[3] It also holds Nobel Symposia on important breakthroughs in science and topics of cultural or social significance.

He owned Bofors, a major armaments manufacturer, which he had redirected from its original business as an iron and steel mill.

[4] In 1896 Nobel died of a stroke[5] in his villa in San Remo, Italy where he had lived his final years.

[6][7][8] Nobel's will expressed a request, to the surprise of many,[7] that his money be used for prizes in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine and literature.

[8][9] Though Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime, the last was written a little over a year before he died, and signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895.

The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and 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 on mankind.

The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting.

[7][14][15] As of 31 December 2020, the assets controlled by the Nobel Foundation amounted to 5.2 billion Swedish kronor (approx.

[7][13] In 1905 the Union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved which meant the responsibility for awarding Nobel Prizes was split between the two countries.

[13][21] The Nobel Foundation invests money to maintain a funding base for the prizes and the administrative activities.

"[25] The symposia has covered topics such as prostaglandins, chemical kinetics, diabetes mellitus, string theory, cosmology, and the Cold War in the 1980s.