Nobel FoundationNobel Conference

The first ongoing educational conference in the United States to have the official authorization of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, the Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota, links a general audience with the world's foremost scholars and researchers in conversations centered on contemporary issues related to the natural and social sciences.

Gustavus Adolphus College was founded by Swedish immigrants in 1862. Throughout its history, it has continued to honor its Swedish heritage and its commitment to excellence in education. As the College prepared to build a new science hall in the early 1960s, College officials asked the Nobel Foundation for permission to name the building the Alfred Nobel Hall of Science as a memorial to the great Swedish inventor and philanthropist. Permission was granted, and the facility's dedication ceremony in 1963 included officials from the Nobel Foundation as well as 26 Nobel laureates.

Following the 1963 Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm, College representatives met with Nobel Foundation officials, asking them to endorse an annual science conference at the College and to allow use of the Nobel name to establish credibility and high standards. At the urging of several prominent Nobel laureates, the foundation granted the request., and the first conference was held at the College in January 1965.

For four decades, world-class research scientists and scholars have come together to discuss leading topics in science with audiences of thousands.