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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet. Eligible nominators submit candidates; the Nobel Committee assesses nominations and recommends candidates; the Assembly makes the final choice. The annual process starts in September, nominations are due by 31 January, and laureates are announced in early October.
Who nominates candidates, and can you nominate yourself?
Nominations are made by invitation, not through an open public application. Invitations go to qualified nominators, including people such as academy members, university professors, scientists and previous laureates. The detailed rules for this prize category determine who is eligible to nominate; the examples are not a complete or definitive roster.
You cannot nominate yourself. Under the Nobel Foundation statutes, a nomination must be submitted in writing by a person competent to nominate. The public-facing general description gives examples of nominators, but the precise current category-specific roster should be checked in the prize’s nomination regulations.
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What happens at each stage?
| Stage | Who is involved | Timing | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invitation and nomination | Eligible nominators | Invitations begin in September; nominations are due by 31 January | Qualified nominators submit written proposals for the coming year’s prize. |
| Assessment | Nobel Committee, with outside experts | February to early October | The committee examines nominations, evaluates a selection of candidates and draws on expert assessment. |
| Decision | Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet | After assessment, before the public announcement | The committee presents proposals; the Assembly selects the laureates. |
| Announcement | The awarding institution | Early October | The laureates are announced at a press conference. |
| Ceremony | Laureates and prize institutions | 10 December | The prize ceremony takes place on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. |
The September-to-early-October sequence and dates above are given in NobelPrize.org’s 2025 media information; the deadline and annual timing describe the usual cycle, not a promise that every administrative detail is identical every year.
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1. Invitations and submissions
The process opens in September with invitations to eligible nominators. Nominations are for the coming year’s award and must reach the committee by 31 January. The Foundation’s statutes require a written nomination from someone competent to make one.
2. Committee review and expert assessment
From February until early October, the prize-awarding institutions assess nominees. The Nobel Committee reviews the nominations, evaluates a selection of candidates in depth and involves outside experts. A historical account of the medicine prize describes nomination files, written protocols, preliminary and full reports, and repeated examination of leading candidates.
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3. Assembly decision
The committee’s role is to assess and recommend, not to award the prize. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet selects the Physiology or Medicine laureates. The Nobel Foundation annual review 2024, published in 2025, reports that the Assembly has 50 members. A historical overview describes selection by ballot and simple majority; that account is historical context, rather than a detailed statement of current voting procedures.
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Laureates are announced at press conferences in early October. The award ceremony is held on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
What does the Physiology or Medicine prize recognize?
Alfred Nobel’s will directs that one part of his estate go to “the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine”. That wording is the governing description of the category. NobelPrize.org’s retrospective history explains that the awarding institution has interpreted the remit broadly, including biomedical research and clinical medicine, as well as work at the boundaries of biological and behavioral sciences. The will supplies the standard; those examples describe how the category has been interpreted.
Are nominations public?
No. Nomination and evaluation information remains confidential for 50 years under the Nobel Foundation’s rules. That means current nominees cannot be confirmed from public records, and the absence of a name from a public list does not show that the person was not nominated.
The Nobel nomination archive is not a complete, current list. The archive page reported 5,110 nominations for Physiology or Medicine from 1901 through 1953, while warning that the database is incomplete and may lag. Treat that figure as the archive’s reported count for that coverage period, not a total of all nominations ever made.
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NobelPrize.org’s “All Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine” page reports 116 awards to 232 laureates for 1901–2025. The prize can recognize more than one laureate in a year, which is why the number of people exceeds the number of awards.
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