FACTBOX - Nobel: the prizes and the man

(Reuters) - A team of stem cell researchers won the 2007 Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology on Monday, taking the first of a series of prizes awarded in October for achievements in literature, economics, sciences and peace.

Swedish businessman and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel set up the prizes awarded each year in his name in his will, which was signed in 1895.

The following are some facts about the man and the prizes:

* THE PRIZES:

-- Nobel said in his will the prizes should be given to people "who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".

-- He ordered that most of his estate of 31 million Swedish crowns (2.34 million pounds) at the time should be converted into a fund and invested in safe securities.

-- The first prizes were awarded in 1901, five years after Nobel's death in San Remo, Italy.

-- His will gave five categories for prizes: physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature and peace. A sixth prize, the Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was instituted in 1968.

-- The winners get 10 million Swedish crowns, either individually or shared, though no more than three people are allowed to share.