10B NobelPrize.org

Task

The Nobel Prize organization provides public APIs for accessing structured Nobel Prize data. Using one or both of the APIs available at the Nobel Prize Developer Zone, your task is to use JSON data to investigate and answer four interesting, data-driven questions.

At least one of your questions should go beyond simple counts and require joining, filtering, or comparing fields across the data (e.g., “Which country lost the most Nobel laureates—born there but awarded as a citizen of another country?”).

Requirements Use one or both Nobel Prize APIs to retrieve data in JSON format.

In R, load and transform the JSON data into tidy data frames.

Formulate four questions that can be answered from the data.

For each question:

Describe the question

Show the code used

Present the answer (table, summary, or plot)

Codebase

library(httr2)
library(jsonlite)
library(tidyverse)

── Attaching core tidyverse packages ──────────────────────── tidyverse 2.0.0 ──
✔ dplyr     1.2.0     ✔ readr     2.2.0
✔ forcats   1.0.1     ✔ stringr   1.6.0
✔ ggplot2   4.0.3     ✔ tibble    3.3.1
✔ lubridate 1.9.5     ✔ tidyr     1.3.2
✔ purrr     1.2.1     
── Conflicts ────────────────────────────────────────── tidyverse_conflicts() ──
✖ dplyr::filter()  masks stats::filter()
✖ purrr::flatten() masks jsonlite::flatten()
✖ dplyr::lag()     masks stats::lag()
ℹ Use the conflicted package (<http://conflicted.r-lib.org/>) to force all conflicts to become errors

library(naniar)
library(lubridate)
library(knitr)

url="https://api.nobelprize.org/2.1/laureates?limit=1000"
# make API request
response<-request(url) %>%
  req_perform()
# Extract JSON response as text
json_data <- resp_body_string(response)
# Parse JSON 
data<-fromJSON(json_data)
# check object type
class(data)

[1] "list"

# Convert the list of elements into a clean tibble
laureates_df <- bind_rows(data$laureates)
class(laureates_df)

[1] "data.frame"

names(laureates_df)

 [1] "id"                "knownName"         "givenName"        
 [4] "familyName"        "fullName"          "fileName"         
 [7] "gender"            "birth"             "wikipedia"        
[10] "wikidata"          "sameAs"            "links"            
[13] "nobelPrizes"       "death"             "orgName"          
[16] "acronym"           "founded"           "nativeName"       
[19] "penName"           "penNameOf"         "foundedCountry"   
[22] "foundedCountryNow" "foundedContinent" 

#clean data frame
clean_df<-laureates_df %>%

  mutate(birth_country     = birth$place$country$en,
         birth_country_now = birth$place$countryNow$en) %>%
  unnest_longer(nobelPrizes)%>%
    unnest_wider(nobelPrizes, names_sep = "_") %>%
    unnest_longer(nobelPrizes_affiliations, keep_empty = TRUE) %>%
  unnest_wider(nobelPrizes_affiliations, names_sep = "_")%>%
  mutate(across(where(is.data.frame), ~ .x$en))%>%
   mutate(nobelPrizes_affiliations_country = map_chr(nobelPrizes_affiliations_country,
                           ~ as.character(unlist(.x))[1])) %>%
  
  
  
  select(id,fullName
,gender, birth_country, birth_country_now,nobelPrizes_awardYear,nobelPrizes_category,nobelPrizes_dateAwarded,nobelPrizes_prizeAmount,nobelPrizes_affiliations_country)

class(clean_df$fullName)

