work involved in collecting nominations and screening nominees is performed by the nobel committee at the karolinska institute, which has five members. the nobel committee, which is appointed by the nobel assembly, is only empowered to recommend laureates, while the final decision rests with the nobel assembly. in the early history of the nobel prize in physiology or medicine, which was first awarded in 1901, the laureates were decided upon by the entire faculty of the karolinska institute. the reason for creating a special body for the decisions concerning the nobel prize was the fact that the karolinska institute is a state-run university, which in turn means that it is subject to various laws that apply to government agencies in sweden and similar swedish public sector organisations, such as freedom of information legislation. by moving the actual decision making to a private body at karolinska institute (but not part of it), it is possible to follow the regulations for the nobel prize set down by the nobel foundation, including keeping the confidentiality of all documents and proceedings for a minimum of 50 years. also, the legal possibility of contesting the decisions in e.g. administrative courts is removed. the other two nobel prize-awarding bodies in sweden, the royal swedish academy of sciences and the swedish academy, are legally private organisations (although enjoying royal patronage), and have therefore not had to make any special arrangements to be able to follow the nobel foundation's regulations. notable alumni or faculty jöns jacob berzelius carl gustaf mosander karolina widerström pehr edman ivar wickman nanna svartz ulf von euler herbert olivecrona ragnar granit hugo theorell sune bergström torsten wiesel tomas lindahl ewa björling lennart nilsson johan harmenberg jöns jakob berzelius (1779–1848; professor at ki), invented modern chemical notation and is considered one of the fathers of modern chemistry; discoverer of the elements silicon, selenium, thorium, and cerium carl gustaf mosander (1792–1858; student of chemist jöns jacob berzelius, his successor 1836), chemist, discoverer of the elements lanthanum, erbium and terbium. axel key (1832–1901), pathologist, rector 1886–1897, founder of what would become the journal of internal medicine gustaf retzius (1842–1919), anatomist (professor 1877–1890) karl oskar medin (1847–1928), paediatrician, famous for his study of poliomyelitis (professor 1883–1914) wilhelm netzel (1834–1914), swedish researcher, gynecologist and obstetrician ivar wickman (1872–1914), pediatrician, pupil of medin, polio expert göran liljestrand (1886–1968), physiologist and pharmacologist nanna svartz (1890–1986), first female professor at karolinska institute and, as a result, the first woman to be appointed professor at a public university in sweden ever; researcher in gastrointestinal diseases and rheumatologist ulf von euler (1905–1983), physiologist, nobel laureate in physiology or medicine in 1970 herbert olivecrona (1891–1980), founder of swedish neurosurgery ragnar granit (1900–1991), nobel laureate in physiology or medicine in 1967 hugo theorell (1903–1982), nobel laureate in physiology or medicine in 1955 lars leksell (1907–1986), physician, inventor of radiosurgery and the gamma knife sune bergström (1916–2004), nobel laureate in physiology or medicine in 1982 (with bengt i. samuelsson and john robert vane) pehr edman (1916–1977), chemist (med. dr 1946). cf. edman degradation sven ivar seldinger (1921–1998), radiologist, inventor of the seldinger technique torsten wiesel (born 1924), nobel laureate in physiology or medicine in 1981 carl-gustav groth (1933–2014), pioneer of organ transplantation bengt i. samuelsson (born 1934), nobel laureate in physiology or medicine in 1982 (with sune bergström and john robert vane) tomas lindahl, nobel laureate in chemistry in 2015 (with paul modrich and aziz sancar), cancer researcher and winner of the royal medal lennart nilsson (1922–2017), computational biologist, photojournalist, and emmy-award-winning documentarian johan harmenberg (born 1954), olympic champion épée fencer