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All Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates

All Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates

Between 1901 and 2026, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded 120 times to 231 laureates. John Bardeen is the only laureate to have received the Nobel Prize in Physics twice, in 1956 and 1972. This means that a total of 230 different individuals have received the prize.

2020s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
2026	Francis Halzen	“For decisive contributions to the development of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.”
2025	John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis	“For the discovery of macroscopic quantum tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.”
2024	John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton	“For fundamental discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.”
2023	Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier	“For experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter.”
2022	Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger	“For experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities, and pioneering quantum information science.”
2021	General award citation	“For groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems.”
	Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann	“For the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying its variability and reliably predicting global warming.”
	Giorgio Parisi	“For the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems, from atomic to planetary scales.”
2020	Roger Penrose	“For the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity.”
	Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez	“For the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.”

2010s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
2019	General award citation	“For contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the Universe and Earth's place in the cosmos.”
	James Peebles	“For theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology.”
	Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz	“For the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.”
2018	General award citation	“For groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics.”
	Arthur Ashkin	“For the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems.”
	Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland	“For their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses.”
2017	Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne	“For decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.”
2016	David J. Thouless, F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz	“For theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”
2015	Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald	“For the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass.”
2014	Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura	“For the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which have enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources.”
2013	François Englert and Peter Higgs	“For the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles. This mechanism was recently confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.”
2012	Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland	“For groundbreaking experimental methods that enable the measurement and manipulation of individual quantum systems.”
2011	Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess	“For the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae.”
2010	Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov	“For groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene.”

2000s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
2009	Charles K. Kao	“For groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibres for optical communication.”
	Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith	“For the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor.”
2008	Yoichiro Nambu	“For the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics.”
	Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa	“For the discovery of the origin of broken symmetry, which predicted the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature.”
2007	Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg	“For the discovery of giant magnetoresistance.”
2006	John C. Mather and George F. Smoot	“For their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation.”
2005	Roy J. Glauber	“For his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence.”
	John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hänsch	“For their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique.”
2004	David J. Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek	“For the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction.”
2003	Alexei Abrikosov, Vitaly L. Ginzburg and Anthony J. Leggett	“For pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids.”
2002	Raymond Davis Jr. and Masatoshi Koshiba	“For pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos.”
	Riccardo Giacconi	“For pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources.”
2001	Eric Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle and Carl Wieman	“For the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of these condensates.”
2000	General award citation	“For fundamental work in information and communication technology.”
	Zhores Alferov and Herbert Kroemer	“For developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed and optoelectronics.”
	Jack Kilby	“For his part in the invention of the integrated circuit.”

1990s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
1999	General award citation	Gerardus 't Hooft and Martinus J. G. Veltman
	General award citation	“For elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions.”
1998	Robert B. Laughlin, Horst L. Störmer and Daniel C. Tsui	“For the discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations.”
1997	Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips	“For the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.”
1996	David M. Lee, Douglas D. Osheroff and Robert C. Richardson	“For the discovery of superfluidity in helium-3.”
1995	General award citation	“For pioneering experimental contributions to lepton physics.”
	Martin L. Perl	“For the discovery of the tau lepton.”
	Frederick Reines	“For the detection of the neutrino.”
1994	General award citation	“For pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter.”
	Bertram N. Brockhouse	“For the development of neutron spectroscopy.”
	Clifford G. Shull	“For the development of the neutron diffraction technique.”
1993	Russell A. Hulse and Joseph H. Taylor Jr.	“For the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation.”
1992	Georges Charpak	“For his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber.”
1991	Pierre-Gilles de Gennes	“For discovering that methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalised to more complex forms of matter, in particular liquid crystals and polymers.”
1990	Jerome I. Friedman, Henry W. Kendall and Richard E. Taylor	“For their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics.”

1980s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
1989	Norman F. Ramsey	“For the invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks.”
	Hans G. Dehmelt and Wolfgang Paul	“For the development of the ion trap technique.”
1988	Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger	“For the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino.”
1987	Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Müller	“For their important breakthrough in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials.”
1986	Ernst Ruska	“For his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope.”
	Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer	“For their design of the scanning tunnelling microscope.”
1985	Klaus von Klitzing	“For the discovery of the quantised Hall effect.”
1984	Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer	“For their decisive contributions to the large project which led to the discovery of the field particles W and Z, communicators of the weak interaction.”
1983	Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar	“For his theoretical studies of the physical processes important to the structure and evolution of stars.”
	William A. Fowler	“For his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions important in the formation of the chemical elements in the Universe.”
1982	Kenneth G. Wilson	“For his theory of critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions.”
1981	Nicolaas Bloembergen and Arthur L. Schawlow	“For their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy.”
	Kai M. Siegbahn	“For his contribution to the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy.”
1980	James Cronin and Val Fitch	“For the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons.”

1970s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
1979	Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg	“For their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including the prediction of the weak neutral current.”
1978	Pyotr Kapitsa	“For his basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics.”
	Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson	“For their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation.”
1977	Philip W. Anderson, Sir Nevill F. Mott and John H. Van Vleck	“For their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems.”
1976	Burton Richter and Samuel C. C. Ting	“For their pioneering work in the discovery of a new kind of heavy elementary particle.”
1975	Aage N. Bohr, Ben R. Mottelson and James Rainwater	“For the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei, and the development of the theory of atomic nuclei based on this connection.”
1974	Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish	“For their pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Martin Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular the aperture synthesis technique, and Antony Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars.”
1973	Leo Esaki and Ivar Giaever	“For their experimental discoveries regarding tunnelling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors.”
	Brian D. Josephson	“For his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects.”
1972	John Bardeen, Leon N. Cooper and Robert Schrieffer	“For their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS theory.”
1971	Dennis Gabor	“For his invention and development of the holographic method.”
1970	Hannes Alfvén	“For fundamental work and discoveries in magnetohydrodynamics, with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics.”
	Louis Néel	“For fundamental work and discoveries concerning antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism, which have led to important applications in solid-state physics.”

