The oldest-ever Nobel Prize winner, Leonid Hurwicz, says his age prevents him from travelling to Stockholm in December for the official ceremony. Born in Russia, he now lives in a Minneapolis nursing home.

The 90-year-old received the 2007 prize in Economics, along with two other scientists from the U.S., for their pioneering work enabling trade markets to work more efficiently.

Originally, the Prize for Economics wasn't part of Alfred Nobel's will, but the award is now recognised as being just as prestigious as those for Literature and Physics – and it is worth around $US 1.5 million.

Leonid Hurwicz lives in a nursing home

Leonid Hurwicz’s work on game theory in economics was written four decades ago and he says, he still can't believe it has finally been acknowledged.

“First of all I’m very surprised because I thought that the younger generation doesn’t know about the origins of some of the ideas,” said Mr Hurwicz.

Leonid Hurwicz was born in Moscow, just two months before the October Revolution in 1917. His family originally came from Poland and two years later they decided to return to their homeland.

“When Lenin came to power, my father, who wasn't a pro-Bolshevik, knew that he was potentially in big trouble,” Mr Hurwicz explained.

During World War II, Leonid Hurwicz’s family was persecuted by both the Bolsheviks and the Nazis. He was forced to move to Switzerland, then Portugal – and finally in 1940 he immigrated to the United States.

There Leonid Hurwicz eventually became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1990 received the U.S. National Medal of Science.

Now he lives in a nursing home and says he hasn't yet decided how to spend the money.