2008 Nobel Prizes awarded

A general view of the Nobel Prize awards ceremony in the concert hall in Stockholm, Sweden, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008. Nobel laureates are seated at left, Swedish Royal family and nobilities at right. Amid royal pomp and circumstance, Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf handed out the prestigious 10 million kronor ($1.2 million) awards in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and economics at a ceremony in Stockholm. (AP photo/Scanpix, Anders Wiklund)

U.S. economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, left, laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, receives his medal and diploma from Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf, right, during the Nobel Prize awards ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008. Amid royal pomp and circumstance, Sweden's King handed out the prestigious 10 million kronor (USD1.2 million) awards in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and economics at a ceremony in Stockholm. (AP Photo/Scanpix Sweden, Anders Wiklund)

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland, waves from a balcony to a crowd marching past the Norwegian parliament with torches in his honor, in Oslo, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008. Finnish mediator Martti Ahtisaari accepted this year's Nobel Peace Prize with a plea to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama: Waste no time getting involved in the Middle East conflict. (AP Photo/Odd Andersen)

French researcher Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, left, co-laureate for the Nobel Prize in medicine, is seen after receiving her medal and diploma from Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf, right, during the Nobel Prize awards ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008. Amid royal pomp and circumstance, Sweden's King handed out the prestigious 10 million kronor (USD1.2 million) awards in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and economics at a ceremony in Stockholm. (AP Photo/Scanpix Sweden, Fredrik Sandberg)

Japan's Makoto Kobayashi, left, and Toshihide Maskawa, center, co-laureates of the Nobel Prize in physics, and Japan's Osamu Shimomura, right, co-laureate of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, pose for photographers with their medals during the Nobel Prize awards ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008. Amid royal pomp and circumstance, Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf handed out the prestigious 10 million kronor (USD1.2 million) awards in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and economics at a ceremony in Stockholm. (AP Photo/Scanpix Sweden, Fredrik Sandberg)

STOCKHOLM, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Ten winners of the 2008 Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and economics received their prizes on Wednesday at a ceremony in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.

American professor Ylichiro Nambu, one of the Nobel Physics Prize winners, is absent from the ceremony for his 87-year-old advanced age. Marcus Storch, chairman of the Board of the Nobel Foundation, sent the "warmest regards" to Nambu in his opening address.

Storch expressed a very warm welcome in his address to the laureates and their families to the ceremony in honor of the laureates and their contributions to science and literature.

Storch emphasized the importance of knowledge and the contributions made by universities. He said the basis of all human development was knowledge and the most important contributions came from universities.

The laureates that attended the ceremony are two Nobel Physics winners Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa, three Nobel Chemistry Prize winners Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien, three Nobel Medicine Prize winners Harald zur Hausen, Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, Nobel Literature Prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, and Nobel Economics Prize winner Paul Krugman.

They were awarded their Nobel Prizes by the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf before a large audience. Each prize consists of a medal, a personal diploma and a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (about 1.2 million U.S. dollars).

The Nobel Prize laureates will also attend a gala banquet a few blocks away at the Stockholm city hall after the ceremony.

Earlier on Wednesday in the Norwegian capital Oslo, former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari received the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize at a grand ceremony for "his important efforts to resolve international conflicts on several continents and over more than three decades."

The Nobel Prizes are usually announced in October and are handed out every year on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite.