Editorial illustration of confidential science prize evaluations with physics, chemistry and medicine objects

Inside Nobel Week: How the 2026 Science Prizes Are Chosen

There is no public Nobel shortlist. Invited experts submit confidential nominations, Nobel committees investigate the candidates, and the relevant prize-awarding institution makes the final decision. For the scientific prizes, the 2026 announcements are scheduled for October 5–7.

Every October, a press room grows quiet, a name is read aloud and the world suddenly wants to understand an experiment that may have begun decades earlier.

The announcement is dramatic. The selection process is deliberately quiet.

First, there is no open application

People cannot nominate themselves for a Nobel Prize. For the prizes in physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine, the Nobel committees send confidential invitation forms to qualified nominators such as selected professors, previous laureates and members of relevant academies.

A person does not become an official Nobel “nominee” because fans start an online campaign or a news article predicts a win. The Nobel organization also warns that being nominated is not an endorsement. Thousands of people can be considered over time, and nominations remain secret for 50 years.

What happens between nomination and announcement?

The exact procedure varies slightly by prize, but the physiology or medicine process provides a useful window into the year-long rhythm.

The Nobel Committee sends invitations in September of the year before the award. Nominations are due by January 31. During the spring, the committee develops a preliminary list and asks specially appointed experts to assess the candidates’ work. Reviews and recommendations continue through the summer and early fall.

In October, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet votes on the medicine prize. A candidate must receive more than half of the votes cast. The decision is final and cannot be appealed.

The secrecy is not merely a preference: nominations and the committee’s investigations and opinions are withheld from public release for 50 years. That is why any supposed “leaked official shortlist” deserves immediate skepticism.

Who actually chooses the science laureates?

  • The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet selects the laureates in physiology or medicine.
  • The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences selects the laureates in physics and chemistry.

Committees do the enormous research and evaluation job, but the designated prize-awarding institutions make the final selections.

Your 2026 Nobel Week science calendar

The official announcement schedule lists:

  • Physiology or medicine: Monday, October 5, no earlier than 11:30 CEST.
  • Physics: Tuesday, October 6, no earlier than 11:45 CEST.
  • Chemistry: Wednesday, October 7, no earlier than 11:45 CEST.

Other Nobel announcements continue through October 12. The award ceremonies take place on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

Why can prizewinning work be old?

Alfred Nobel’s will says the prizes should recognize work that has conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. In science, understanding that benefit can take time. Researchers may need to reproduce a result, uncover its mechanism and show that it changes what scientists can explain or do.

This creates one of Nobel Week’s most interesting time machines: a new prize can send readers back to an experiment performed years earlier. The smart way to follow an announcement is to separate three questions:

  1. What did the laureates actually discover or invent?
  2. What evidence established that result?
  3. How did later research turn it into a broader scientific benefit?

That approach is far more revealing than treating the prize like a celebrity ranking. Nobel Week is not only about who receives the phone call. It is a yearly invitation to follow an idea from evidence to impact.

Sources and further reading

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