1. Each year the respective committees send individual invitations to thousands of scientists, members of academies and university professors in numerous countries, asking them to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prizes for the coming year. Those who are competent to submit nominations are chosen in such a way that as many countries and universities as possible will be represented.

2. These prize nominations must reach the respective Nobel Committees of the Prize Awarding Institutions before February 1 of the year for which the nomination is being made.

3. The nominations received by each committee are then evaluated with the help of specially appointed experts. When the committees have made their selection among the nominated candidates and have presented their recommendations to the Prize Awarding Institutions, a vote is taken for the final choice of Laureates.

4. The choice of the year's Laureates is announced immediately after the vote in October each year.

5. The prizes are awarded at the Prize Award Ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10 (the Anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death). The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on the same day at the City Hall in Oslo, Norway.

The procedure to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prizes varies somewhat among the Prize Awarding Institutions.

Excerpts from the Special Regulations on the awarding of Nobel Prizes:

Physics

(The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)

Invitations to nominate are sent to:

1. Swedish and foreign members of the Academy of Sciences;

2. Members of the Nobel Committees for Physics and Chemistry;

3. Scientists who have been awarded the Prize by the Academy of Sciences;

4. Permanent and assistant professors in the sciences of Physics and Chemistry at the universities and institutes of technology of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway, and Karolinska Institutet;

5. Holders of corresponding chairs in at least six universities or university colleges selected by the Academy of Sciences with a view to ensuring the appropriate distribution over the different countries and their seats of learnings; and

6. Other scientists from whom the Academy may see fit to invite proposals.

Decisions as to the selection of the teachers and scientists referred to in paragraphs 5 and 6 above shall be taken each year before the end of the month of September.