An intensely private South African writer, scientists whose research has helped develop magnetic resonance imaging and researchers who uncovered secrets of human cells were being honored at the Nobel Prize awards ceremony.
Ten laureates were set to accept the prestigious awards in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics yesterday from King Carl XVI Gustaf, the Swedish monarch.
The peace prize was being awarded in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, in line with the will of Alfred Nobel.
Each prize carries a cash award of 10 million kronor (nearly US$1.4 million).
According to tradition, the awards ceremony at Stockholm's concert hall was to be followed by a banquet a few blocks away at City Hall.
More than 1,300 guests, including the laureates' families, Sweden's royal family, government officials, ambassadors, scientists and business leaders, were invited to the exclusive dinner, which was to be broadcast live on Swedish television.
J.M. Coetzee, 63, was to receive the literature prize, the second South African to pick up the award after Nadine Gordimer, who won in 1991. Coetzee is a solitary figure, who rarely communicates with the media and prefers doing so by e-mail. He declined to show up to collect his two Booker prizes in Britain, but was in Stockholm to accept the Nobel, although he passed on the traditional news conference.
The Swedish Academy called Coetzee "a scrupulous doubter, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of Western civilization." It also cited his "well-crafted composition, pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance" in more than a dozen novels, including Disgrace, Life and Times of Michael K., Waiting for the Barbarians and Age of Iron.
American Paul Lauterbur and Briton Peter Mansfield were selected for the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology for discoveries leading to magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, the body-scanning technique that has revolutionized the detection of disease.
It was the most controversial among this year's science awards. An American researcher, Raymond Damadian, said he was unfairly left out and tried to sway the award committee with newspaper advertisements in both the US and Sweden explaining why he should have won.
However, the secretive Nobel committee did not budge and said its reasoning might become clearer when the selection proceedings are made public -- in 2053.
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