This is a list of awards that are considered the highest in a field of science, business, humanities, art, religion, or sports.
Alfred Nobel's last will of 1895 only included five prizes, covering outstanding achievements who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in the fields of chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine. The original Nobel prizes to be administered by the Nobel Foundation thus include:
The foundation also sponsors the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and has trademarked the term "Nobel Prize"; so, this designation cannot be legally used to refer to any prizes other than the five original Nobels. [1]
Several prizes in fields of study and achievement not covered by the original Nobel Prizes have been established by various entities. Some have been referred to as the "Nobel Prize of" that particular field, in the vast majority of cases without the approval of the Nobel Foundation. These prizes are generally the highest awards in their fields. For some fields, more than one prestigious prizes are listed below. Some most important prizes in the world are presented in bold. The distinguished prizes not conferred by the Nobel Foundation include (with the year when a prize was first awarded in brackets):
See also ICIAM Prizes (1999), [10] William Benter Prize in Applied Mathematics (2010). [11] [12]
See also Salem Prize (1968),Crafoord Prize in Mathematics (1982), Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics (1988), Rolf Schock Prize in Mathematics (1993), Leroy P. Steele Prize (1993), Clay Research Award (1999), Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences (2004),Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics (2013).
See also ACM Prize in Computing (2007) to distinguished early to mid-career computer scientists, Milner Award (2012) exclusively to European researchers.
There are two other technology awards also sometimes referred to as a "Nobel":
See also King Faisal Prize (1982), Heineken Prizes (1989), Shaw Prize (2004), BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards (2008), Breakthrough Prize (2013), Tang Prize (2014), etc.
There are two other environmental awards often referred to as a "Nobel":
See also 'Arts' below.
See also 'Nobel Prize in Literature' and 'Architecture' above, as well as 'Design', 'Film', 'Literature', 'Music', 'Photography', 'Television', and 'Theatre' below.
Although there is an economic sciences prize sponsored by the Nobel Foundation, the following have also been referred to colloquially:
See also 'Arts' above and 'Television' below.
See the section on Geosciences, Agricultural Sciences and Environmental Sciences awards above for prizes focused exclusively on physical geography.
See also 'Prizes sponsored by the Nobel Foundation' and 'Humanities' above.
See also 'Arts' above.
See 'Arts' above.
See 'Arts' above.
See 'Arts' and 'Film' above.
See also 'Arts' above.
On November 13, 2014, ACM announced the funding level for the ACM A.M. Turing Award is now $1 million. Google Inc. will provide all funding for this award, recognized as the highest honor in computer science and often referred to as the field's equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
it was in recognition of work that clearly was of Nobel laureate stature
The Nobel equivalent for Information Theory is the Claude E. Shannon Award
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Alt URL {{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link){{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)Many of the prizes serve as precursors to a Nobel or fill in areas where a Nobel is unlikely to be awarded ...