There are all kinds of sensible reasons one can consider for why the Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously. Among them is to ensure that the prestige of the award is provided to the individual who carried out often important and difficult work. It is therefore a sad coincidence that the committee for the Nobel Prize on Physiological Sciences sent the happy message of the award to Ralph Steinman and learned that he passed on a few days prior to the announcement.
Certainly a well-deserved prize and his name goes to the record of winners except that the repository of the award will not have his lecture for the prize. Congratulations are due to Ralph Steinman as this statement confirms that in spite of his demise, he reamins a winner.
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