HomeAward WinnersList Of All Nobel Prize Winners In Physics (2024 Updated)
List Of All Nobel Prize Winners In Physics (2024 Updated)
Last Updated: 5 March 2024
Before we get into the list of Nobel Prizes in Physics, let’s have a quick intro about the Prize.
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded every year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of physics.
Nobel Prize in Physics is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel who died in 1896, awarded for outstanding contributions to Physics. As dictated by Nobel’s will, the award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The award is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel’s death. Each recipient receives a Medal, a Diploma, and a Monetary Award Prize that has varied throughout the years.
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Interesting Facts About Nobel Prize Winners In Physics
The Nobel Prize medals in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, And Physiology or Medicine are identical on the face. It shows the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death (1833-1896).
The first Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in 1901 to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, of Germany, who received 150,782 SEK.
In 1902, 2 Recipients received the Nobel Prize Award namely Hendrik Lorentz and Pieter Zeeman while in 1903, 3 Recipients received the Nobel Prize namely Antoine Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, and Marie Skłodowska-Curie.
Nobel Prize in Physics hasn’t been awarded to more than 3 Individuals in a particular year to date.
John Bardeen is the only laureate to win the prize twice in 1956 and 1972 while Marie Skłodowska-Curie also won two Nobel Prizes, for physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911.
William Lawrence Bragg is the youngest ever Nobel laureate who won the prize in 1915 at the age of 25.
Four women have won the Nobel Prize in Physics: Marie Skłodowska-Curie (1903), Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1963), Donna Strickland (2018), and Andrea Ghez (2020).
Nobel Prize Award in Physics has been awarded to 222 Individuals between 1901 to 2022 (121 Years).
Nobel Prize in Physics was not awarded for a total of 6 Years; 1916 was the first year the Nobel Prize on Physics was not given due to World War I than 1931 and 1934; It was also not given in 1940, 1941, and 1942 due to World War II.
Arthur Ashkin is the oldest Nobel Prize Laureate who received the Nobel Prize in Physics at the age of 96 in 2018.
47 physics prizes have been given to one laureate only, 32 physics prizes have been shared by two laureates and 36 physics prizes have been shared between three laureates.
There have been no posthumous Nobel Prizes in Physics.
List of Nobel Prize in Physics that have been awarded to Father and Son
William Bragg (1915) and Lawrence Bragg (1915)
Niels Bohr (1922) and Aage N. Bohr (1975)
Manne Siegbahn (1924) and Kai M. Siegbahn (1981)
J. J. Thomson (1906) and George Paget Thomson (1937)
Here is the list of Nobel Prize Winners In Physics from 1901 to 2022.
Nobel Prize Winners (2020-2029)
2023
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Anne L’Huillier
France
Experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter
2
Ferenc Krausz
Hungary + Austria
Experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter
3
Pierre Agostini
France
Experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter
2022
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Alain Aspect
France
Experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science
2
John Clauser
United States
Experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science
3
Anton Zeilinger
Austria
Experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science
2021
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Syukuro Manabe
Japan + United States
Physical modeling of Earth’s climate Quantifying variability Reliably predicting global warming
2
Klaus Hasselmann
Germany
Physical modeling of Earth’s climate Quantifying variability Reliably predicting global warming
3
Giorgio Parisi
Italy
Discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales
2020
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Roger Penrose
United Kingdom
Discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity
2
Reinhard Genzel
Germany
Discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy
3
Andrea Ghez
United States
Discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy
Discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star
3
Didier Queloz
Switzerland
Discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star
2018
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Arthur Ashkin
United States
Groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics (In particular for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems)
2
Gérard Mourou
France
Groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics (In particular for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses)
3
Donna Strickland
Canada
Groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics (In particular for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses)
2017
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Rainer Weiss
Germany + United States
Decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves
2
Kip Thorne
United States
Decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves
3
Barry Barish
United States
Decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves
2016
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
David J. Thouless
United Kingdom
Theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter
2
F. Duncan M. Haldane
United Kingdom + Slovenia
Theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter
3
John M. Kosterlitz
United Kingdom + United States
Theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter
2015
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Takaaki Kajita
Japan
Discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass
2
Arthur B. McDonald
Canada
Discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass
2014
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Isamu Akasaki
Japan
The invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources
2
Hiroshi Amano
Japan
The invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources
3
Shuji Nakamura
Japan + United States
The invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources
2013
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
François Englert
Belgium
Theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider
2
Peter Higgs
United Kingdom
Theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider
2012
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Serge Haroche
France
Ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems
2
David J. Wineland
United States
Ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems
2011
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Saul Perlmutter
United States
Discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae
2
Brian P. Schmidt
Australia + United States
Discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae
3
Adam G. Riess
United States
Discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae
2010
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Andre Geim
Russia + United Kingdom + Netherlands
Groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene
2
Konstantin Novoselov
Russia + United Kingdom
Groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene
Elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics
2
Martinus J. G. Veltman
Netherlands
Elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics
1998
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Robert B. Laughlin
United States
Discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations
2
Horst Ludwig Störmer
Germany
Discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations
3
Daniel Chee Tsui
Republic of China + United States
Discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations
1997
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Steven Chu
United States
Development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light
2
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji
France
Development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light
3
William Daniel Phillips
United States
Development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light
1996
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
David Morris Lee
United States
Discovery of superfluidity in helium-3
2
Douglas D. Osheroff
United States
Discovery of superfluidity in helium-3
3
Robert Coleman Richardson
United States
Discovery of superfluidity in helium-3
1995
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Martin Lewis Perl
United States
Discovery of the Tau Lepton and pioneering experimental contributions to Lepton Physics
2
Frederick Reines
United States
Detection of the neutrino and pioneering experimental contributions to Lepton Physics
1994
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Bertram Brockhouse
Canada
Development of neutron spectroscopy and pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter
2
Clifford Glenwood Shull
United States
Development of the neutron diffraction technique and pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter
1993
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Russell Alan Hulse
United States
Discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation
2
Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr.
United States
Discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation
1992
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Georges Charpak
France Poland
Invention and development of particle detectors, in particular, the multiwire proportional chamber
1991
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes
France
Discovering that methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalized to more complex forms of matter, in particular to liquid crystals and polymers
1990
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Jerome I. Friedman
United States
Pioneering investigations concerning the deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics
2
Henry Way Kendall
United States
Pioneering investigations concerning the deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics
3
Richard E. Taylor
Canada
Pioneering investigations concerning the deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics
Contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current
2
Abdus Salam
Pakistan
Contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current
3
Steven Weinberg
United States
Contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current
1978
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa
Soviet Union
Basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics
2
Arno Allan Penzias
United States
Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation
3
Robert Woodrow Wilson
United States
Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation
1977
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Philip Warren Anderson
United States
Fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems
2
Nevill Francis Mott
United Kingdom
Fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems
3
John Hasbrouck Van Vleck
United States
Fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems
1976
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Samuel Chao Chung Ting
Republic of China + United States
Pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind
2
Burton Richter
United States
Pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind
1975
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Aage Bohr
Denmark
Discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection
2
Ben Roy Mottelson
Denmark
Discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection
3
Leo James Rainwater
United States
Discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection
1974
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Martin Ryle
United Kingdom
Pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars
2
Antony Hewish
United Kingdom
Pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars
1973
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Leo Esaki
Japan
Experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively
2
Ivar Giaever
United States + Norway
Experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively
3
Brian David Josephson
United Kingdom
Theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular, those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effect
1972
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
John Bardeen
United States
Developed theory of superconductivity usually called the BCS-theory
2
Leon Neil Cooper
United States
Developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory
3
John Robert Schrieffer
United States
Developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory
1971
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Dennis Gabor
Hungary + United Kingdom
Invention and development of the holographic method
1970
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén
Sweden
Fundamental work and discoveries in magneto-hydrodynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics
2
Louis Néel
France
Fundamental work and discoveries concerning antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism which have led to important applications in solid-state physics
Contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions
1968
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Luis Walter Alvarez
United States
Decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the technique of using a hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis
1967
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Hans Albrecht Bethe
United States + West Germany
Contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars
1966
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Alfred Kastler
France
Discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms
1965
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Richard Phillips Feynman
United States
Fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles
2
Julian Schwinger
United States
Fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles
3
Shin’ichirō Tomonaga
Japan
Fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles
1964
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov
Soviet Union
Fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser–laser principle
2
Alexander Prokhorov
Soviet Union
Fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser–laser principle
3
Charles Hard Townes
United States
Fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser–laser principle
1963
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Eugene Paul Wigner
Hungary + United States
Contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles
2
Maria Goeppert-Mayer
Germany + United States
Discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure
3
J. Hans D. Jensen
West Germany
Discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure
1962
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Lev Davidovich Landau
Soviet Union
Pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium
1961
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Robert Hofstadter
United States
Pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons
2
Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer
West Germany
Research concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name
Prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces
1948
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett
United Kingdom
Development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation
1947
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Edward Victor Appleton
United Kingdom
Investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer
1946
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Percy Williams Bridgman
United States
The invention of an apparatus to produce extremely high pressures, and the discoveries, he made there within the field of high-pressure physics
1945
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Wolfgang Pauli
Austria
Discovery of the Exclusion Principle also called the Pauli principle
1944
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Isidor Isaac Rabi
United States + Poland
Resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei
1943
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Otto Stern
United States + Weimar Republic
Contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton
Nobel Prize Winners (1930-1939)
1939
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Ernest Lawrence
United States
Invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements
1938
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Enrico Fermi
Italy
Demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons
1937
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Clinton Joseph Davisson
United States
Experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals
2
George Paget Thomson
United Kingdom
Experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals
1936
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Victor Francis Hess
Austria
Discovery of cosmic radiation
2
Carl David Anderson
United States
Discovery of the positron
1935
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
James Chadwick
United Kingdom
Discovery of the neutron
1933
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Erwin Schrödinger
Austria
Discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory
2
Paul Dirac
United Kingdom
Discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory
1932
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Werner Heisenberg
Weimar Republic
Creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen
1930
No.
Recipient
Citizenship
Reason
1
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
India
Work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him
