From left: Queen Silvia, Princess Madeleine, King Carl Gustaf, Prince Carl Philip and Crown Princess Victoria at the Nobel Prize Awards of 2008. [image credit: Newscom]

King Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria, Princess Madeleine, and Prince Carl Philip welcomed the new laureates on December 10, 2008 at the Stockholm Concert Hall. King Carl Gustaf traditionally presents the award to each honoree.

Nobel Prizes are awarded for outstanding achievements in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. An additional Prize for Economics is awarded in the same ceremony, which is held every year on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. The Nobel Peace Prize alone is awarded in Oslo, Norway in the presence of the King of Norway. The ceremony in Norway is held on the same day.

The winners of this year’s Nobel Prizes are:

• For Physiology or Medicine: Francoise Barre-Sinoussi,  Luc Montagnier  and Harald zur Hausen
• For Physics: Makoto Kobayashi, Toshihide Maskawa and Yoichiro Nambu
• For Chemistry: Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien
• For Literature: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio
• For Peace: Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari
• For Economics: Paul Krugman

Here are some more photos of the Swedish royals at the awarding ceremony:

After the Awards Ceremony, the Nobel Banquet was held at the Stockholm City Hall. A long table of honor is laid out for the laureates, the royals, Nobel Committee members and various dignitaries.

You can read about the winners of the 2008 Nobel Prizes at NobelPrize.org. You might also be interested in the following tidbits:

• The gowns that Queen Silvia wore to the Nobel Ceremonies from 1976 to 2007
• The seating plan of the Table of Honor of the Nobel Banquet

source: NobelPrize.org

Post from: TheGloss