[1] "character"

clean_df

# A tibble: 1,008 × 10
   id    fullName   gender birth_country birth_country_now nobelPrizes_awardYear
   <chr> <chr>      <chr>  <chr>         <chr>             <chr>                
 1 745   A. Michae… male   USA           USA               2001                 
 2 102   Aage Niel… male   Denmark       Denmark           1975                 
 3 779   Aaron Cie… male   British Prot… Israel            2004                 
 4 259   Aaron Klug male   Lithuania     Lithuania         1982                 
 5 1004  Abdulraza… male   <NA>          <NA>              2021                 
 6 114   Abdus Sal… male   India         Pakistan          1979                 
 7 982   Abhijit B… male   India         India             2019                 
 8 981   Abiy Ahme… male   Ethiopia      Ethiopia          2019                 
 9 843   Ada E. Yo… female British Mand… Israel            2009                 
10 866   Adam G. R… male   USA           USA               2011                 
# ℹ 998 more rows
# ℹ 4 more variables: nobelPrizes_category <chr>,
#   nobelPrizes_dateAwarded <chr>, nobelPrizes_prizeAmount <int>,
#   nobelPrizes_affiliations_country <chr>

colSums(is.na(clean_df))

                              id                         fullName 
                               0                               30 
                          gender                    birth_country 
                              30                               33 
               birth_country_now            nobelPrizes_awardYear 
                              33                                0 
            nobelPrizes_category          nobelPrizes_dateAwarded 
                               0                                0 
         nobelPrizes_prizeAmount nobelPrizes_affiliations_country 
                               0                              260 

clean_df

# A tibble: 1,008 × 10
   id    fullName   gender birth_country birth_country_now nobelPrizes_awardYear
   <chr> <chr>      <chr>  <chr>         <chr>             <chr>                
 1 745   A. Michae… male   USA           USA               2001                 
 2 102   Aage Niel… male   Denmark       Denmark           1975                 
 3 779   Aaron Cie… male   British Prot… Israel            2004                 
 4 259   Aaron Klug male   Lithuania     Lithuania         1982                 
 5 1004  Abdulraza… male   <NA>          <NA>              2021                 
 6 114   Abdus Sal… male   India         Pakistan          1979                 
 7 982   Abhijit B… male   India         India             2019                 
 8 981   Abiy Ahme… male   Ethiopia      Ethiopia          2019                 
 9 843   Ada E. Yo… female British Mand… Israel            2009                 
10 866   Adam G. R… male   USA           USA               2011                 
# ℹ 998 more rows
# ℹ 4 more variables: nobelPrizes_category <chr>,
#   nobelPrizes_dateAwarded <chr>, nobelPrizes_prizeAmount <int>,
#   nobelPrizes_affiliations_country <chr>

glimpse(clean_df)

Rows: 1,008
Columns: 10
$ id                               <chr> "745", "102", "779", "259", "1004", "…
$ fullName                         <chr> "A. Michael Spence", "Aage Niels Bohr…
$ gender                           <chr> "male", "male", "male", "male", "male…
$ birth_country                    <chr> "USA", "Denmark", "British Protectora…
$ birth_country_now                <chr> "USA", "Denmark", "Israel", "Lithuani…
$ nobelPrizes_awardYear            <chr> "2001", "1975", "2004", "1982", "2021…
$ nobelPrizes_category             <chr> "Economic Sciences", "Physics", "Chem…
$ nobelPrizes_dateAwarded          <chr> "2001-10-10", "1975-10-17", "2004-10-…
$ nobelPrizes_prizeAmount          <int> 10000000, 630000, 10000000, 1150000, …
$ nobelPrizes_affiliations_country <chr> "USA", "Denmark", "Israel", "United K…

# Since nobelPrizes_awardYear and nobelPrizes_dateAwarded are in chr data types needs to convert it into date 
clean_df <- clean_df %>%
  mutate(nobelPrizes_awardYear = as.integer(nobelPrizes_awardYear))

Q1:Which laureates have won the Nobel Peace Prize?

