The Nobel Prizes at 90
NOV 01, 1992
Choosing Nobel Prize winners is on exhausting, complex process that culminates in the award ceremony each December in Stockholm. For the 90th anniversary 130 previous laureates celebrated along with the newest winners.
DOI: 10.1063/1.881321
When the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on 14 October that Georges Charpak of CERN is the winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber,” the academy was continuing the process begun in 1901, when the physics prize was awarded to Wilhelm Röntgen for the discovery of x rays. Over the ensuing nine decades, the selection process has been remarkable for its secrecy, the care with which it is done, and the high quality of the research honored.
© 1992. American Institute of Physics
