The Nobel Prizes

This month we admire not a single person, but a changing committee of people and a series of prizes that every year highlights the truly excellent, helps us ponder anew on the nature of goodness – whether in peace, physics or literature. The prize was initiated by Alfred Nobel who invented dynamite to offset the possible negative uses of his explosive.

This year five of the 13 Nobel laureates are women with achievements ranging from breakthroughs with DNA to notable success in economics and international diplomacy. Elinor Ostrom is the first female Laureate in Economic Sciences. Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Prize in 2009 she analyses economic transactions taking place outside the markets. The first woman to receive a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie who received it twice for Physics in 1903 and 1911.

Herta Muller a Romanian born writer who now lives in Germany is the literature recipient, the nomination says that the ‘concentration of her poetry and the frankness of her prose depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.’ South Africans, Nadine Gordimer and JM Coetzee are previous recipients of this award.

US President Barack Obama is the Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his efforts at international diplomacy. South Africans: Chief Albert Luthuli, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk are recipients of this award too. BizTech salutes any award that salutes excellence and ways to make this a better world.