This article traces the origins of the Nobel Prize as a ubiquitous symbol of excellence in science. The public image of the Nobel Prize was created and became established quickly, which can be explained by it being such a useful phenomenon for the co-production of other values and ideas such as national prestige. Through being an easily recognizable symbol for excellence, the Nobel Prize is an important factor for the public image of science. And the image of the Nobel Prize is co-produced with several other sets of values and images that range from the large and thematic to the local and specific.

No abstract

This paper examines the early years of decision making in the award of the Nobel Prize in physics and chemistry, and shows how the prize became a tool in the boundary work which upheld the social demarcations between scientists and inventors, as well as promoting a particular normative view of individual scientific achievement. The Nobel committees were charged with rewarding scientific achievements that benefited humankind: their interpretation of that criterion, however, turned in the first instance on their assessment of the groundbreaking nature of the ‘science’, with the applied or practical ‘benefits’ of that discovery being treated as very much secondary factors in the award. Through an interrogation of the reports sent by the committees to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, this paper shows how committee members depended on a notion of ‘post-dated utilitarianism’ in reconciling potential tension between rewarding basic and applied science, and explores the ways in which the annual prize both shaped, and was shaped by, media perceptions of scientific virtue.

No abstract