The 2004 Nobel Prizes were awarded by the Nobel Foundation, based in Sweden. Six categories were awarded: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences.
Nobel Week took place from December 6 to 12, including programming such as lectures, dialogues, and discussions. The award ceremony and banquet for the Peace Prize were scheduled in Oslo on December 10, while the award ceremony and banquet for all other categories were scheduled for the same day in Stockholm.
Controversies.
Peace.
Maathai was criticized for her past comments—reported by the Kenyan newspaper "The Standard" and Radio Free Europe—stating that HIV/AIDS was developed by western scientists and unleashed upon Africa. Maathai denied having stated them, though "The Standard" stood by its reporting, and Maathai later hinted in a "Time" interview that she believed HIV had a non-natural origin, saying that someone knows where it came from and that it "did not come from monkeys".
Literature.
Shortly before the 2005 Nobel Prizes, Nobel Foundation member Knut Ahnlund resigned and stated publicly that Jelinek's awarding of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature "caused irreparable harm to the value for the foreseeable future" due to Jelinek's "whingeing, unenjoyable, and violent pornography" in her work. Academy head Horace Engdahl later stated that Ahnlund's activity in the academy during and prior to the decision of Jilenek's awarding was minimal and that he thus hadn't been a part of prize deliberations whatsoever.