AUNG SAN SUU KYI Burma's Modern Symbol of Freedom

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The Nobel Peace Prize 1991
Aung San Suu Kyi
The Nobel Peace Prize 1991 was awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi "for her non-violent
struggle for democracy and human rights".
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7/19/2018 Aung San Suu Kyi - Biographical
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Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi - Biographical
Since no biography was printed in Les Prix Nobel 1991, this chronology has been assembled by the editor.
1942: September 6. Marriage of Aung San, commander of the Burma Independence Army,
and Ma Khin Kyi (becoming Daw Khin Kyi), senior nurse of Rangoon General Hospital,
where he had recovered from the rigours of the march into Burma.
1945: June 19. Aung San Suu Kyi born in Rangoon, third child in family. "Aung San" for
father, "Kyi" for mother, "Suu" for grandmother, also day of week of birth.
Favourite brother is to drown tragically at an early age. The older brother, will settle
in San Diego, California, becoming United States citizen.
1947: July 19. General Aung San assassinated. Suu Kyi is two years old. Daw Khin Kyi
becomes a prominent public gure, heading social planning and social policy bodies.
1948: January 4. The Independent Union of Burma is established.
1960: Daw Khin Kyi appointed Burma's ambassador to India. Suu Kyi accompanies mother
to New Delhi.
1960-
64:
Suu Kyi at high school and Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi.
1964-
67:
Oxford University, B.A. in philosophy, politics and economics at St. Hugh's College
(elected Honorary Fellow, 1990).
British "parents" are Lord Gore-Booth, former British ambassador to Burma and High
Commissioner in India, and his wife, at whose home Suu Kyi meets Michael Aris,
student of Tibetan civilisation.

1969-
71:
She goes to New York for graduate study, staying with family friend Ma Than E, sta
member at the United Nations, where U. Thant of Burma is Secretary-General.
Postponing studies, Suu Kyi joins U.N. secretariat as Assistant Secretary, Advisory
Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. Evenings and weekends
volunteers at hospital, helping indigent patients in programs of reading and
companionship.
1972: January 1. Marries Michael Aris, joins him in Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, where he
tutors royal family and heads Translation Department. She becomes Research O cer
in the Royal Ministry of Foreign A airs.
1973: They return to England for birth of Alexander in London.
1974: Michael assumes appointment in Tibetan and Himalayan studies at Oxford
University.
1977: Birth of second son, Kim at Oxford.
While raising her children, Suu Kyi begins writing, researches for biography of father,
and assists Michael in Himalayan studies.
1984: Publishes Aung San in Leaders of Asia series of University of Queensland Press. (See
Freedom from Fear, pp. 3-38.)
1985: For juvenile readers publishes Let's Visit Burma (see Freedom from Fear, pp. 39-81),
also books on Nepal and Bhutan in same series for Burke Publishing Company,
London.
1985-
86:
Visiting Scholar, Center of Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, researching
father's time in Japan. Kim with her, Alexander with Michael, who has fellowship at
Indian Institute of Advanced Studies at Simla in northern India.
1986: On annual visit to grandmother in Rangoon, Alexander and Kim take part in
traditional Buddhist ceremony of initiation into monkhood.
1987: With fellowship at Indian Institute Suu Kyi, with Kim, joins Michael and Alexander in
Simla. Travels to London when mother is there for cataract surgery.
Publishes "Socio-Political Currents in Burmese Literature, 1910-1940" in journal of
Tokyo University. (See Freedom from Fear, pp. 140-164.) September. Family returns
to Oxford. Suu Kyi enrolls at London School of Oriental and African Studies to work
on advanced degree.

1988: March 31. Informed by telephone of mother's severe stroke, she takes plane next day
to Rangoon to help care for Daw Khin Kyi at hospital, then moves her to family home
on University Avenue next to Inya Lake in Rangoon.
July 23. Resignation of General Ne Win, since 1962 military dictator of Burma. Popular
demonstrations of protest continuing.
August 8. Mass uprising throughout country. Violent suppression by military kills
thousands.
August 15. Suu Kyi, in rst political action, sends open letter to government, asking
for formation of independent consultative committee to prepare multi-party
elections.
August 26. In rst public speech, she addresses several hundred thousand people
outside Shwedagon Pagoda, calling for democratic government. Michael and her two
sons are there.
September 18. Military establishes State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).
Political gatherings of more than four persons banned. Arrests and sentencing
without trial rea rmed. Parliamentary elections to be held, but in expectation that
multiplicity of parties will prevent clear result.
September 24. National League for Democracy (NLD) formed, with Suu Kyi general-
secretary. Policy of non-violence and civil disobedience. October-December. Defying
ban, Suu Kyi makes speech-making tour throughout country to large audiences.
December 27. Daw Khin Kyi dies at age of seventy-six.
1989: January 2. Funeral of Daw Khin Kyi. Huge funeral procession. Suu Kyi vows that as her
father and mother had served the people of Burma, so too would she, even unto
death.
January-July. Suu Kyi continues campaign despite harassment, arrests and killings by
soldiers.
February 17. Suu Kyi prohibited from standing for election.
April 5. Incident in Irawaddy Delta when Suu Kyi courageously walks toward ri es
soldiers are aiming at her.
July 20. Suu Kyi placed under house arrest, without charge or trial. Sons already with
her. Michael ies to Rangoon, nds her on third day of hunger strike, asking to be
sent to prison to join students arrested at her home. Ends strike when good
treatment of students is promised.

1990: May 27. Despite detention of Suu Kyi, NLD wins election with 82% of parliamentary
seats. SLORC refuses to recognise results.
October 12. Suu Kyi granted 1990 Rafto Human Rights Prize.
1991: July 10. European Parliament awards Suu Kyi Sakharov human rights prize.
October 14. Norwegian Nobel Committee announces Suu Kyi is winner of 1991 Peace
Prize.
1991: December. Freedom from Fear published by Penguin in New York, England, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand. Also in Norwegian, French, Spanish translations.
December 10. Alexander and Kim accept prize for mother in Oslo ceremony. Suu Kyi
remains in detention, having rejected o er to free her if she will leave Burma and
withdraw from politics. Worldwide appeal growing for her release.
1992: Suu Kyi announces that she will use $1.3 million prize money to establish health and
education trust for Burmese people.
1993: Group of Nobel Peace Laureates, denied entry to Burma, visit Burmese refugees on
Thailand border, call for Suu Kyi's release, Their appeal later repeated at UN
Commission for Human Rights in Geneva.
1994: February. First non-family visitors to Suu Kyi: UN representative, U.S. congressman,
New York Times reporter.
September-October. SLORC leaders meet with Suu Kyi, who still asks for a public
dialogue.
1995: July 10. SLORC releases Suu Kyi from house arrest after six years of detention.
In the last four years her movements have still been restricted. While she
has had some opportunities to telephone her family in England, she is
regularly denounced in the government-controlled media, and there is
concern for her personal safety. E orts to revive any NLD party activities
have been balked, and its members have been jailed and physically
attacked. In the rst months after detention was ended, she was able to
speak to large gatherings of supporters outside her home, but this was
stopped. Yet her popularity in the country has not diminished.

Internationally her voice has been heard not infrequently. Reporters with cameras and videotape
have been able to interview her in person, and telephone interviews with the media outside
Burma have also been published. Using video cassettes she has sent out statements, including
the keynote address to the NGO Forum at the U.N. International Women's Conference in Beijing
in August 1995.
There have been a number of visitors from abroad, including a member of the Norwegian Nobel
Committee, whom she told that Norway will be the rst country she will visit when free to travel.
SLORC has changed its name to the State Peace and Development Council, but its repressive
policies and violation of human rights continue unabated.
Suu Kyi discourages tourists from visiting Burma and businessmen from investing in the country
until it is free. She nds hearing for such pleas among western nations, and the United States has
applied economic sanctions against Burma, but Burma's neighbours follow their policy of not
intervening in the internal a airs of other sovereign states, and Burma has been admitted into the
Association of South Eastern Asian Nations.
On March 27, 1999, Michael Aris died of prostate cancer in London. He had petitioned the
Burmese authorities to allow him to visit Suu Kyi one last time, but they had rejected his request.
He had not seen her since a Christmas visit in 1995. The government always urged her to join her
family abroad, but she knew that she would not be allowed to return. This separation she
regarded as one of the sacri ces she had had to make in order to work for a free Burma.

Selected Bibliography
By Aung San Suu Kyi
Freedom from Fear and Other Writings. Edited with introduction by Michael Aris. 2nd ed.,
revised. New York and London: Penguin, 1995. (Includes essays by friends and scholars.)
Voice of Hope: Conversations. London: Penguin, 1997 and New York City: Seven Stories Press,
1997 (Conversations beginning in November 1995 with Alan Clements, the founder of the
Burma Project in California who helped with the script for the lm based on her life, “Beyond
Rangoon”.)

