Features biographical sketches of all the laureates of the period, including accounts of the work that won them the prize. Also contains a list of winners by prize category and year, 1901-2001, a list by country of residence, 1901-2001, and a list of prized winners who have died since the last supplment along with essays on Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize and Nobel institutions.

List of Nobel Prize winners, 1997-2001 -- Nobel Prize winners by prize category and year, 1901-2001 -- Nobel Prize winners by country of residence, 1901-2001 -- Nobel Prize winners who have died since last supplement -- Preface -- Essay on Alfred Nobel -- The Nobel Prizes and Nobel institutions. Biographical sketches : George A. Akerlof -- Zhores I. Alferov -- Kofi Annan -- Günter Blobel -- Paul D. Boyer -- Arvid Carlsson -- Steven Chu -- Claude Cohen-Tannoudji -- Eric A. Cornell -- Doctors Without Borders -- Dario Fo -- Robert Furchgott -- Gao Xingjian -- Günter Grass -- Paul Greengard -- Leland H. Hartwell -- James Heckman -- Alan J. Heeger -- John Hume -- R. Timothy Hunt -- Louis J. Ignarro -- Eric R. Kandel -- Wolfgang Ketterle -- Jack St. Clair Kilby -- Kim Dae Jung -- William S. Knowles -- Walter Kohn -- Herbert Kroemer -- Robert B. Laughlin -- Alan G. MacDiarmid -- Daniel McFadden -- Robert C. Merton -- Robert Mundell -- Ferid Murad -- V.S. Naipaul -- Ryoji Noyori -- Paul Nurse -- William D. Phillips -- John A. Pople -- Stanley Prusiner -- José Saramago -- Myron S. Scholes -- Amartya Kumar Sen -- K. Barry Sharpless -- Hideki Shirakawa -- Jens C. Skou -- A. Michael Spence -- Joseph E. Stiglitz -- Horst L. Störmer -- Gerardus 't Hooft -- David Trimble -- Daniel Chee Tsui -- United Nations -- Martinus J.G. Veltman -- John E. Walker -- Carl Wieman -- Jody Williams and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines -- Ahmed H. Zewail.