NOBEL PRIZE The Nobel prizes are a group of awards given each year for outstanding achievement in six areas: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, and economics. The prizes are awarded from a fund created by the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who wanted to use some of his large fortune to help improve world conditions. Therefore, the prizes are intended to honor accomplishments that have somehow benefited humankind. History The first Nobel prizes were handed out on December 10, 1901, the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. Nobel was a chemist, engineer, and inventor. His most significant invention was dynamite, which helped to make him a wealthy man. Despite giving the world such a destructive device, Nobel opposed violence and war. He therefore left much of his money to the establishment of the Nobel prizes, which he stated in his will should go “to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greate