Other Sources

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“Aung San Suu Kyi”, in Current Biography, February 1992.
Clements, Alan and Leslie Kean. Burma’s Revolution of the Spirit: The Struggle for Democratic
Freedom and Dignity. New York: Aperture, 1994. (Many colour photographs with text, Includes
essay by Aung San Suu Kyi.)
Clements, Alan. Burma: The Next Killing Fields. Tucson, Arizona; Odonian Press, 1992. (With a
foreword by the Dalai Lama.)
Lintner, Bertil. Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency since 1948. Boulder. Colorado:
Westview, 1994. (By a well-informed Swedish journalist.)
Lintner, Bertil. Outrage: Burma’s Struggle for Democracy. 2nd ed., Edinburgh: Kiscadale, 1995.
Mirante, Edith T. Burmese Looking Glass. A Human Rights Adventure and a Jungle Revolution.
New York: Grove, 1993.
Smith, Martin J. Burma: Intrangency and the Politics of Ethnicity. London: Zed Books, 1991. (A
detailed and well-organised account by a journalist of the violent con ict between the military
government and the many minorities.)
Victor, Barbara. The Lady: Aung San Suu Kyi: Nobel Laureate and Burma’s Prisoner. Boston
and London: Faber & Faber, 1998. (A sympathetic account by a wellpublished author and
journalist, whose research in Burma included interviews with government leaders.)
From Nobel Lectures, Peace 1991-1995, Editor Irwin Abrams, World Scienti c Publishing Co., Singapore, 1999
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and rst published in the book series Les Prix
Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as
shown above.

Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1991
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7/19/2018 The Nobel Peace Prize 1991 - Presentation Speech
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Aung San Suu Kyi
Award Ceremony Speech
Presentation Speech by Francis Sejersted, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are assembled here today to honour Aung San Suu Kyi for her outstanding work for
democracy and human rights, and to present to her the Nobel Peace Prize for 1991. The occasion
gives rise to many and partly con icting emotions. The Peace Prize Laureate is unable to be here
herself. The great work we are acknowledging has yet to be concluded. She is still ghting the
good ght. Her courage and commitment nd her a prisoner of conscience in her own country,
Burma. Her absence lls us with fear and anxiety, which can nevertheless only be a faint shadow
of the fear and anxiety felt by her family. We welcome this opportunity of expressing our deepest
sympathy with them, with her husband, Michael Aris, and with her sons, Alexander and Kim. We
feel with you, and we are very grateful to you for coming to Oslo to receive the Nobel Prize on
behalf of your wife and mother.
Our fear and anxiety are mixed with a sense of con dence and hope. In the good ght for peace
and reconciliation, we are dependent on persons who set examples, persons who can symbolise
what we are seeking and mobilise the best in us. Aung San Suu Kyi is just such a person. She
unites deep commitment and tenacity with a vision in which the end and the means form a single
unit. Its most important elements are: democracy, respect for human rights, reconciliation
between groups, non-violence, and personal and collective discipline.
She has herself clearly indicated the sources of her inspiration: principally Mahatma Gandhi and
her father, Aung San, the leader in Burma's struggle for liberation. The philosopher of non-
violence and the General di er in many respects, but also show fundamental similarities. In both,
one can see genuine independence, true modesty, and "a profound simplicity", to use Aung San

Suu Kyi's own words about her father. To Aung San, leadership was a duty, and could only be
carried out on the basis of humility in face of the task before him and the con dence and respect
of the people to be led.
While no doubt deriving a great deal of inspiration from Gandhi and her father, Aung San Suu Kyi
has also added her own independent re ections to what has become her political platform. The
keynote is the same profound simplicity as she sees in her father. The central position given to
human rights in her thinking appears to re ect a real sense of the need to protect human dignity.
Man is not only entitled to live in a free society; he also has a right to respect. On this platform,
she has built a policy marked by an extraordinary combination of sober realism and visionary
idealism. And in her case this is more than just a theory: she has gone a long way towards
showing how such a doctrine can be translated into practical politics.
For a doctrine of peace and reconciliation to be translated into practice, one absolute condition is
fearlessness. Aung San Suu Kyi knows this. One of her essays opens with the statement that it is
not power that corrupts, but fear. The comment was aimed at the totalitarian regime in her own
country. They have allowed themselves to be corrupted because they fear the people they are
supposed to lead. This has led them into a vicious circle. In her thinking, however, the demand for
fearlessness is rst and foremost a general demand, a demand on all of us. She has herself
shown fearlessness in practice. She opposed herself alone to the ri e barrels. Can anything
withstand such courage? What was in that Major's mind when at the last moment he gave the
order not to re? Perhaps he was impressed by her bravery, perhaps he realised that nothing can
be achieved by brute force.
Violence is its own worst enemy, and fearlessness is the sharpest weapon against it. It is not least
Aung San Suu Kyi's impressive courage which makes her such a potent symbol, like Gandhi and
her father Aung San. Aung San was shot in the midst of his struggle. But if those who arranged
the assassination thought it would remove him from Burmese politics, they were wrong. He
became the unifying symbol of a free Burma and an inspiration to those who are now ghting for
a free society. In addition to his example and inspiration, his position among his people, over forty
years after his death, gave Aung San Suu Kyi the political point of departure she needed. She has
indeed taken up her inheritance, and is now in her own right the symbol of the revolt against
violence and the struggle for a free society, not only in Burma, but also in the rest of Asia and in
many other parts of the world.
We ordinary people, I believe, feel that with her courage and her high ideals, Aung San Suu Kyi
brings out something of the best in us. We feel we need precisely her sort of person in order to
retain our faith in the future. That is what gives her such power as a symbol, and that is why any
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illtreatment of her feels like a violation of what we have most at heart. The little woman under
house arrest stands for a positive hope. Knowing she is there gives us con dence and faith in the
power of good.
Aung San Suu Kyi was born in 1945. Her father was killed when she was two. She has no personal
memories of him. Her mother was a diplomat, and Aung San Suu Kyi was to spend many of her
early years and much of her later life abroad. In 1967, she took a degree in Politics, Philosophy
and Economics at St. Hugh's College, Oxford. From 1969 on, she worked for two years for the
United Nations in New York. In 1972 she married Michael Aris, a British specialist on Tibet. For a
time the family lived in Bhutan, but in the mid-seventies they moved back to Oxford. In addition to
being a housewife with two small children, Aung San Suu Kyi kept up her academic work,
gradually concentrating on modern Burmese history and literature. She was a visiting scholar at
Kyoto University in Japan and at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies in New Delhi. On her
return to Burma in 1988, she broke o her studies at the London School of Oriental and African
Studies. There is little in these outward events to suggest the role she was to embark on in 1988.
But she was well prepared.
There is a great deal of evidence that the fate of her own people had constantly weighed on her
mind. Her husband has told us how she often reminded him that one day she would have to
return to Burma, and that she would count on his support. Her studies, too, as we have seen,
became increasingly concentrated on Burma's modern history. The study of her father and the
part he played in Burmese history no doubt increased her political commitment and sense that
his mantle had fallen on her.
In moving to Japan, she was virtually following in her father's footsteps. During the Second World
War, it was from a base in Japan that Aung San built up Burma's independent national army.
When Japan invaded Burma, Aung San and his men went too. Before long, they switched from
ghting the British colonial power to resisting the occupying Japanese and supporting the retaking
of Burma by the Allies. After the war, he led the negotiations with the British which were to lead to
nal independence. Aung San Suu Kyi appears to have felt an urgent need to study the process
which led to Burma's independent statehood, and to understand the ideals governing the politics.
In a beautiful essay comparing the Indian and Burmese experience of colonisation, she also
brings out the special features of Burma's cultural heritage. History is important. You choose
who you are by choosing which tradition you belong to. Aung San Suu Kyi seeks to call attention
to what she sees as the best aspects of the national and cultural heritage and to identify herself
with them. Such profound knowledge and such a deep sense of identity are an irresistible force in
the political struggle.
3
4
5

The occasion of Aung San Suu Kyi's return to Burma in 1988 was, characteristically enough, not
the political situation but her old mother's illness. The political turbulence had just begun,
however. There had been demonstrations and confrontations with the police with some two
hundred killed. The unrest continued while she was nursing her dying mother. That was the
situation in which she resolved to take an active part in what she herself called "the second
struggle for national independence".
The military regime had seized power in Burma in 1962. The disturbances which broke out in
1988 were a reaction to growing repression. In the summer of that year, at a time when the
situation was very uncertain, Aung San Suu Kyi intervened with a open letter to the government,
proposing the appointment of a consultative committee of respected independent persons to
lead the country into multi-party elections. In the letter, she emphasised the need for discipline
and for refraining from the use of force on either side, and demanded the release of political
prisoners.
A couple of days later, she addressed several hundred thousand people in front of the large
Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, presenting a political program based on human rights,
democracy and non-violence. On the 18th of September, after hesitating for a few weeks, the
armed forces reacted by tightening the restrictions. The so-called "State Law and Order
Restoration Council" (SLORC) was established, and martial law was introduced under which
meetings were banned and persons could be sentenced without trial.
Political parties were not prohibited (perhaps with meetings banned it was thought unnecessary).
A week after the establishment of SLORC, Aung San Suu Kyi and a few other members of the
opposition founded the National League for Democracy, the NLD. She went on to engage in
vigorous political activity, defying the ban on meetings and military provocations, and holding
heavily attended political meetings all over the country. One remarkable feature of her political
campaign was the appeal she had for the country's various ethnic groups, traditionally at odds
with each other.
It must have been her personal prestige which caused the regime to hesitate so long, but in July
1989 she was placed under house arrest. In May 1990, elections were held, in which the NLD won
an overwhelming victory and over 80 per cent of the seats in the national assembly. There is
general agreement that this was principally a triumph for Aung San Suu Kyi.
Why did the SLORC allow free elections? Probably because they expected a very di erent result, a
result which would somehow have provided the legitimacy they needed to retain power. The
dilemma of such regimes was demonstrated - trapped in their own lies. At any rate, they refused
to accept the election result. The election was in e ect annulled. The SLORC continued, but with
6