This question explores the individuals who have received the Nobel Peace Prize from 1901 to 2026.

clean_df %>%
  filter(nobelPrizes_category == "Peace", !is.na(fullName)) %>%
  distinct(fullName, nobelPrizes_awardYear) %>%
  filter(nobelPrizes_awardYear >= 1901) %>%
  arrange(desc(nobelPrizes_awardYear)) %>%   
  kable()

fullName	nobelPrizes_awardYear
Navanethem Navi Pillay	2026
Maria Corina Machado	2025
Narges Mohammadi	2023
Ales Bialiatski	2022
Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov	2021
Maria Ressa	2021
Abiy Ahmed Ali	2019
Denis Mukwege	2018
Nadia Murad Basee Taha	2018
Juan Manuel Santos	2016
Kailash Satyarthi	2014
Malala Yousafzai	2014
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf	2011
Leymah Gbowee	2011
Tawakkol Karman	2011
Liu Xiaobo	2010
Barack Hussein Obama	2009
Martti Ahtisaari	2008
Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr.	2007
Muhammad Yunus	2006
Mohamed ElBaradei	2005
Wangari Muta Maathai	2004
Shirin Ebadi	2003
James Earl Carter	2002
Kofi Atta Annan	2001
Kim Dae-jung	2000
David Trimble	1998
John Hume	1998
Jody Williams	1997
Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo	1996
José Ramos-Horta	1996
Joseph Rotblat	1995
Shimon Peres	1994
Frederik Willem de Klerk	1993
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela	1993
Rigoberta Menchú Tum	1992
Aung San Suu Kyi	1991
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev	1990
The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso)	1989
Oscar Arias Sánchez	1987
Elie Wiesel	1986
Desmond Mpilo Tutu	1984
Lech Wałęsa	1983
Alfonso García Robles	1982
Alva Myrdal	1982
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel	1980
Mother Teresa	1979
Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat	1978
Menachem Begin	1978
Elizabeth Williams	1976
Mairead Corrigan	1976
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov	1975
Eisaku Satō	1974
Seán MacBride	1974
Henry Alfred Kissinger	1973
Le Duc Tho	1973
Norman Ernest Borlaug	1970
René Cassin	1968
Martin Luther King Jr.	1964
Linus Carl Pauling	1962
Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld	1961
Albert John Lutuli	1960
Philip J. Noel-Baker	1959
Georges Pire	1958
Lester Bowles Pearson	1957
George Catlett Marshall	1953
Albert Schweitzer	1952
Léon Jouhaux	1951
Ralph Bunche	1950
John Boyd Orr, Baron Boyd-Orr of Brechin Mearn	1949
Emily Greene Balch	1946
John Raleigh Mott	1946
Cordell Hull	1945
Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood	1937
Carlos Saavedra Lamas	1936
Carl von Ossietzky	1935
Arthur Henderson	1934
Sir Norman Angell (Ralph Lane)	1933
Jane Addams	1931
Nicholas Murray Butler	1931
Lars Olof Jonathan (Nathan) Söderblom	1930
Frank Billings Kellogg	1929
Ferdinand Buisson	1927
Ludwig Quidde	1927
Aristide Briand	1926
Gustav Stresemann	1926
Charles Gates Dawes	1925
Sir Austen Chamberlain	1925
Fridtjof Nansen	1922
Christian Lous Lange	1921
Karl Hjalmar Branting	1921
Léon Victor Auguste Bourgeois	1920
Henri La Fontaine	1913
Elihu Root	1912
Alfred Hermann Fried	1911
Tobias Michael Carel Asser	1911
Auguste Marie François Beernaert	1909
Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet d’Estournelles de Constant, Baron de Constant de Rebecque	1909
Fredrik Bajer	1908
Klas Pontus Arnoldson	1908
Ernesto Teodoro Moneta	1907
Louis Renault	1907
Theodore Roosevelt Jr.	1906
Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner, née Countess Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau	1905
William Randal Cremer	1903
Charles Albert Gobat	1902
Élie Ducommun	1902
Frédéric Passy	1901
Jean Henry Dunant	1901

Above table shows the list of laurates who won the nobel peace prize from year 1901 to 2026. Jean Henry Dunant and Frédéric Passy received the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

Q2 Which country has produced the highest number of Nobel Prize laureates?

