industry, made Nobel a very rich man.

Toward the latter part of his life, he decided to dedicate his immense wealth to establish annual awards aimed at honoring those who “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” during the previous year.

The first Nobel Prizes, in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace, were presented in 1901, five years after his death.

In 1968, a sixth prize was created, for economics, by Sweden’s central bank.

Though Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is technically not a Nobel, it’s always presented together with the others.

The Nobel nomination process

The nominations are kept confidential by the award committees, and the Nobel rules forbid any discussions by judges about their decision-making for half a century.

But those doing the nominating may choose to make their recommendations public.

A person cannot nominate themselves, though they can be nominated multiple times by others, including members of each prize’s panel.

Each prize’s committee operates slightly differently, but they all strive to honor Nobel’s wish that the winners have conferred benefit to humankind.

Notably, the peace prize committee regularly honors achievements from the previous year, and uniquely, it is presented in Oslo, Norway.

For the science prizes, awarded in Stockholm, winners often have to wait decades to have their work recognised by the Nobel judges, who want to make sure that any breakthrough stands the test of time.

The program for this year’s Nobels

The 2025 Nobel Prize announcements kick off on Monday with the medicine prize being announced by a panel at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on October 13.

The awards will be handed out on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

Each prize carries an award of 11 million Swedish kronor (nearly US$1.2 million), and the winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and a diploma.

Up to three laureates for each award can share the prize money.