reduced legitimacy. Lack of legitimacy is often made up for by increased brutality. Amnesty
International has reported continuing serious violations of human rights. Today, the Burmese
regime appears to have developed into one of the most repressive in the world.
In recent decades, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded a number of Prizes for Peace in
recognition of work for human rights. It has done so in the conviction that a fundamental
prerequisite for peace is the recognition of the right of all people to life and to respect. Another
motivation lies in the knowledge that in its most basic form, the concept of human rights is not
just a Western idea, but common to all major cultures. Permit me in this connection to quote a
paragraph of Aung San Suu Kyi's essay In Quest of Democracy:
Where there is no justice there can be no secure peace.
...That just laws which uphold human rights are the necessary foundations of peace and
security would be denied only by closed minds which interpret peace as the silence of all
opposition and security as the assurance of their own power. The Burmese associate peace
and security with coolness and shade:
The shade of a tree is cool indeed
The shade of parents is cooler
The shade of teachers is cooler still
The shade of the ruler is yet more cool
But coolest of all is the shade of the Buddha's teachings.
Thus to provide the people with the protective coolness of peace and security, rulers must
observe the teachings of the Buddha. Central to these teachings are the concepts of truth,
righteousness and loving kindness. It is government based on these very qualities that the
people of Burma are seeking in their struggle for democracy.
This is not the rst time that political persecution at home has prevented a Peace Prize Laureate
from receiving the prize in person. It happened to Carl von Ossietzky in 1936, ill in one of Hitler's
concentration camps. It happened to Andrei Sakharov and to Lech Walesa. Ossietzky died
before the regime fell, but Sakharov and Walesa saw their struggles succeed. It is our hope that
Aung San Suu Kyi will see her struggle crowned with success.
However, we must also face up to the likelihood that this will not be the last occasion on which a
Peace Prize Laureate is unable to attend. Let that remind us that in a world such as ours, peace
and reconciliation cannot be achieved once and for all. We will never be able to lower our
standards. On the contrary, a better world demands even greater vigilance of us, still greater
fearlessness, and the ability to develop in ourselves the "profound simplicity" of which this year's
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8
9
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Laureate has spoken. This applies to all of us as individuals, but must apply especially to those in
positions of power and authority. Show humility and show fearlessness - like Aung San Suu Kyi.
The result may be a better world to live in.
1. "Freedom from Fear" in Freedom, pp. 180-185. The reference is to the oft-quoted dictum of Lord Acton, "Power
tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
2. In 1988, despite opposition by the government, Aung San Suu Kyi made a speechmaking tour throughout the
country. She was walking with her associates along a street in a town, when soldiers lined up in front of the group,
threatening to shoot if they did not halt. Suu Kyi asked her supporters to step aside, and she walked on. At the
last moment the major in command ordered the soldiers not to re. She explained later, "It seemed so much
simpler to provide them with a single target than to bring everyone else in."
3. Freedom, Introduction, p. xvii.
4. "My Father", in Freedom, pp. 3-38. First published by Queensland Press in 1984 in the Leaders of Asia series
under the title of Aung San. Reprinted in 1991 by Kiscadale, Edinburgh, as Aung San of Burma: A Biographical
Portrait by His Daughter.
5. "Intellectual Life in Burma and India under Colonialism", in Freedom, pp. 82-139.
6. "The Formation of a People's Consultative Committee", 15 August 1988, translated by Suu Kyi, in Freedom, pp.
192-197. Her rst political initiative.
7. Amnesty International received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. See Irwin Abrams, ed., Nobel Lectures, Peace.
1971-1980 (Singapore: World Scienti c, 1997): 161-177. Amnesty International campaigned for Suu Kyi's release
from detention as a "prisoner of conscience".
8. The 1935 award to the concentration camp prisoner Carl von Ossietzky may be considered the earliest human
rights prize. Later such recipients were Albert Lutuli (1960), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964), René Cassin (1968),
Séan MacBride (1974), Amnesty International (1977), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (1980), Lech Walesa (1983),
Desmond Tutu (1984), Elie Wiesel (1986), and the 14th Dalai Lama (1989). After 1991 such grantees were
Rigoberta Menchú Tum (1992), and the 1996 laureates from East Timor, José Ramos-Horta and Bishop Belo. See
Abrams, The Nobel Peace Prize and the Laureates (Boston: G.K. Hall), 3rd printing, 1990): 175-6 and entries on
these laureates. Also the lectures of the most recent human rights laureates in Abrams, ed., Nobel Lectures,
Peace. 1971-1980, cited in the previous endnote, and the companion volume for 1981-1990.
9. Quest for Democracy", in Freedom, pp. 167-179, esp. pp. 177-178.
10. The international campaign for the prize for Carl von Ossietzky had already brought about his removal from
the camp to a hospital in Berlin before the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced in 1936 that he would be
awarded the postponed prize of 1935. The Nazi government refused permission for him to go to Oslo for the

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award ceremony. See Irwin Abrams, The Nobel Peace Prizes, pp. 125-129; Abrams, "Carl von Ossietzky
Retrospective", The Nobel Prize Annual 1989 (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1990): 12-23.

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7/19/2018 Aung San Suu Kyi - Acceptance Speech
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Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi - Acceptance
Speech
Acceptance Speech delivered on behalf of Aung San Suu Kyi, by her son Alexander Aris, on the occasion of the
award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1991
Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I stand before you here today to accept on behalf of my mother, Aung San Suu Kyi, this greatest of
prizes, the Nobel Prize for Peace. Because circumstances do not permit my mother to be here in
person, I will do my best to convey the sentiments I believe she would express.
Firstly, I know that she would begin by saying that she accepts the Nobel Prize for Peace not in her
own name but in the name of all the people of Burma. She would say that this prize belongs not
to her but to all those men, women and children who, even as I speak, continue to sacri ce their
wellbeing, their freedom and their lives in pursuit of a democratic Burma. Theirs is the prize and
theirs will be the eventual victory in Burma's long struggle for peace, freedom and democracy.
Speaking as her son, however, I would add that I personally believe that by her own dedication
and personal sacri ce she has come to be a worthy symbol through whom the plight of all the
people of Burma may be recognised. And no one must underestimate that plight. The plight of
those in the countryside and towns, living in poverty and destitution, those in prison, battered and
tortured; the plight of the young people, the hope of Burma, dying of malaria in the jungles to
which they have ed; that of the Buddhist monks, beaten and dishonoured. Nor should we forget
the many senior and highly respected leaders besides my mother who are all incarcerated. It is on
their behalf that I thank you, from my heart, for this supreme honour. The Burmese people can
today hold their heads a little higher in the knowledge that in this far distant land their su ering
has been heard and heeded.

We must also remember that the lonely struggle taking place in a heavily guarded compound in
Rangoon is part of the much larger struggle, worldwide, for the emancipation of the human spirit
from political tyranny and psychological subjection. The Prize, I feel sure, is also intended to
honour all those engaged in this struggle wherever they may be. It is not without reason that
today's events in Oslo fall on the International Human Rights Day, celebrated throughout the
world.
Mr. Chairman, the whole international community has applauded the choice of your committee.
Just a few days ago, the United Nations passed a unanimous and historic resolution welcoming
Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar's statement on the signi cance of this award and
endorsing his repeated appeals for my mother's early release from detention. Universal concern
at the grave human rights situation in Burma was clearly expressed. Alone and isolated among
the entire nations of the world a single dissenting voice was heard, from the military junta in
Rangoon, too late and too weak.
This regime has through almost thirty years of misrule reduced the once prosperous 'Golden
Land' of Burma to one of the world's most economically destitute nations. In their heart of hearts
even those in power now in Rangoon must know that their eventual fate will be that of all
totalitarian regimes who seek to impose their authority through fear, repression and hatred.
When the present Burmese struggle for democracy erupted onto the streets in 1988, it was the
rst of what became an international tidal wave of such movements throughout Eastern Europe,
Asia and Africa. Today, in 1991, Burma stands conspicuous in its continued su ering at the hands
of a repressive, intransigent junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council. However, the
example of those nations which have successfully achieved democracy holds out an important
message to the Burmese people; that, in the last resort, through the sheer economic
unworkability of totalitarianism this present regime will be swept away. And today in the face of
rising in ation, a mismanaged economy and near worthless Kyat, the Burmese government is
undoubtedly reaping as it has sown.
However, it is my deepest hope that it will not be in the face of complete economic collapse that
the regime will fall, but that the ruling junta may yet heed such appeals to basic humanity as that
which the Nobel Committee has expressed in its award of this year's prize. I know that within the
military government there are those to whom the present policies of fear and repression are
abhorrent, violating as they do the most sacred principles of Burma's Buddhist heritage. This is no
empty wishful thinking but a conviction my mother reached in the course of her dealings with
those in positions of authority, illustrated by the election victories of her party in constituencies
comprised almost exclusively of military personnel and their families. It is my profoundest wish
that these elements for moderation and reconciliation among those now in authority may make
their sentiments felt in Burma's hour of deepest need.
1

