The Nobel Prizes, among the highly prestigious honours worldwide, are presented to new laureates at ceremonies on December 10, the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel. While the Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology/ medicine and literature are awarded in Sweden’s Stockholm, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway — as stipulated in the Swedish-born inventor and international industrialist’s will. (Image Reuters)
Apart from various people across the world, there have been several personalities from India, who have made the country proud by receiving the Nobel Prizes under various categories, over the years. Here, we take a look at some of the Nobel Prize winners from India as well as overseas citizens of Indian origin: (Image AP)
1. Rabindranath Tagore: Born on May 7, 1861, in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He was recognised “because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West.” (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
2. CV Raman: Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, popularly known as CV Raman, was born on November 7, 1888, in Tiruchirappalli. He was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 “for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him.” (Image CMS File)
3. Mother Teresa: Mother Teresa was given the Nobel Peace Prize for the year 1979 as she was recognised “for her work for bringing help to suffering humanity”. Along with her helpers, she built homes for orphans, nursing homes for lepers as well as hospices for the terminally ill in Kolkata city. (Image Reuters)
4. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar: The noted theoretical physicist was born on October 19, 1910, and was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983. He was given the award “for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars”. (Image nobelprize.org/)
5. Amartya Sen: The Indian economist and philosopher received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1998. He got the award “for his contributions to welfare economics”. (Image Reuters)
6. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Born in 1952 in Tamil Nadu’s Chidambaram, Ramakrishnan is a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in 2009. He was acknowledged “for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome”. Using X-ray crystallography, Ramakrishnan along with other researchers was able to collaborate to map the structure of ribosomes, which are made of hundreds of thousands of atoms. (Image Reuters)
7. Kailash Satyarthi: The renowned child rights activist was honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Born on January 11, 1954, in the city of Vidisha, Satyarthi was given the award for his “struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”. (Image IANS)
8. Abhijit Banerjee: In 2019, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was given to Banerjee for his “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”. He was born in India’s financial capital on February 21, 1961. (Image Reuters)
9. Har Gobind Khorana: Born in the city of Raipur on January 9, 1922, the notable biochemist is the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968. He was recognised for his “interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis”. (Image MIT)