Since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been honoring men and women from all corners of the globe for outstanding achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Economics for work in peace.  The foundations of the prize were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will leaving 35 Million Swedish Kroner [about $225 million today] for the creation of five annual prizes [to which one in economics was added later] to honor those who bestowed the greatest benefit on mankind in the above mentioned fields.  Each recipient, which Nobel instructed should be the person who has performed the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace conferences, each prize consists of a medal, a certificate and one and a half million US dollars. On the 9th of October 2009 the five member Nobel Prize committee which is appointed by the Norwegian parliament to decide on the year's recipients of the honors decided in its wisdom to give it to the President of the United States, Mr. Barrack Obama.  The granting of the peace prize to the American President was a real surprise, it generated a big storm of criticism which centered on the fact that the president has been in office for only eight months to have been able to do enough to be qualified for the prize and the great honor, it was called premature and a potential liability to the man himself.  One commentator said it was like giving a literature prize for a book not yet written.

Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833.  His father Immanuel was an engineer and inventor who built bridges and buildings in Stockholm.  In connection with his construction work Immanuel Nobel also experimented with different techniques for blasting rocks.  Due to misfortunes in his construction work caused by the loss of some barges of building material, Immanuel Nobel was forced into bankruptcy the same year his son Alfred was born.  In 1837 the father left Stockholm and his family to start a new career in Finland and in Russia, meanwhile his family remained in Stockholm and his wife who originally came from a rich family to support the family started a grocery store which provided a modest income, the father was successful in his new enterprise in St. Petersburg, were he got on very good terms with some of the most important people in the government and the military including the czar himself.  In St. Petersburg he started a mechanical workshop which provided equipment for the Russian army, he was also able to convince the czar and his generals that naval mines which he designed could be used to block enemy naval ships from threatening the city, these were simple devices consisting of submerged wooden casks filled with gunpowder and when anchored below the surface of the Gulf of Finland, they effectively deterred the British Royal Navy from moving into firing range of St. Petersburg during the Crimean war (1853-1856).  Immanuel Nobel was also a pioneer in arms manufacture and in designing steam engines.

Successful in his industrial and business ventures, Immanuel Nobel was able, in 1842, to bring his family to St. Petersburg.  There, his sons were given a first class education by private teachers.  The training included natural sciences, languages and literature.  By the age of 17 Alfred Nobel was fluent in Swedish, Russian, French, English and German.  In order to widen Alfred's horizons his father sent him abroad for further training in chemical engineering.  During a two year period Alfred Nobel visited Sweden, Germany, France and the United States.  In Paris, the city he came to like best he met the young Italian chemist who, three years earlier, had invented Nitroglycerine a highly explosive liquid. Nitroglycerine was produced by mixing Glycerine with Sulfuric and Nitric Acid.  It was considered too dangerous to be of any practical use. Although its explosive power greatly exceeded that of gunpowder, the liquid would explode in a very unpredictable manner if subjected to heat and pressure.  Alfred Nobel became very interested in the Nitroglycerine and how it could be put to practical use in construction work.  He also realized that the safety problems had to be solved and a method had to be developed for the controlled detonation of Nitroglycerine.  And together with his father he performed experiments to develop Nitroglycerine as a commercially and technically useful explosive.  As the Russian wars ended the father was again forced into bankruptcy.  Immanuel and two of his sons, Alfred and Emil, left St. Petersburg together and returned to Stockholm.  His other two sons, Robert and Ludvig, remained in St. Petersburg from were they went on to develop the oil industry in the southern part of the Russian empire.  They were very successful and became very rich.

After his return to Sweden in 1863, Alfred Nobel concentrated on developing Nitroglycerine as an explosive and in 1864 he was able to start mass production of Nitroglycerine.  The market for dynamite and detonating caps grew very rapidly and Alfred Nobel also proved himself to be a very skillful entrepreneur and businessman and over the years he founded factories and laboratories in some 90 different places in more than 20 countries were he focused on the development of explosives technology as well as other chemical inventions, including such materials as synthetic rubber and leather, artificial silk, etc.  By the time of his death in 1896 he had 355 patents.

Intensive work and travel did not leave much time for a private life.  At the age of 43 he was feeling like an old man.  At this time he advertised in a newspaper "Wealthy, highly-educated elderly gentleman seeks lady of mature age, versed in languages, as secretary and supervisor of household."  The most qualified applicant turned out to be an Austrian woman, Countess Bertha Kinsky.  After working a very short time for Nobel she decided to return to Austria to marry Count Arthur von Suttner.  In spite of this Alfred Nobel and Stutter remained friends and kept writing letters to each other for decades.  Over the years Bertha von Suttner became increasingly critical of the arms race.  She wrote a famous book, Lay Down Your Arms and became a prominent figure in the peace movement which influenced Nobel when he wrote his final will to include a Prize for persons or organizations who promoted peace. Several years after his death the Norwegian Parliament awarded the 1905 the first Nobel peace prize to Bertha von Suttner.

Since its inception the Nobel Prize have been going to people who have toiled for years even decades to have their work and accomplishments recognized.  Canada’s Willard Coyle winner of this year's Nobel prize for physics had his team’s digital photography breakthrough recognized only 40 years later and the others totally devoted to their work weter in physics, chemistry medicine or the other fields to which the awards are granted making concrete and very solid contributions to their fields, the list of the winners of the awards over the years read like a who is who of the best brains in the various fields to which the prize is awarded.  806 laureates and 23 organizations have been awarded the prize between 1901 and 2009, a small number of individuals and organizations have been honored more than once.  From the first peace prize which went to Bertha Suttner the awards have almost always gone to individuals who had accomplished very concrete work and had their accomplishments recognized without doubt or questioning, list of the peace prize winners include amongst many others Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, San Suuki and Nelson Mandela people who have spent years struggling to promote understanding between people, the rule of law, social justice and human rights very frequently imprisoned and tortured and living for years under threat and oppression and have ultimately been widely praised for making concrete contributions to world peace.  In the case of the Obama award many people are saying that despite considerable respect for the president’s good intentions have called this year's award premature a gesture of support for what the committee hopes will be accomplished during his time in office.

But the controversy is still raging which is something I am sure the President with the plethora of problems he is facing at home and abroad could have easily done without.

Najeeb Hanoudi
Friday, October 16, 2009
Southfield, Michigan
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