Manual and instructions for the Nomination Database

Introduction

The registry comprises candidates nominated for the Nobel Prizes since they were instituted in 1901, but only material older than 50 years is included, as stipulated by the statutes of the Nobel Foundation. Due to internal work processes there is also at times a delay until a new year of data is available. We aim to provide new data and corrections as soon as possible.

There are also deliberate omissions in the database regarding nominations to the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry due to information that cannot be released according to the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, §8 second paragraph. If the nominee, or one of the nominees, is alive, the whole nomination is hidden and not present in the database. If the nominator is alive, the name of the nominator is substituted with “NN”, but the rest of the nomination is kept.

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

Every effort has been made to secure content and data quality. Please notify us regarding corrections. The database is provided on an “as is” basis. We cannot guarantee fully accurate and complete information in the database. For serious research projects, this database is not a substitute for contact with the Nobel Prize awarding institutions or visiting the archives.

Number of nominations

We discourage from placing too much focus on the number of nominations.

The number of nominations is not a basis for evaluation and selection of Nobel laureates. It is not a voting process, and the number of nominations is not related to being awarded the Nobel Prize. For more information see Nomination and selection of Nobel Prize laureates.

A nomination may be signed by one or several people. During our history, this situation has been treated differently. Several nominators may be listed in the same nomination individually, or represented together as a role or function, or even split into separate nominations. This may be represented differently between years and categories in the database.

General notes

All entries use the Latin alphabet, and wherever possible, the English language. Names of universities, cities and countries have been translated into English. Where the translation might cause confusion, the original name is given first followed by an English translation in parentheses. English transliteration is used.

Information about gender, year of birth, university, city, country, etc. is not always available. We do our best to increase the completeness, but at times this information is not available. This means that if you search for gender, country, etc., you only search among a subset of the nominations. You will then only get a list of nominations where this information is known.

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 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. The same applies to names of universities, cities and countries.

This database includes valid nominations only. Nominations can be declared invalid for several reasons, including being submitted after the given deadline, or being submitted by an ineligible nominator. Such nominations are not included in the database.

Definitions

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

Description of the information provided

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

Year: Indicates the prize awarding year for which the nomination was declared valid.

Number: This is a 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 has different meanings for historical reasons, mainly for us internally to be able to refer back to the written records.

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

Name: The name of the person/organization.

The following extra information may 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.

The following extra information may be provided for the person/organization at the time the nomination was made. Note that this information is only provided if available.

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

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 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 are working on merging these together.

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

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 was located; alternatively, the city in which the person worked or resided.

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.

Browsing the Database

Browse by category and year

Browsing by category and year provides an easy way to list all nominations for a Nobel Prize category in 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

Browsing 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 a 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". The search is case insensitive. 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 a specific range of years. You can also search for name, gender, city, university and country for both nominees and nominators. Note that all criteria must be fulfilled to match a nomination, so the more you specify, the fewer nominations will be listed. Note that since not all nominations have information about the gender, 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.