Swedish Royals Gather for Nobel Prize Ceremony

The immediate members of the house of Bernadotte were present for the annual Nobel Prize ceremony at Stockholm’s city hall Thursday. The royals watched as recipients of the Prizes were given their awards, handed to them by King Carl XVI Gustaf.

AP Photo/Scanpix Sweden/Anders Wiklund

Laureates in the fields of literature, economics, medicine, physics and chemistry were chosen earlier this year, and this time there were a record 5 women receiving the Prizes. That makes 1/8 of the 40 female winners since the Prize was handed out starting in 1901.

One of them was American Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win the economics Prize. She shared it with Oliver Williamson for their work in fighting waste in organizations.

Herta Muller, a Romanian born German writer won the literature Prize for her works about life under communism. Elizabeth Blackburn and US researcher Carol Greider shared the medicine Prize with Jack Szostak of the United States for work with cellular aging research.

REUTERS/Peter Andrews

Israeli Ada Yonath shared the chemistry Prize with Indian-born Ramakrishnan Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and American scientist Thomas Steitz for work on the ribosome, a cellular machine that makes proteins.

The physics Prize was solely for the men, however. Charles Kao of Hong Kong, Willard Boyle and George Smith of the U.S. were the recipients of that.

The Nobel Prize laureates take home a gold medal, a diploma, and 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) per field. If there is more than one recipient, the rewards are to be shared.

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After the ceremony, there was a gala dinner where the royal family, the laureates plus the 1,300 guests dined and mingled.

As part of this event, it is expected that the men dress in white-tie tuxedos and the women dress in lavish gowns.

One of the reasons why royal watchers look forward to the Nobel Prizes each year is to see what the royal women are wearing.

Queen Silvia wore a yellow gown she wore once before in 2004 for the wedding of Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson. Princess Madeleine dressed in a emerald colored strapless dress with rows of black lace.

But perhaps it could be said Crown Princess Victoria looked the most ravishing. She wore a purple gown with flowers coming up the back. Although some royal watchers were disappointed that she wore her usual six-button tiara, many would say Victoria took home the Best Dressed Prize hands down.