I know that if she were free today my mother would, in thanking you, also ask you to pray that the
oppressors and the oppressed should throw down their weapons and join together to build a
nation founded on humanity in the spirit of peace.
Although my mother is often described as a political dissident who strives by peaceful means for
democratic change, we should remember that her quest is basically spiritual. As she has said,
"The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit", and she has written of the "essential spiritual
aims" of the struggle. The realisation of this depends solely on human responsibility. At the root
of that responsibility lies, and I quote, "the concept of perfection, the urge to achieve it, the
intelligence to nd a path towards it, and the will to follow that path if not to the end, at least the
distance needed to rise above individual limitation... ". "To live the full life," she says, "one must
have the courage to bear the responsibility of the needs of others … one must want to bear this
responsibility." And she links this rmly to her faith when she writes, "...Buddhism, the foundation
of traditional Burmese culture, places the greatest value on man, who alone of all beings can
achieve the supreme state of Buddhahood. Each man has in him the potential to realize the truth
through his own will and endeavour and to help others to realize it." Finally she says, "The quest
for democracy in Burma is the struggle of a people to live whole, meaningful lives as free and
equal members of the world community. It is part of the unceasing human endeavour to prove
that the spirit of man can transcends the aws of his nature."
This is the second time that my younger brother and I have accepted a great prize for my mother
in Norway. Last year we travelled to Bergen to receive for her the Thorolf Rafto Prize for Human
Rights, a wonderful prelude to this year's event. By now we have a very special feeling for the
people of Norway. It is my hope that soon my mother will be able to share this feeling and to
speak directly for herself instead of through me. Meanwhile this tremendous support for her and
the people of Burma has served to bring together two peoples from opposite ends of the earth. I
believe much will follow from the links now forged.
It only remains for me to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Let us hope and pray that
from today the wounds start to heal and that in the years to come the 1991 Nobel Prize for Peace
will be seen as a historic step towards the achievement of true peace in Burma. The lessons of the
past will not be forgotten, but it is our hope for the future that we celebrate today.
1. On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Burma was
one of the states voting for its adoption.
2
3

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2. These quotations are from Freedom, pp. 183, 185, 174.
3. Thorolf Rafto, Professor of Economic History at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business
Administration, was widely known for his work for human rights, especially in Eastern Europe. After his death on 4
November 1986, his friends and admirers established in his name a Foundation for Human Rights, which every
year on the anniversary of his death presents a prize to champions of human rights.

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7/19/2018 Aung San Suu Kyi - Nobel Lecture
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-lecture_en.html 1/10
I UNDERSTAND
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Aung San Suu Kyi
English
Norwegian
© THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2012
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Aung San Suu Kyi - Nobel Lecture
Nobel Lecture by Aung San Suu Kyi, Oslo, 16 June, 2012
Aung San Suu Kyi delivering her Nobel Lecture in the Oslo City Hall, 16 June, 2012.
Photo: Ken Opprann
Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness, Excellencies, Distinguished members of the Norwegian
Nobel Committee, Dear Friends,

Long years ago, sometimes it seems many lives ago, I was at Oxford listening to the radio
programme Desert Island Discs with my young son Alexander. It was a well-known programme
(for all I know it still continues) on which famous people from all walks of life were invited to talk
about the eight discs, the one book beside the bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and
the one luxury item they would wish to have with them were they to be marooned on a desert
island. At the end of the programme, which we had both enjoyed, Alexander asked me if I thought
I might ever be invited to speak on Desert Island Discs. “Why not?” I responded lightly. Since he
knew that in general only celebrities took part in the programme he proceeded to ask, with
genuine interest, for what reason I thought I might be invited. I considered this for a moment and
then answered: “Perhaps because I’d have won the Nobel Prize for literature,” and we both
laughed. The prospect seemed pleasant but hardly probable.
(I cannot now remember why I gave that answer, perhaps because I had recently read a book by a
Nobel Laureate or perhaps because the Desert Island celebrity of that day had been a famous
writer.)
In 1989, when my late husband Michael Aris came to see me during my rst term of house arrest,
he told me that a friend, John Finnis, had nominated me for the Nobel Peace Prize. This time also I
laughed. For an instant Michael looked amazed, then he realized why I was amused. The Nobel
Peace Prize? A pleasant prospect, but quite improbable! So how did I feel when I was actually
awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace? The question has been put to me many times and this is
surely the most appropriate occasion on which to examine what the Nobel Prize means to me and
what peace means to me.
As I have said repeatedly in many an interview, I heard the news that I had been awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize on the radio one evening. It did not altogether come as a surprise because I
had been mentioned as one of the frontrunners for the prize in a number of broadcasts during
the previous week. While drafting this lecture, I have tried very hard to remember what my
immediate reaction to the announcement of the award had been. I think, I can no longer be sure,
it was something like: “Oh, so they’ve decided to give it to me.” It did not seem quite real because
in a sense I did not feel myself to be quite real at that time.
Often during my days of house arrest it felt as though I were no longer a part of the real world.
There was the house which was my world, there was the world of others who also were not free
but who were together in prison as a community, and there was the world of the free; each was a
di erent planet pursuing its own separate course in an indi erent universe. What the Nobel
Peace Prize did was to draw me once again into the world of other human beings outside the
isolated area in which I lived, to restore a sense of reality to me. This did not happen instantly, of
course, but as the days and months went by and news of reactions to the award came over the

airwaves, I began to understand the signi cance of the Nobel Prize. It had made me real once
again; it had drawn me back into the wider human community. And what was more important,
the Nobel Prize had drawn the attention of the world to the struggle for democracy and human
rights in Burma. We were not going to be forgotten.
To be forgotten. The French say that to part is to die a little. To be forgotten too is to die a little. It
is to lose some of the links that anchor us to the rest of humanity. When I met Burmese migrant
workers and refugees during my recent visit to Thailand, many cried out: “Don’t forget us!” They
meant: “don’t forget our plight, don’t forget to do what you can to help us, don’t forget we also
belong to your world.” When the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to me they were
recognizing that the oppressed and the isolated in Burma were also a part of the world, they were
recognizing the oneness of humanity. So for me receiving the Nobel Peace Prize means personally
extending my concerns for democracy and human rights beyond national borders. The Nobel
Peace Prize opened up a door in my heart.
The Burmese concept of peace can be explained as the happiness arising from the cessation of
factors that militate against the harmonious and the wholesome. The word nyein-chan translates
literally as the bene cial coolness that comes when a re is extinguished. Fires of su ering and
strife are raging around the world. In my own country, hostilities have not ceased in the far north;
to the west, communal violence resulting in arson and murder were taking place just several days
before I started out on the journey that has brought me here today. News of atrocities in other
reaches of the earth abound. Reports of hunger, disease, displacement, joblessness, poverty,
injustice, discrimination, prejudice, bigotry; these are our daily fare. Everywhere there are
negative forces eating away at the foundations of peace. Everywhere can be found thoughtless
dissipation of material and human resources that are necessary for the conservation of harmony
and happiness in our world.
The First World War represented a terrifying waste of youth and potential, a cruel squandering of
the positive forces of our planet. The poetry of that era has a special signi cance for me because I
rst read it at a time when I was the same age as many of those young men who had to face the
prospect of withering before they had barely blossomed. A young American ghting with the
French Foreign Legion wrote before he was killed in action in 1916 that he would meet his death:
“at some disputed barricade;” “on some scarred slope of battered hill;” “at midnight in some
aming town.” Youth and love and life perishing forever in senseless attempts to capture
nameless, unremembered places. And for what? Nearly a century on, we have yet to nd a
satisfactory answer.

Are we not still guilty, if to a less violent degree, of recklessness, of improvidence with regard to
our future and our humanity? War is not the only arena where peace is done to death. Wherever
su ering is ignored, there will be the seeds of con ict, for su ering degrades and embitters and
enrages.
A positive aspect of living in isolation was that I had ample time in which to ruminate over the
meaning of words and precepts that I had known and accepted all my life. As a Buddhist, I had
heard about dukha, generally translated as su ering, since I was a small child. Almost on a daily
basis elderly, and sometimes not so elderly, people around me would murmur “dukha, dukha”
when they su ered from aches and pains or when they met with some small, annoying mishaps.
However, it was only during my years of house arrest that I got around to investigating the nature
of the six great dukha. These are: to be conceived, to age, to sicken, to die, to be parted from
those one loves, to be forced to live in propinquity with those one does not love. I examined each
of the six great su erings, not in a religious context but in the context of our ordinary, everyday
lives. If su ering were an unavoidable part of our existence, we should try to alleviate it as far as
possible in practical, earthly ways. I mulled over the e ectiveness of ante- and post-natal
programmes and mother and childcare; of adequate facilities for the aging population; of
comprehensive health services; of compassionate nursing and hospices. I was particularly
intrigued by the last two kinds of su ering: to be parted from those one loves and to be forced to
live in propinquity with those one does not love. What experiences might our Lord Buddha have
undergone in his own life that he had included these two states among the great su erings? I
thought of prisoners and refugees, of migrant workers and victims of human tra cking, of that
great mass of the uprooted of the earth who have been torn away from their homes, parted from
families and friends, forced to live out their lives among strangers who are not always welcoming.
We are fortunate to be living in an age when social welfare and humanitarian assistance are
recognized not only as desirable but necessary. I am fortunate to be living in an age when the fate
of prisoners of conscience anywhere has become the concern of peoples everywhere, an age
when democracy and human rights are widely, even if not universally, accepted as the birthright
of all. How often during my years under house arrest have I drawn strength from my favourite
passages in the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
……. disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have
outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall
enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the
highest aspirations of the common people,
…… it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion
against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law . . .

