The 1962 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Linus Carl Pauling, of the United States, for his campaign against nuclear weapons testing. In 1954 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, making him the only person to win two undivided Nobel Prizes. In his Nobel lecture he predicted: “We, you and I, are privileged to be alive during this extraordinary age, this unique epoch in the history of the world, the epoch of demarcation between the past millennia of war and suffering, and the future, the great future of peace, justice, morality, and human well-being.”
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes created by the Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel. Since 1901 it has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses” Over the next few months we’ll be introducing you to the past Nobel laureates, leading up to the award of the 2016 prize in October.