nobel_laureates_country<-clean_df%>%
  # prevents counting the same laureate more than once for the same country.
    distinct(id, nobelPrizes_affiliations_country) %>%
    filter(!is.na(nobelPrizes_affiliations_country)) %>%
    count(nobelPrizes_affiliations_country )%>%
    arrange(desc(n))%>%
    slice_head(n = 15)



ggplot(nobel_laureates_country, aes(x =reorder(nobelPrizes_affiliations_country,n) , y =n)) +
  geom_col(fill = "#2b5c8f", width = 0.7) +
  coord_flip()+
  geom_text(aes(label = n), 
          hjust = -0.2,
          size = 3.5)+
labs(
  title = "Top Countries by Number of Nobel Prize Laureates",
  x = "Affiliation Country",
  y = "Number of Nobel Prize Laureates"
) +
  theme_minimal()+
 theme(
    panel.grid.major.y = element_blank(),
    panel.grid.minor = element_blank(),
    plot.title = element_text(face = "bold", size = 14),
    plot.subtitle = element_text(color = "gray30")
  )

USA is the only country that has produced the highest number of Nobel Prize laureates (390) followed by United Kingdom (94), Germany (74). There is a substantial difference between the United States and the other countries. These results may be influenced by the laureates’ Nobel Prize institutional affiliations, as the data reflects the countries where their affiliated institutions are located rather than necessarily their birth countries or nationalities.

Q3 How has the prize amount changed over time?

prize_amount_year<-clean_df%>%
    mutate(nobelPrizes_awardYear = as.numeric(nobelPrizes_awardYear)) %>%
  group_by(nobelPrizes_awardYear)%>%
  summarize(avg_prize_amount = mean(nobelPrizes_prizeAmount, na.rm = TRUE)
)%>%
    arrange(nobelPrizes_awardYear)

ggplot(prize_amount_year,
       aes(x = nobelPrizes_awardYear, y = avg_prize_amount)) +
  geom_line(color = "#2b5c8f", linewidth = 1) +
  geom_point(color = "#2b5c8f", size = 2) +
    scale_x_continuous(breaks = seq(1901, 2026, by = 10)) +

  labs(
    title = "Trends in Nobel Prize Award Amounts Over Time",
    x = "Award Year",
    y = "Average Prize Amount"
  ) +
  theme_minimal()+
  theme(
    axis.text.x = element_text(
      angle = 45,
      hjust = 1,
      size = 8
    )
  )

The average Nobel Prize amount remained relatively stable from 1901 to 1951, followed by a slight increase between 1955 and 1981. From 1981 to 2001, the prize amount increased exponentially. It then remained relatively stable for approximately 10 years before decreasing. After that, it gradually increased again, reaching an average of approximately 12,500,000 in recent years.

Q4 Which country lost the most Nobel laureates—born there but awarded as a citizen of another country?.

country_lost <- clean_df %>%
  filter(
    !is.na(birth_country),
    !is.na(nobelPrizes_affiliations_country),
    birth_country != nobelPrizes_affiliations_country
  ) %>%
  group_by(birth_country) %>%
  summarise(
    n = n_distinct(id),
    affiliation_countries = paste(sort(unique(nobelPrizes_affiliations_country)),
                                  collapse = ", "),
    .groups = "drop"
  ) %>%
  arrange(desc(n))

kable(head(country_lost, 10))

birth_country	n	affiliation_countries
Germany	26	Austria, Canada, France, Israel, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA
United Kingdom	24	Australia, Canada, Switzerland, USA
Canada	14	USA
France	12	Argentina, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, USA
Austria-Hungary	11	Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland, USA
Prussia	11	Germany, USA
Russia	10	Belgium, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA, USSR
Russian Empire	10	Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, USA, USSR
Scotland	9	Canada, United Kingdom, USA
the Netherlands	9	Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA

Germany lost the most Nobel laureates, born there but awarded as a citizen of another country

Conclusion

The USA has the most laureates (390), far ahead of the United Kingdom (94) and Germany (74). The average prize amount stayed low until the mid-1900s, rose sharply from the 1980s, and reached about 12.5 million in recent years. Germany lost the most laureates (26),closely followed by united kingdom (24), most of the countries lost Nobel laureates to USA.

Citaion

Anthropic. (2026). Claude [Large language model]. https://claude.ai/share/754d7628-df31-4840-bab5-0fe0b63787b1