If I am asked why I am ghting for human rights in Burma the above passages will provide the
answer. If I am asked why I am ghting for democracy in Burma, it is because I believe that
democratic institutions and practices are necessary for the guarantee of human rights.
Over the past year there have been signs that the endeavours of those who believe in democracy
and human rights are beginning to bear fruit in Burma. There have been changes in a positive
direction; steps towards democratization have been taken. If I advocate cautious optimism it is
not because I do not have faith in the future but because I do not want to encourage blind faith.
Without faith in the future, without the conviction that democratic values and fundamental
human rights are not only necessary but possible for our society, our movement could not have
been sustained throughout the destroying years. Some of our warriors fell at their post, some
deserted us, but a dedicated core remained strong and committed. At times when I think of the
years that have passed, I am amazed that so many remained staunch under the most trying
circumstances. Their faith in our cause is not blind; it is based on a clear-eyed assessment of their
own powers of endurance and a profound respect for the aspirations of our people.
It is because of recent changes in my country that I am with you today; and these changes have
come about because of you and other lovers of freedom and justice who contributed towards a
global awareness of our situation. Before continuing to speak of my country, may I speak out for
our prisoners of conscience. There still remain such prisoners in Burma. It is to be feared that
because the best known detainees have been released, the remainder, the unknown ones, will be
forgotten. I am standing here because I was once a prisoner of conscience. As you look at me and
listen to me, please remember the often repeated truth that one prisoner of conscience is one too
many. Those who have not yet been freed, those who have not yet been given access to the
bene ts of justice in my country number much more than one. Please remember them and do
whatever is possible to e ect their earliest, unconditional release.
Burma is a country of many ethnic nationalities and faith in its future can be founded only on a
true spirit of union. Since we achieved independence in 1948, there never has been a time when
we could claim the whole country was at peace. We have not been able to develop the trust and
understanding necessary to remove causes of con ict. Hopes were raised by cease res that were
maintained from the early 1990s until 2010 when these broke down over the course of a few
months. One unconsidered move can be enough to remove long-standing cease res. In recent
months, negotiations between the government and ethnic nationality forces have been making
progress. We hope that cease re agreements will lead to political settlements founded on the
aspirations of the peoples, and the spirit of union.

My party, the National League for Democracy, and I stand ready and willing to play any role in the
process of national reconciliation. The reform measures that were put into motion by President U
Thein Sein’s government can be sustained only with the intelligent cooperation of all internal
forces: the military, our ethnic nationalities, political parties, the media, civil society organizations,
the business community and, most important of all, the general public. We can say that reform is
e ective only if the lives of the people are improved and in this regard, the international
community has a vital role to play. Development and humanitarian aid, bi-lateral agreements and
investments should be coordinated and calibrated to ensure that these will promote social,
political and economic growth that is balanced and sustainable. The potential of our country is
enormous. This should be nurtured and developed to create not just a more prosperous but also
a more harmonious, democratic society where our people can live in peace, security and freedom.
The peace of our world is indivisible. As long as negative forces are getting the better of positive
forces anywhere, we are all at risk. It may be questioned whether all negative forces could ever be
removed. The simple answer is: “No!” It is in human nature to contain both the positive and the
negative. However, it is also within human capability to work to reinforce the positive and to
minimize or neutralize the negative. Absolute peace in our world is an unattainable goal. But it is
one towards which we must continue to journey, our eyes xed on it as a traveller in a desert xes
his eyes on the one guiding star that will lead him to salvation. Even if we do not achieve perfect
peace on earth, because perfect peace is not of this earth, common endeavours to gain peace will
unite individuals and nations in trust and friendship and help to make our human community
safer and kinder.
I used the word ‘kinder’ after careful deliberation; I might say the careful deliberation of many
years. Of the sweets of adversity, and let me say that these are not numerous, I have found the
sweetest, the most precious of all, is the lesson I learnt on the value of kindness. Every kindness I
received, small or big, convinced me that there could never be enough of it in our world. To be
kind is to respond with sensitivity and human warmth to the hopes and needs of others. Even the
briefest touch of kindness can lighten a heavy heart. Kindness can change the lives of people.
Norway has shown exemplary kindness in providing a home for the displaced of the earth,
o ering sanctuary to those who have been cut loose from the moorings of security and freedom
in their native lands.
There are refugees in all parts of the world. When I was at the Maela refugee camp in Thailand
recently, I met dedicated people who were striving daily to make the lives of the inmates as free
from hardship as possible. They spoke of their concern over ‘donor fatigue,’ which could also
translate as ‘compassion fatigue.’ ‘Donor fatigue’ expresses itself precisely in the reduction of
funding. ‘Compassion fatigue’ expresses itself less obviously in the reduction of concern. One is
the consequence of the other. Can we a ord to indulge in compassion fatigue? Is the cost of

Share this: 638
meeting the needs of refugees greater than the cost that would be consequent on turning an
indi erent, if not a blind, eye on their su ering? I appeal to donors the world over to ful ll the
needs of these people who are in search, often it must seem to them a vain search, of refuge.
At Maela, I had valuable discussions with Thai o cials responsible for the administration of Tak
province where this and several other camps are situated. They acquainted me with some of the
more serious problems related to refugee camps: violation of forestry laws, illegal drug use, home
brewed spirits, the problems of controlling malaria, tuberculosis, dengue fever and cholera. The
concerns of the administration are as legitimate as the concerns of the refugees. Host countries
also deserve consideration and practical help in coping with the di culties related to their
responsibilities.
Ultimately our aim should be to create a world free from the displaced, the homeless and the
hopeless, a world of which each and every corner is a true sanctuary where the inhabitants will
have the freedom and the capacity to live in peace. Every thought, every word, and every action
that adds to the positive and the wholesome is a contribution to peace. Each and every one of us
is capable of making such a contribution. Let us join hands to try to create a peaceful world where
we can sleep in security and wake in happiness.
The Nobel Committee concluded its statement of 14 October 1991 with the words: “In awarding
the Nobel Peace Prize ... to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honour
this woman for her un agging e orts and to show its support for the many people throughout
the world who are striving to attain democracy, human rights and ethnic conciliation by peaceful
means.” When I joined the democracy movement in Burma it never occurred to me that I might
ever be the recipient of any prize or honour. The prize we were working for was a free, secure and
just society where our people might be able to realize their full potential. The honour lay in our
endeavour. History had given us the opportunity to give of our best for a cause in which we
believed. When the Nobel Committee chose to honour me, the road I had chosen of my own free
will became a less lonely path to follow. For this I thank the Committee, the people of Norway and
peoples all over the world whose support has strengthened my faith in the common quest for
peace. Thank you.


1
The Nobel Foundation
2012 Annual Review

editors: Annika Pontikis, Public Relations Manager and Siavash Pournouri, Public Relations Officer
Design/production: Martin Zetterquist, Formalix AB
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front cover:
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2012 Annual Review
The Nobel Foundation, P.O. Box 5232, se-102 45 Stockholm, Sweden

1
A word from the
Executive Director
T
he Nobel Week in Stockholm is distin-
guished by the series of festive celebra-
tions that culminates in the Nobel Prize
Award Ceremony and the Nobel Banquet on
December 10. It is also a week that includes
such events as the Nobel Lectures, which focus
on the Nobel Laureates’ many years of persis-
tent, strenuous work. If we ask the Laureates
themselves, they often say that it is their meet-
ings with school children, students and young
researchers that are the most memorable and
inspiring events of their stay in Stockholm. We
want to encourage these kinds of encounters,
and the Nobel Foundation has long discussed
how the Nobel Week programme might be
broadened both in order to reach a wider audi-
ence, and to generate greater interest in current
fields of science and social issues. So in 2012
we launched a new full-day meeting, Nobel
Week Dialogue, for the purpose of promot-
ing a broader conversation between scientists
and society at large. Of the more than 1,000
people who attended the 2012 event, on the
theme of genetics, nearly half were students.
The response to the event was overwhelmingly
positive.
The Nobel Week Dialogue is a good
example of the kind of activity carried out
by the various companies that have emerged
around the Nobel Foundation during the past
10–15 years. The event clearly demonstrates
the potential that exists for creating high-
quality activities in the spirit of the Nobel Prize.
The prize that Alfred Nobel established was
intended to reward those who had “conferred
the greatest benefit on mankind”. By using
various means to spread knowledge of the
advances for which the prize is awarded, and
by encouraging creativity and fresh thinking,
we can help ensure that Nobel’s vision will live
on and that the impact of his contributions will
be even greater.
Last year a number of exhibitions and
programmes were presented at our museums in
Stockholm and Oslo. The task of modernising
the official Nobelprize.org website is under way,
and during 2014 we plan to carry out events
similar to the Nobel Week Dialogue in Asia.
The task of creating a new Nobel Center in
Stockholm is also continuing at a healthy pace.
Among the highlights of 2012, of course,
was Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s
visit to Oslo where, after many years of house
arrest, she was finally able to hold her Nobel
Lecture – a historic event that attracted great
attention worldwide.
During 2012, the finances of the Nobel
Foundation were in focus. The prize amount
was lowered by 20 per cent, while steps were
taken and are continously being taken to
reduce the Foundation’s other expenses.
Concurrently, efforts are under way to
establish a new model for partnerships between
the business community and the externally
financed entities of the Nobel sphere. A number
of companies, both Swedish and foreign, have
expressed their interest.
In this context, I would also like to thank
all the Laureates who have responded positively
by joining the Nobel Laureate Network, which
was established at the initiative of the Board
of Directors of the Nobel Foundation during
2012. The purpose of this network is to lay the
groundwork for an expanded dialogue between
the Nobel Laureates and the Nobel sphere,
and thereby contribute to additional inspiring
activities in the spirit of the Nobel Prize.
Finally, I would like to mention that on May
1, 2013 the Nobel Foundation elected Professor
Carl-Henrik Heldin as its new Chairman of the
Board, since Marcus Storch’s term of office has
expired and he has reached the age of 70. On
behalf of the entire Nobel sphere, I would like to
thank Marcus Storch for his contributions dur-
ing 17 years on the Board of the Nobel Founda-
tion while also welcoming Carl-Henrik Heldin.
I hope that readers will enjoy the follow-
ing pages, in which we present the 2012 Nobel
Laureates and our efforts – with the Nobel
Prize as the starting point – to encourage
creativity and fresh thinking that is in line with
Alfred Nobel’s vision of conferring the greatest
benefit on mankind.
Lars Heikensten
Executive director
Lars Heikensten, the Nobel
Foundation’s Executive Director
since June, 2011
photo: Orasis

2
Content
A word from the Executive Director
The 2012 Nobel Laureates
Science and society in dialogue
Aung San Suu Kyi celebrated in Oslo
The story of Nobelprize.org
A brief history of the finances
Alfred Nobel
The Nobel Prize
The organisational structure of the Nobel Prize
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10
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Thorbjørn Jagland, Chair of the Nobel Committee with representatives of the Peace Prize
Laureate EU: Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, José Manuel Durão
Barroso, President of the European Commission and Martin Schulz, President of the
European Parliament
James Watson at the
Nobel Week Dialogue
Aung San Suu Kyi in the Oslo Town Hall
John B. Gurdon inspects his medal Nobel Prize Award Ceremony

3
With this Annual Review we aim
to provide a comprehensive picture of the
Nobel Sphere as a whole. For additional
information, please see the respective annual
reports of the Nobel Foundation and related
organisations.
Institutions selecting the Nobel Laureates
Nobel Group Interests AB
Nobel Media AB
Nobelmuseet AB
Nobel Peace Center Foundation
Nobel Peace Prize – Research and Information
Nobelhuset AB
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28
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Robert J. Lefkowitz with family and friends
Artist: Lena Cronström.
Calligrapher: Annika Rücker. Book binder: Ingemar Dackéus.
James Watson, John B. Gurdon, photo: Niklas Elmehed.
Aung San Suu Kyi, EU representatives, photo: Ken Opprann.
Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, photo: Alexander Ljungdahl.
Robert J. Lefkowitz, photo: Alex Mahmoud. Toastmaster, photo: Orasis.
David Wineland’s diploma, Photo: Lovisa Engblom.
Emma Johansson, toastmaster at the Nobel Banquet

4
Lloyd S. Shapley at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in the Stockholm Concert Hall
Brian K. Kobilka signing a chair at the Nobel Museum
Nobel Medals and Diplomas at
the Nobel Foundation, 11 December

5
The 2012 Nobel Laureates
The Nobel Prize in Physics
was awarded to
Serge Haroche and
David J. Wineland
“for ground-breaking experimental methods that
enable measuring and manipulation of individual
quantum systems”
Professor Serge Haroche, born 1944, Collège de
France and Ecole Normale Supérieure, France.
Dr David J. Wineland, born 1944, National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST), and University of
Colorado Boulder, USA.
When it comes to the smallest components of our
universe, our usual understanding of how the world
works ceases to apply. We have entered the often
paradoxical and difficult-to-comprehend realm of
quantum physics. In this world, the same object can
exist in different states simultaneously. For a long
time, many quantum phenomena could only be
examined theoretically. David Wineland and Serge
Haroche are responsible for the development of
ingenious experiments designed to study quantum
phenomena when matter and light interact. Using
electric fields, Wineland has successfully captured elec-
trically charged atoms, or ions, in a kind of trap and
studied them with the help of small packets of light,
or photons. Haroche has been able to capture photons
using another kind of trap – two mirrors which they
can bounce between. This device allowed Haroche to
study the photons by passing atoms through the trap.
Wineland has been able to create incredibly precise
clocks based on his discoveries. These discoveries
may also make it possible to build computers that are
much faster than those we use today.
The Nobel Prize in
Chemistry
was awarded to
Robert J. Lefkowitz and
Brian K. Kobilka
“for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors”
Professor Robert J. Lefkowitz, born 1943, Howard
Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University
Medical Center, USA.
Professor Brian K. Kobilka, born 1955, Stanford
University School of Medicine, USA.
When you are afraid, your heart beats faster, your
blood pressure rises, and you breathe more heav-
ily. This is partly the result of adrenaline forming in
your body, which causes your heart rate to accelerate.
Adrenaline is a hormone, a substance that manages
communication between the cells in your body. Each
cell has a small receiver known as a receptor, which is
able to receive hormones. What these receptors look
like and how they work remained a mystery for many
years. In order to track these receptors, in 1968 Robert
Lefkowitz attached a radioactive isotope of the element
iodine to different hormones. By tracking the radia-
tion emitted by the isotope, he succeeded in finding a
receptor for adrenaline, which allowed him to build an
understanding of how it functions. In the 1980s, Brian
Kobilka successfully identified the gene that regulates
the formation of this receptor. The two researchers also
discovered that the receptor was similar to receptors
located in the eye that capture light. It was later discov-
ered that there is an entire family of receptors that look
and act in similar ways – known as G-protein-coupled
receptors. Approximately half of all medications used
today make use of this kind of receptor.
The Nobel Portraits, Photo: Ulla Montan.
Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, Photo: Alex Mahmoud. Chair-Signing at the Nobel Museum, Group Portrait, Photo: Orasis. Nobel medals & diplomas, photo: Niklas Elmehed.

6
The Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine
was awarded to
John B. Gurdon och
Shinya Yamanaka
“for the discovery that mature cells can be
reprogrammed to become pluripotent”
Dr John B. Gurdon, born 1933, Gurdon Institute,
Cambridge, UK.
Professor Shinya Yamanaka, born 1962, Kyoto
University, Japan and Gladstone Institutes, USA.
Our lives begin when a fertilized egg divides and
forms new cells that, in turn, also divide. These cells
are identical in the beginning, but become increasingly
varied over time. As a result of this process, our cells
become specialized for their location in the body –
perhaps in a nerve, a muscle, or a kidney. It was long
thought that a mature or specialized cell could not
return to an immature state, but this has been proven
incorrect. In 1962, John Gurdon removed the nucleus
of a fertilized egg cell from a frog and replaced it with
the nucleus of a mature cell taken from a tadpole’s
intestine. This modified egg cell grew into a new
frog, proving that the mature cell still contained the
genetic information needed to form all types of cells.
In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka succeeded in identifying a
small number of genes within the genome of mice that
proved decisive in this process. When activated, skin
cells from mice could be reprogrammed to immature
stem cells, which, in turn, can grow into all types of
cells within the body. In the long-term, these discover-
ies may lead to new medical treatments.
The Nobel Prize in
Literature
was awarded to
Mo Yan
“who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales,
history and the contemporary”
author Mo Yan, born 1955, China
Mo Yan’s writings cover a wide span, from short
stories, to novels, to essays. His path to a literary
career was not clear-cut. Mo Yan was born to a poor
farming family in Shandong Province, China. After
only a few years of schooling, he began work as a cat-
tle herder at the age of 11. As a young man, Mo Yan
enlisted in the army, where his literary talent was first
discovered. He published his first short story in 1981,
which, like his earlier works, was written according
to the prevailing literary dictates of the ruling regime.
Over time, however, Mo Yan’s storytelling began
to seek out its own, more independent paths. His
international breakthrough came with the epic novel
Red Sorghum. Other famous works by the Nobel
Prize-awarded author include The Garlic Ballads and
Life and Death are Wearing Me Out. His narrative
style bears the hallmarks of magical realism. Mo Yan’s
writing often uses older Chinese literature and popu-
lar oral traditions as a starting point, combining these
with contemporary social issues.
Artist: John Stenborg.
Kalligraf: Annika Rücker.
Book binder: Ingemar Dackéus.
John B. Gurdon and family
The Nobel Portraits, Photo: Ulla Montan.
Laureates with friends and family, Photo: Alex Mahmoud. Mo Yan’s diploma, Photo: Lovisa Engblom. EU flag: iStockphoto. Peace Prize diploma, Photo: Thomas Widerberg.

