--- title: A Posthumous Nobel Prize in Medicine Will Be Awarded to Ralph A. Steinman, Who Died Days Before the Announcement description: (Updated) Immunologist Ralph M. Steinman was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for his discoveries about the human body's immune system — research... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7140321/will-ralph-steinmans-nobel-prize-stick/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2011-10-03T17:30:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T10:46:55.124Z article:section: Health og:title: A Posthumous Nobel Prize in Medicine Will Be Awarded to Ralph A. Steinman, Who Died Days Before the Announcement og:description: (Updated) Immunologist Ralph M. Steinman was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for his discoveries about the human body's immune system — research... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7140321/will-ralph-steinmans-nobel-prize-stick/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66270822078fd9d7/698a942d457a528330d708c8/steinman.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 307 og:image:height: 173 og:image:alt: steinman og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Posthumous Nobel Prize in Medicine Will Be Awarded to Ralph A. Steinman, Who Died Days Before the Announcement twitter:description: (Updated) Immunologist Ralph M. Steinman was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for his discoveries about the human body's immune system — research... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66270822078fd9d7/698a942d457a528330d708c8/steinman.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Nobel Winner Ralph Steinman Will Retain His Prize > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. 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It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=b2a8a814-b7e2-44cd-ba6a-576b69c0a2de&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Oct 3, 2011 5:30 PM UTC  Ralph M. Steinman Ralph M. Steinman Copyright © 2007, The Rockefeller University Press by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Oct 3, 2011 5:30 PM UTC **(Updated)** Immunologist Ralph M. Steinman was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for his discoveries about the human body’s immune system — research that had for years extended the scientist’s own life in a battle against an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. Hours after the Nobel committee’s [announcement](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel%5Fprizes/medicine/laureates/2011/) of the prize, however, Steinman’s university [said](http://newswire.rockefeller.edu/?page=engine&id=1192) that the researcher had succumbed to cancer. He died on Sept. 30 at age 68.more Steinman shared the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) prize with American Bruce A. Beutler and French scientist Jules A. Hoffmann, who were also acknowledged for their work on the immune system. But the Nobel committee [said it was not aware of Steinman’s death](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/beutler-hoffmann-steinman-share-nobel-medicine-prize/2011/10/03/gIQARZUOHL%5Fstory.html) at the time of its announcement, and it was initially unclear whether the prize would be rescinded. The Nobel statutes do not allow posthumous awards. “I think you can safely say that this hasn’t happened before,” Nobel Foundation spokeswoman Annika Pontikis [told](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/beutler-hoffmann-steinman-share-nobel-medicine-prize/2011/10/03/gIQARZUOHL%5Fstory.html) the AP. **Update \[3 p.m.\]:** After a review of its regulations, the Nobel Foundation [announced](http://www.nobelprize.org/press/nobelfoundation/press%5Freleases/2011/steinman.html) that it would allow Steinman to retain the award. “The decision to award the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to the late Ralph Steinman shall remain unchanged,” the foundation said, noting that while the Nobel Prize may not deliberately be given posthumously, “The decision to award the Nobel Prize to Ralph Steinman was made in good faith, based on the assumption that the Nobel Laureate was alive.” The current rules, which have been in place since 1974, stipulate that “work produced by a person since deceased shall not be given an award” and further that Nobel Prizes “cannot be awarded posthumously, unless death has occurred after the announcement.” (In 1996, this situation applied to William Vickrey, who died days after the announcement that he had won the Nobel Prize in economics.) Before 1974, two Nobel Prizes were given posthumously: the Nobel Peace Prize went to U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold in 1961 less than a month after he died in a plane crash during a peace mission to Congo. Previously, in 1931, the Nobel Prize in literature was awarded to Swedish poet Erik Axel Karlfeldt who had died in March of the same year. In the late Steinman’s case, the Nobel Foundation concluded that “what has occurred is more reminiscent of the example in the statutes concerning a person who has been named as a Nobel Laureate and has died before the actual Nobel Prize Award Ceremony.” The news will be well received by many fellow scientists and supporters who do not question that Steinman’s award is richly deserved. Steinman, who was a senior physician and the Henry G. Kunkel Professor of medicine at Rockefeller University, is credited with co-discovering dendritic cells, which help regulate the body’s adaptive immunity. According to the Nobel Assembly’s [press release](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel%5Fprizes/medicine/laureates/2011/press.html): --- > “” --- Steinman’s work, along with the research conducted by his fellow winners, Hoffmann and Beutler — they discovered receptor proteins that recognize bacteria and other microorganisms as they enter the body and activate the body’s innate immunity, the immune system’s first line of defense — “have made possible the development of new methods for preventing and treating disease, for instance with improved vaccines against infections and in attempts to stimulate the immune system to attack tumors. “These discoveries also help us understand why the immune system can attack our own tissues, thus providing clues for novel treatment of inflammatory diseases,” the Nobel Assembly said. _Meredith Melnick is a reporter at_ TIME_. Find her on Twitter at_ [_@MeredithCM_](http://twitter.com/#%21/MeredithCM)_. You can also continue the discussion on_ TIME’s[_Facebook page_](http://www.facebook.com/time) _and on Twitter at_ [_@TIME_](http://twitter.com/#%21/TIME)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7140321/will-ralph-steinmans-nobel-prize-stick/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7140321/will-ralph-steinmans-nobel-prize-stick/"},"headline":"Nobel Winner Ralph Steinman Will Retain His Prize","datePublished":"2011-10-03T17:30:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T10:46:55.124Z","description":"(Updated) Immunologist Ralph M. 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