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Reuters
Reuters
Science

Nobel awards to take place in Stockholm with full glitz and glamour

Representative of the Ukrainian organisation Center for Civil Liberties Oleksandra Matviichuk, Russian organisation Memorial representative Jan Rachinsky, Natalia Pinchuk, wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski from Belarus and chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen attend a news conference at the Nobel Institute, as Bialiatski, Memorial and CCL receive the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize for their work for human rights in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, in Oslo, Norway December 9, 2022. NTB/Haakon Mosvold Larsen via REUTERS

Nobel laureates congregated in the Swedish capital Stockholm on Saturday for the first fully in-person award ceremonies complete with a formal banquet since the COVID-19 pandemic that curtailed events in the past two years.

The ceremony starts at 1500 GMT and features glamorous formal wear, with the men in white tie and tails and women in flowing gowns and elegant hairdos. Ceremonies in 2020 and 2021 were scaled back and there was no banquet.

Many laureates from 2020 and 2021 will be attending this year as well as the 2022 winners - last year for example there was a ceremony but no laureates attended as they received their medals in their home countries.

FILE PHOTO: Former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke speaks after he was named among three U.S. economists awarded the 2022 Nobel Economics Prize, during a news conference at the Brookings Institution in Washington, U.S., October 10, 2022. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo

Throughout this week the laureates have taken part in activities ranging from panel discussions to news conferences, finding time to visit schools and give lectures and attend a lights show.

"Given the challenges the world faces, it feels especially important to highlight Alfred Nobel's idea of international community," said Vidar Helgesen, executive director of the Nobel Foundation.

Five of the six Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm every year after a nomination process that is kept secret for the next 50 years. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo where separate festivities are held.

Russian organisation Memorial representative Jan Rachinsky, signs the Nobel Committee's guest book at the Nobel Institute as the Secretary of the Nobel Committee Olav Njolstad, Chair of the Nobel Committee Berit Reiss-Andersen and an interpreter stand around Jan Rachinsky, in Oslo, Norway December 9, 2022. NTB/Haakon Mosvold Larsen via REUTERS

Dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel left around 31 million crowns - about 1.8 billion crowns ($174.2 million) in today's money according to the Foundation - to fund prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace awarded annually since 1901.

Among the laureates for 2022 is a former chairman of U.S. Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, who won the Nobel Economics Prize along with economists Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig for research on how propping up failing banks can stave off an even deeper economic crisis.

The economics prize is a later addition to the original line-up, instituted by the Swedish central bank.

Representative of the Ukrainian organisation Center for Civil Liberties Oleksandra Matviichuk signs the Nobel Committee's guest book at the Nobel Institute, in Oslo, Norway December 9, 2022. NTB/Haakon Mosvold Larsen via REUTERS

After the ceremony, there is a banquet in City Hall, attended by Sweden's royal family, government officials and dignitaries and business leaders from different countries.

Swedish political party leaders are always invited to the banquet. However Jimmie Akesson, leader of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, which became the country's second biggest party in an election in September election, was left off the guest list, with his party not deemed to be in keeping with the prizes' tenets.

The Nobel Foundation has also snubbed the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Jailed Belarusian activist Ales Byalyatski, Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

Natalia Pinchuk, wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, signs the Nobel Committee's guest book at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway December 9, 2022. NTB/Haakon Mosvold Larsen via REUTERS

($1 = 10.3329 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee; Editing by Niklas Pollard and Frances Kerry)

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