7
The Nobel Peace Prize
was awarded to
European Union (EU)
“The union and its forerunners have for over six
decades contributed to the advancement of peace
and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in
Europe”
After the decimation of the Second World War,
reconciliation between Germany and France was an
important step towards fostering peace in Europe. The
two countries – which by then had fought three wars
within the space of 70 years – built the European Coal
and Steel Community together with four other coun-
tries in 1952. This organization became the foundation
for an ever-broader cooperation within what has been
known since 1993 as the European Union (EU). In this
time of economic and social unrest, the Norwegian
Nobel Committee wished to reward the EU’s successful
struggle for peace, reconciliation and for democracy
and human rights. When the community expanded
to include additional countries during the 1970s and
1980s, democracy was a prerequisite for member-
ship. After the fall of European communist regimes
around 1990, the union was able to expand to include
several countries in Central and Eastern Europe,
where democracy had been strengthened and conflict
checked. The Nobel Committee also believes that the
question of EU membership is bolstering the reconcili-
ation process after the wars in the Balkan States, and
that the desire for EU membership has also promoted
democracy and human rights in Turkey.
The Sveriges Riksbank
Prize in Economic
Sciences in Memory of
Alfred Nobel
was awarded to
Alvin E. Roth and
Lloyd S. Shapley
”for the theory of stable allocations and the practice
of market design”
Professor Alvin E. Roth, born 1951, Harvard
University and Harvard Business School, USA.
Professor Emeritus Lloyd S. Shapley, born 1923,
University of California, USA.
How to bring different players together in the best
possible way is a key economic problem. Examples of
situations where this problem arises include match-
ing children with different schools, and kidneys or
other organs with patients who require transplants.
From the 1960s onward, Lloyd Shapley used what
is known as Cooperative Game Theory to study
different matching methods. Within the framework
of this theory, it is especially important that a stable
match is found. A stable match entails that there are
no two agents who would prefer one another over
their current counterparts. In collaboration with other
researchers, Shapley has succeeded in identifying
methods that achieve this stability. Beginning in the
1980s, Alvin Roth used Shapley’s theoretical results
to explain how markets function in practice. Through
empirical studies and lab experiments, Roth and his
colleagues demonstrated that stability was critical to
successful matching methods. Roth has also developed
systems for matching doctors with hospitals, school
pupils with schools, and organ donors with patients.
Alvin E. Roth with family and friends
Artist: Gerd Tinglum. Calligrapher: Inger Magnus. Book binder: Julius Johansen.

8
More than a 1,000 people attended the Nobel Week
Dialogue at the Stockholm City Congress Center
Helga Nowotny, President of the
European Research Council (ERC)
Steven Chu, 1997 Nobel
Laureate in Physics, US Secretary
of Energy 2009–2013
In the future, the forum
provided by the Nobel Week
Dialogue will travel beyond
the boundaries of Sweden to
international settings.

9
Science and society in
dialogue
O
n December 9th, 2012, a brand new
element joined the roster of events
forming the Nobel Week in Stock-
holm; Nobel Week Dialogue. This one day
meeting, held the day before the Nobel Prize
Award Ceremony and organised by Nobel
Media, brought together a rich mix of leading
scientists, policy-makers and thinkers to discuss
the topic of The Genetic Revolution and its
Impact on Society.
Free to attend and streamed live online for
a global audience, the objective of the meet-
ing was to deepen the dialogue between the
scientific community and the rest of society.
Alongside the wealth of online content created
by Nobel Media that seeks to disseminate
knowledge about scientific research to society,
this event sought to give the wider public the
chance to meet with scientists and engage in
discussion on topics that concern us all.
The choice of topic for this inaugural
dialogue was partly inspired by the fact that
2012 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1962
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded
to Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice
Wilkins for their discovery of the molecular
structure of DNA. The participants however
(including James Watson himself), were keen
on looking forward rather than back. After
morning plenary sessions devoted to reviewing
the past half century’s progress in genetics and
genomics from a scientific as well as societal
perspective, the programme split into parallel
panel discussions. During lunchtime breakout
sessions and an afternoon of more formally
organised panels, audience members were free
to choose whichever stream interested them
most. Audiences, both those present and follow-
ing online, were invited to engage in the conver-
sations through comments and questions.
Over thirty participants from around the
world had come to Stockholm to attend the
event. The full list of participants, along with
the programme and videos capturing the day’s
proceedings can be viewed online at www.
nobelweekdialogue.org. Among those taking
part were seven Nobel Laureates, a range of
scientists, as well as representatives from indus-
try and policy-making institutions. In various
constellations, they discussed a variety of topics
centred around questions such as Human
evolution: where have we been and where are
we going? and The promised land of genomic
medicine: how do we actually get there?
Just under half of the registered audience
were students, the other half consisting of inter-
ested members of the public along with experts,
researchers, invited guests and media. In total,
more than a thousand people filled the Stock-
holm City Congress Center to watch and par-
ticipate in the discussions, not bad for a 9am
start on a Sunday in December with an outside
temperature of a chilly –10°C. Happily for the
organisers, 97 per cent of those surveyed said
they would participate again.
This first Nobel Week Dialogue, which like
most of Nobel Media’s activities is financed by
external support, was generously made possible
by three partners: the region of Västra Götaland,
the City of Gothenburg and Carl Bennet AB.
Now established as an annual part of Nobel
Week, the next Nobel Week Dialogue will take
place on December 9th, 2013, in Gothenburg.
The subject for that and future meetings will
be decided in consultation with the Programme
Committee for the Nobel Week Dialogue,
consisting of the Secretaries of all six Nobel
Committees and representatives of Nobel Media
and the Nobel Foundation. In the near future,
the meetings will alternate annually between
Gothenburg and Stockholm, in harmony with
the desire to spread the opportunities afforded
by Nobel Week across regional boundaries. Not
that there’s anything new in involving Gothen-
burg in the Nobel Week: Albert Einstein gave his
Nobel Lecture there in 1923.
In the future, the forum provided by the
Nobel Week Dialogue will travel beyond the
boundaries of Sweden to international settings.
The need for conversations between those at
the forefront of scientific progress and the
rest of society has never been greater, and the
questions being discussed demand international
engagement. Nobel Media already works
with its partners to run several international
educational events each year, and one goal for
the future is to extend those activities in order
to promote discussions that further connect
science with society.
All photos: Alex Ljungdahl

1 0
For me receiving the Nobel Peace
Prize means personally extending my
concerns for democracy and human rights
beyond national borders. The Nobel Peace
Prize opened up a door in my heart.
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi participated in the opening of the
Mother Democracy exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center

1 1
Aung San Suu Kyi
celebrated in Oslo
W
hen Aung San Suu Kyi was
announced as the Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate in October 1991, the Nor-
wegian Nobel Committee pointed out that “Suu
Kyi’s struggle is one of the most extraordinary
examples of civil courage in Asia in recent
decades… In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize
for 1991 to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Norwegian
Nobel Committee wishes to honour this woman
for her unflagging efforts and to show its support
for the many people throughout the world who
are striving to attain democracy, human rights
and ethnic conciliation by peaceful means.”
Aung San Suu Kyi was not present at the
award ceremony on December 10. She had
been placed under house arrest on 20 July
1989. In the 1990 elections in Burma (she
always insisted on Burma, not Myanmar) her
party, the National League for Democracy, had
won 59 per cent of the votes resulting in 80
per cent of the parliamentary seats. Offered her
freedom if she left the country, she refused. So,
at the award ceremony she was represented by
her husband Michael Aris and their two sons
Alexander and Kim.
Alexander spoke movingly on behalf of his
mother, expressing the hope that the “elements
for moderation and reconciliation among those
now in authority may make their sentiments
felt in Burma’s hour of deepest need.”
For a long time, Alexander’s hopes seemed
misplaced. Aung San Suu Kyi remained under
house arrest for 15 of the next 21 years. Even
in her brief periods of relative freedom she
was seriously threatened. It was becoming ever
clearer that her struggle was indeed “one of the
most extraordinary examples of civil courage
in Asia in recent decades.” She was becoming
Asia’s Mandela.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee won-
dered when she would be able to come to Oslo
and give her Nobel Lecture. By going abroad
she would also meet her family again. When
her husband Michael died in 1999 it had been
more than three years since they had last met.
Yet, the Nobel Committee applied absolutely
no pressure on her to come to Oslo. She stated
more than once that, when the time was right,
Norway was the first country she would visit.
The time never seemed right.
In November 2010 Suu Kyi was finally
released from house arrest. In 2011 she held
talks with the government. Many political
prisoners were released; trade unions were
legalized. The country was in serious economic
difficulties, it had become dependent on China
and isolated from the West. No reform was
credible without the release of Aung San Suu
Kyi. The isolated lady had to give her stamp of
approval before contacts with the West could
be resumed.
On June 15, 2012 she finally arrived in Oslo
to give her Nobel Lecture the following day. It
was a special moment for her. It was certainly
a very special moment for the members of the
Norwegian Nobel Committee and for the Nor-
wegian people. She insisted that she had chosen
her course entirely on her own, but “When the
Nobel Committee chose to honour me, the road
I had chosen of my own free will became a less
lonely path to follow. For this I thank the Com-
mittee, the people of Norway and peoples all
over the world whose support has strengthened
my faith in the common quest for peace.”
The struggle in Burma is far from over. The
path towards human rights and democracy is
still not irreversible. But Aung San Suu Kyi has
definitely made the world a better place.
All photos: Sara Johannesen /
Nobels Fredssenter

