I've always thought Nobel prizes are awarded based on the winners' works in that particular year so this came as huge surprise.
Too late for Hawking indeed, he could've very well been one of the winners today.
Too late for Hawking indeed, he could've very well been one of the winners today.
However, the Nobel committee's rules can be considered archaic to a fault: 3 winners at most, all winners must be living at the time of the award.
If you want an egregious example of exclusion, look at the 2013 Nobel prize for the discovery of the Higgs boson. The prize was given to Higgs and Englert [0], but by any measure it should have been awarded to the five living scientists who made the discovery [1].
Was there really any reason to exclude Guralnik, Hagen and Kibble, who were all alive at the time of the award, other than a strict adherence to the "rule of three"?
[0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20131008193310/http://www.nobelp...
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_PRL_symmetry_breaking_pap...