I am serving my ninth and final year in the Nobel Committee for Physics, which is an absolutely fascinating job – albeit hard. The best bit is hearing the reactions of the shocked laureates when they receive some of the biggest news of their lives over the phone.

Sometimes, I also give presentations about how Nobel laureates are selected. This can be in front of participants in a Nobel symposium, or in front of a high school class. And I have noticed that, while the topic tends to generate great interest, the process is poorly understood.

Explaining how the laureates are selected isn’t entirely straightforward, however – there are strict rules of secrecy. I have to rely on material taken from the official website of the Nobel prize on the one hand, and case studies that are older than 50 years and therefore no longer secret on the other.

The Nobel Committee consists of about six to eight members appointed by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The work to select a prize is divided into three parts. The first and very important part is the nominations. The committee sends out about 3,000 letters to researchers all over the world each September and October asking for nominations, with a deadline of January 31 the following year.

The list of nominees is regulated so that certain people are always consulted, including former Nobel laureates, professors of physics in the Nordic countries, and members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Then there is quite a large other group of people who are invited to make nominations but only for a few years at a time, so this part of the process is rotated regularly. Finally, many universities are asked to consult some faculty for their nomination, and once again the universities are rotated.