1939: Nobel Prize Awards

The Nobel prizes for 1939 were awarded in Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Literature, the Peace prize being withheld because of war conditions. The awards, presented annually for the greatest achievement in each field, were established in 1896 by the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor and philanthropist. Each prize carries a cash award of approximately $40,000.

Medicine.

The 1939 Nobel prize for Medicine was awarded to Professor Gerhard Domagk, director of research at the I. G. Farbenindustrie in Elberfeld, Germany, Oct. 26, 1939, for his discovery of prontosil, a preparation used under the name of sulfanilamide in the treatment of bacterial infections. Because of Chancellor Hitler's decree forbidding any German to accept a Nobel prize, following upon the award of the Peace prize in 1936 to the German pacifist, Carl von Ossietzky, Dr. Domagk was obliged to decline the prize.

The 1938 Nobel prize for Medicine, which was withheld in that year, was awarded Oct. 26, 1939, to Dr. Corneille Heymans, Professor of Pharmaco-Dynamics at the University of Ghent, Belgium, for his discovery of the importance of the sinus-aorta mechanism in respiration.

Physics.

On Nov. 9, 1939, the Swedish Academy of Science in Stockholm bestowed the Nobel award for Physics on Doctor Ernest O. Lawrence, professor of physics at the University of California and inventor of the atom-smashing cyclotron. The citation was based on Professor Lawrence's research in atomic structure and the application of radiation to biology and medicine.

Chemistry.

During the second week of November 1939, the Nobel prize for Chemistry, withheld in 1938, was awarded to Professor Richard Kuhn of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, for his research on carotinoids and vitamins. As a German, he was unable to accept the award.

The 1939 Chemistry prize was divided between Professor Adolph Butenandt of Berlin University, and Professor Leopold Ruzicka of the Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich, Switzerland. Professor Butenandt, who declined the award, was honored for his experiments with sex hormones, and his success in isolating the male hormone, androsterone. Professor Ruzicka was cited for research on hormones and the production of testosterone by synthesis.

Literature.

On Nov. 10, 1939, the Swedish Academy of Literature awarded the Nobel prize in Literature to the Finnish novelist, Frans Eemil Sillanpää, for his descriptions of Finnish peasant life. He is best known in this country for the novel, 'Meek Heritage,' published here in 1938.

1938: Nobel Prize Awards

In 1938 Nobel prizes were awarded for Peace, Literature and Physics. No awards were made in the fields of Chemistry and Medicine. The prizes in each case amounted to approximately $37,975 or one fifth of the annual interest from the $9,000,000 fund bequeathed by the Swedish scientist A. B. Nobel, to be given each year to the persons or institutions judged to have contributed the greatest benefits to mankind during the year. The fund is managed by a board of directors the chairman of which is appointed by the Swedish Government. In accordance with Nobel's will the awards were made by the academic authorities designated to make the annual selection in their respective fields.

Peace.

On November 17th, 1938 the Nobel prize for Peace was awarded to the Nansen International Office for refugees, an organization which functions at Geneva, Switzerland to collect information on the welfare of refugees throughout the world. This office is the origin of instructions to relief organizations in all countries. The selection for the Peace prize was made by a committee of five appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, and marked the fourth time that the Peace award was given to an institution.

Literature.

The Swedish Academy in Stockholm awarded the Nobel prize in literature to Pearl Buck, American author, on November 10th, 1938. The citation was based upon her writings on Chinese peasant life. Her best known work is the novel 'The Good Earth' which was published in 1931 and which received the Pulitzer Prize for 1932. This year's award is the third time the Nobel prize in literature has gone to an American author.

Physics.

During the second week of November, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at Stockholm announced that the 1938 Nobel Prize for Physics would go to Professor Enrico Fermi, a theoretical and experimental physicist of the University of Rome, for his work in atomic physics. By bombarding the Uranium atom with a stream of neutrons, Fermi formed a new unstable element, Ekarhenium, Number 93. By the same process in 1936, he formed another element, Ekaosmium, Number 94. The overweight, unstable atoms of these new elements showed marked radioactivity. Fermi's further experiments induced this type of radioactivity in more than forty elements.