2011 Nobel Prize in Medicine Under Review

Posted October 3rd, 2011 at 10:50 am (UTC-5)
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The 2011 Nobel Prize for Medicine has been awarded to three scientists for their work increasing understanding of the immune system, but the award was complicated Monday by news that one of the prize winners died three days ago.

The award, announced Monday in Stockholm , went to Bruce Beutler of the United States, Jules Hoffmann of Luxembourg and Canadian-born Ralph Steinman for their work that could lead to curing cancer and other diseases.

But after the prize winners were announced, the Nobel Committee, which does not make posthumous awards, learned that Steinman had died Friday after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

It is unclear if the Nobel Committee will rescind the award or how it will deal with the prize money in what they are calling “a unique situation.”

Beutler and Hoffmann had been scheduled to split half the nearly $1.5 million prize money, while Steinman was to receive the other half.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will name the winner in physics Tuesday and chemistry Wednesday. An award for economics, given in memory of Alfred Nobel, will be announced October 10.

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize recipient will be named Friday.

The Nobel Prizes were created by Alfred Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist who invented dynamite. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901.

Ninety-one Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded. On 19 different occasions, the prize committee felt there were no nominees who met the criteria for the award.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has been recognized most often, with three awards.

Only one Peace laureate has declined the award. In 1973 Vietnamese politician Le Duc Tho, was recognized along with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Le Duc Tho declined the Nobel Peace Prize.