1 2
The story of
Nobelprize.org
Hans Mehlin was an early user of the World
Wide Web. In the beginning of the 1990s, he
produced online resources as part of a bioinfor-
matics initiative for researchers at Karolinska
Institutet (KI). The Internet, essentially a system
of interconnected computer networks, had
been used at universities and colleges for some
time but was yet to be of major interest to the
general public. To help broaden the appeal of
the web, Mehlin built websites in his spare time
on a variety of topics from literature to art and
music. As a post-doctoral researcher he soon
considered creating a science-related site, and
asked himself, “what could be more interesting
than the Nobel Prize”?
At KI, Mehlin’s workplace neighboured
that of the Nobel Assembly and Professor Nils
Ringertz, secretary of the Nobel Committee for
Physiology or Medicine. During a coffee break,
Mehlin posed the question whether the com-
mittee would consider publishing the upcom-
ing Nobel Prize announcement online. It was
1994, the website was given the green light and
recorded 12,000 hits that year.
Ringertz, who also sat on the Nobel Foun-
dation’s Board of Directors, quickly realised
the site’s potential. By the following year, he
convinced the other prize-awarding institutions
to join in the effort. Press releases announcing
the Nobel Prize in Physics, Chemistry, Litera-
ture and Peace as well as the Economic Sciences
Prize were all published online. The timing in
fact coincided with the centennial of Alfred
Nobel’s writing of his testament.
The team was soon joined by Dr Agneta
Wallin Levinovitz, who currently serves as
Editor-in-Chief and COO at Nobel Media AB.
Together with Ringertz’s secretary, Gudrun
Franzén, they began publishing the biographies
of Nobel Laureates along with illustrated pres-
entations of the work for which Laureates had
been awarded the prize. The project was ini-
tially funded with grants from the Knowledge
Foundation and later from Riksbankens Jubile-
umsfond. Most of the site content was sourced
from Les Prix Nobel, the Nobel Foundation’s
yearbook since 1901, featuring each year’s
prize motivations, award ceremony speeches
along with the Laureates’ Nobel Lectures and
biographies.
“We published ten years’ worth of material
at a time,” explains Wallin Levinovitz. “We
started with the most recent years and worked
backwards.”
The website was being constructed at the
same time as the Nobel Foundation’s board
discussed the possibility of establishing a Nobel
Museum. Ringertz advocated the site as a valu-
able complement to a physical museum – “a place
accessible to all, at all times”. In 1996, the project
was approved as the official website of the Nobel
Foundation, or the ‘Nobel e-Museum’.
In the late 1990s, the prize announcements,
Nobel Lectures and award ceremonies were
It began as a side project at a research institute – two molecular
biologists took on the task of publishing information about the
Nobel Prize on the Internet. Agneta Wallin Levinovitz and Hans
Mehlin tell the story of the first online prize announcement that
lay the groundwork for the official website of the Nobel Prize.
1997
1998
2000

1 3
all broadcast live on the site for the first time.
Mehlin recalls how the images transmitted were
no bigger than a postage stamp; the techni-
cal solutions were far from ideal and Internet
connections were rather slow at the time. Still,
as the number of personal computers increased
worldwide, the number of visitors to the web-
site exceeded 2.5 million in 2000.
The team soon broadened their scope to
reach out to, and inspire a younger audience
through the Nobel Prize. In May 2001, an
educational programme financed by the Knut
and Alice Wallenberg Foundation was launched.
The staff expanded to include educators, writers,
illustrators and experts in interactive technology.
Multidisciplinary teams collaborated to create
teaching tools along with interactive games
based on the awarded work of Nobel Laure-
ates. At the height of the initiative, up to 10–12
educational games were produced each year.
“It’s somewhat unique,” explains Mehlin,
“we created all of the content on the site in-
house, with the exception of one single game.”
Since 2004, the website is called Nobel-
prize.org and is no longer considered the
official site of the Nobel Foundation but that
of the Nobel Prize itself. Working with an
organisation and a brand that has existed
since 1901 – and hopefully far into the future
– involves both technical and content-related
challenges. As Head of Digital Media and
Director of Technology, Mehlin has avoided
fixed solutions that could paint the website into
a corner, favouring the flexibility offered by
open standards and platforms instead. He has
often been quick to adopt new technology that
he considers viable in the long-term.
“One of the reasons for our early success in
handling peaks in visitor traffic was our ability
to quickly scale down the site on our own, dur-
ing prize announcements for example.”
During 2013, the site’s layout will be
revamped to improve navigation using pages
that are more search and filter-driven as well as
device responsive in their design.
Even so, Wallin Levinovitz feels it is difficult
to predict what the Nobelprize.org site will
look like in five to ten years.
“Personally, I believe in a greater spread of
the content. There is less focus on publishing
exclusively on your own site these days, but
rather on allowing content to exist where the
user is. That’s why we’re working on YouTube
with our videos, on the animated educational
site BrainPOP for our games, and through our
social media channels in general.”
Wallin Levinovitz would like to see more
animated explanations of the awarded research.
Greater collaboration with the prize-awarding
institutions might for instance lead to more
interactive prize announcements and further
help visualise the press releases.
When asked about how the website has been
affected by the social media boom, she acknowl-
edges the importance of these new platforms.
“Social media increase dialogue while at
the same time presenting a challenge given that
you don’t know what direction that dialogue
will take. At present the tone of the site is not
sufficiently open. To succeed in broadening
the message about the Nobel Prize, we have
to be willing to take chances and devote more
resources to the task.”
Each year, the editorial team at Nobel-
prize.org receive around 12,000 comments
on the website and more than 50,000 e-mails.
Approximately half of all visitors to Nobelprize.
org come from the USA and one-quarter from
Europe. In recent years, there has been a major
increase in the number of visitors from Asia.
Two decades have passed since the first
Nobel Prize announcement was published
online. The Internet, which was seen back then
as a passing fad for the devoted few, is now an
indispensable part of our everyday lives; and
the Nobel Prize has an important role to play
as a source of inspiration and commitment in
the service of mankind.
2006
2013

1 4
A brief history
of the finances
The capital bequeathed by Alfred Nobel shall be managed in
such a way that the Nobel Prize can be awarded in perpetuity.
For more than a century, this has been one of the Nobel
Foundation’s most important tasks.
In his will, Alfred Nobel wrote that “the capi-
tal, invested in safe securities by my executors,
shall constitute a fund, the interest on which
shall be annually distributed in the form of
prizes to those who, during the preceding year,
shall have conferred the greatest benefit to
mankind.” The wealthy industrialist and inven-
tor left no more guidance than this regarding
the management of the capital he left behind.
Since it was established in 1900, the Nobel
Foundation has been responsible for manag-
ing the capital bequeathed by Nobel. On the
whole, this has worked well; today the Founda-
tion’s invested capital totals SEK 3.1 billion.
The portfolio has retained its value, adjusted
for inflation, and the same is true of the prize
sum. But it has not shown stable performance.
On the contrary, for a long period the portfo-
lio’s performance was quite weak, and dur-
ing the post-war period good periods have
alternated with periods of both stagnation and
declining assets (see Chart 1).
DURING THE PERIOD UNTIL the early 1950s, the
Foundation’s invested capital lost around 60
per cent of its value. This downward trend was
largely due to the Nobel Foundation’s regula-
tions, based on Nobel’s formulation about
“safe securities”. The Foundation invested only
in fixed-interest bonds and loans, which was
obviously a poor strategy in times of inflation.
Another part of the picture was that until 1946
the Nobel Foundation paid taxes; in some
years, the Foundation was one of the largest
taxpayers in Stockholm.
In 1953 the Swedish government approved
amendments to the Statutes of the Nobel
Foundation that opened up the opportunity to
invest in additional asset classes. This included
large-scale investments in the stock market,
in residential properties around Sweden and
in agricultural properties in the area of Lake
Mälaren and province of Småland. The Foun-
dation began investing in the stock market at a
favourable time, and the overall performance
of its fund capital during the 1950s and 60s
was somewhat more successful than previously,
with an annual real return of more than 1 per
cent. By the early 1970s, the portfolio consisted
of about 60 per cent equities and properties.
The 1970s were problematic for all wealth
management in Sweden; weak growth went
hand in hand with high inflation. For the Nobel
Foundation’s fund capital, this meant a slightly
negative performance in real terms. But mean-
while the Foundation implemented a number of
changes that had a positive impact on its fund
capital during the 1980s, when it nearly tripled
in real terms. This success during the 1980s was
largely due to strong stock market growth, but
also to a highly successful property transaction.
In 1987 the large office property holdings that
the Nobel Foundation had purchased in Stock-
holm were combined into a single property
company called Beväringen, which the Founda-
tion sold with a good capital gain shortly before
the big property price slide of the early 1990s.
During the 1990s the Foundation adopted
more modern asset management, based on
newer financial theories and a clearer portfolio
philosophy. Assets were diversified more than
previously, not only among equities, fixed-
income investments and properties in Sweden
but to a large extent also to other countries.
Generally speaking, property holdings were
reduced. Since 1999 the Nobel Foundation has
only owned the two properties where it conducts
its activities in Stockholm and Oslo. Meanwhile,
its stock market holdings were high, at times
exceeding 65 per cent of the portfolio.
The Foundation’s investments in 1990s
were generally very successful, especially
because of strong global growth in share prices.
On average, the portfolio grew by a nominal
8.6 per cent annually during the decade, and
by the turn of the millennium it was three times
larger in real terms than in 1901.
THE PAST DECADE has been more problematic.
Between 2001 and 2011, nominal return aver-

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