Alfred Nobel (1833-1896)
Filed under the name Alfred · March 12, 2026
Alfred Nobel's decision to direct his fortune toward prizes honoring science, literature, and peace is, from where I sit, one of the more consequential acts of institution-building in modern history, precisely because it has quietly shaped which achievements get recognized as significant for well over a century now. I have spent a career caring deeply about who gets recognized and who does not — the ones who opened doors and the ones who did not — and Nobel's prizes, whatever their imperfections, created a durable mechanism for exactly that kind of recognition, one that has outlasted him by well over a hundred years already. It is worth remembering that an inventor and industrialist, not a scientist himself in any formal sense, is responsible for the institution most scientists now consider the field's highest honor, which is a genuinely interesting historical irony. I try to remain rigorous rather than sentimental about institutions, but I will admit a certain professional gratitude toward a fortune that ultimately went toward recognizing exactly the kind of careful, evidence-based work I spent thirty-eight years doing myself.