How does one get nominated for a Nobel?

The nomination processes start in September each year. Each year, thousands of members of academies, university professors, scientists, former Nobel Prize laureates and members of parliamentary assemblies are asked to submit candidates for the Nobel Prizes for the coming year. These nominators are chosen in such a way that as many countries and universities as possible are represented over time. Nominations must be submitted by 31 January of the award year. 

The Nobel Committee nominates approximately 300 potential laureates based on these forms and any additional names that may come up during the process. The nominees are unaware that they are being considered for the Nobel Prize, and no one can nominate themselves. The names of the nominees cannot be revealed until 50 years later. 

As posthumous nominations are not currently accepted under the prize terms, nominations must take place during an individual's lifetime. After receiving all nominations, the Nobel Committees of the four prize awarding institutions are responsible for the selection of the candidates. 

The Nobel Prize has its fair share of controversy. On some occasions there has even been strong criticism against the Norwegian Nobel Committee itself and the way its members are selected. Over the years some shocking names have made their way to the list of nominees. Here we take a look at couple of shocking Nobel Prize Nominees:  

Two shocking nominations: Hitler and Milošević

In 1939, Adolph Hitler was nominated for the Nobel Prize for peace. The Nazi leader was nominated by a member of the Swedish parliament named EGC Brandt.

Soon after, Erik Brandt explained that the nomination of Hitler was meant to be ironic. The nomination of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for the Nobel Peace Prize by twelve Swedish members of parliament provoked him to nominate Hitler as a provocation against Hitler and Nazism. 

Brandt believed that the western powers stabbed Czechoslovakia in the back by handing over Sudetenland to achieve peace. He was of the opinion neither Chamberlain nor Hitler deserved a Peace Prize. However, Brandt's satirical intentions were not well received at all and the nomination was swiftly withdrawn in a letter dated 1 February 1939.

Slobodan Milošević

Slobodan Milosevic was President of Serbia from 1989 to 1996 and then President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1996 to 2000. He was a leader in the Balkan Wars and was considered to be responsible for some of the atrocities of the Bosnian genocide. 

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded that Milošević and others in Serbia had violated the Genocide Convention by failing to prevent the Bosnian genocide from occurring, by not cooperating with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in punishing its perpetrators.

The ICTY and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals also found that he was a part of a joint criminal enterprise which used violence to remove Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians from large parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo.

Yet in 2000, the disgraced leader was nominated for the Nobel Prize by parliamentary deputies in Belgrade for "his political sagacity and courage which have safeguarded the integrity" of the country and "prevented war on a huge scale with unmeasurable consequences for Europe and the entire planet."