1960s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
1969	Murray Gell-Mann	“For his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions.”
1968	Luis Alvarez	“For his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the hydrogen bubble chamber technique and data analysis.”
1967	Hans Bethe	“For his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning energy production in stars.”
1966	Alfred Kastler	“For the discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms.”
1965	Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger and Richard P. Feynman	“For their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with profound consequences for the physics of elementary particles.”
1964	Charles H. Townes, Nicolay G. Basov and Aleksandr M. Prokhorov	“For 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	Eugene Wigner	“For his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles.”
	Maria Goeppert Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen	“For their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure.”
1962	Lev Landau	“For his pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium.”
1961	Robert Hofstadter	“For his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and his discoveries concerning the structure of nucleons.”
	Rudolf Mössbauer	“For his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery of the effect which bears his name.”
1960	Donald A. Glaser	“For the invention of the bubble chamber.”

1950s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
1959	Emilio Segrè and Owen Chamberlain	“For their discovery of the antiproton.”
1958	Pavel A. Cherenkov, Ilja M. Frank and Igor Y. Tamm	“For the discovery and interpretation of the Cherenkov effect.”
1957	Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee	“For their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws, which has led to important discoveries regarding elementary particles.”
1956	William B. Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain	“For their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect.”
1955	Willis E. Lamb	“For his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum.”
	Polykarp Kusch	“For his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron.”
1954	Max Born	“For his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wave function.”
	Walther Bothe	“For the coincidence method and his discoveries made with it.”
1953	Frits Zernike	“For his demonstration of the phase contrast method, especially for his invention of the phase contrast microscope.”
1952	Felix Bloch and E. M. Purcell	“For their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith.”
1951	John Cockcroft and Ernest T. S. Walton	“For their pioneering work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles.”
1950	Cecil Powell	“For his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with this method.”

1940s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
1949	Hideki Yukawa	“For his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces.”
1948	Patrick M. S. Blackett	“For his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries made with it in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation.”
1947	Edward V. Appleton	“For his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere, especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer.”
1946	Percy W. Bridgman	“For the invention of an apparatus to produce extremely high pressures, and for the discoveries he made with it in the field of high-pressure physics.”
1945	Wolfgang Pauli	“For the discovery of the exclusion principle, also called the Pauli principle.”
1944	Isidor Isaac Rabi	“For his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei.”
1943	Otto Stern	“For his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton.”
1942	No prize was awarded	The Nobel Prize was not awarded this year. One-third of the prize money was allocated to the Main Fund and two-thirds to the Special Fund of this prize category.
1941	No prize was awarded	The Nobel Prize was not awarded this year. One-third of the prize money was allocated to the Main Fund and two-thirds to the Special Fund of this prize category.
1940	No prize was awarded	The Nobel Prize was not awarded this year. One-third of the prize money was allocated to the Main Fund and two-thirds to the Special Fund of this prize category.

1930s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
1939	Ernest Lawrence	“For the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially those concerning artificial radioactive elements.”
1938	Enrico Fermi	“For his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discoveries concerning nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons.”
1937	Clinton Davisson and George Paget Thomson	“For their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals.”
1936	Victor F. Hess	“For his discovery of cosmic radiation.”
	Carl D. Anderson	“For his discovery of the positron.”
1935	James Chadwick	“For the discovery of the neutron.”
1934	No prize was awarded	The Nobel Prize was not awarded this year. One-third of the prize money was allocated to the Main Fund and two-thirds to the Special Fund of this prize category.
1933	Erwin Schrödinger and Paul A. M. Dirac	“For the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory.”
1932	Werner Heisenberg	“For the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, among other things, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen.”
1931	No prize was awarded	The Nobel Prize was not awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize category.
1930	Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman	“For his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him.”

1920s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
1929	Louis de Broglie	“For his discovery of the wave nature of electrons.”
1928	Owen Willans Richardson	“For his work on the thermionic phenomenon and especially for the discovery of the law named after him.”
1927	Arthur H. Compton	“For his discovery of the effect named after him.”
	T. R. Wilson	“For his method of making the paths of electrically charged particles visible through condensation of vapour.”
1926	Jean Baptiste Perrin	“For his work on the discontinuous structure of matter, and especially for his discovery of sedimentation equilibrium.”
1925	James Franck and Gustav Hertz	“For their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom.”
1924	Manne Siegbahn	“For his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy.”
1923	Robert A. Millikan	“For his work on the elementary charge of electricity and the photoelectric effect.”
1922	Niels Bohr	“For his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and the radiation emanating from them.”
1921	Albert Einstein	“For his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.”
1920	Charles Edouard Guillaume	“For his services to precision measurements in physics, through his discovery of anomalies in nickel-steel alloys.”

1910s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
1919	Johannes Stark	“For his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields.”
1918	Max Planck	“For the services he rendered to the advancement of Physics through his discovery of energy quanta.”
1917	Charles Glover Barkla	“For his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements.”
1916	No prize was awarded	The Nobel Prize was not awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize category.
1915	William Bragg and Lawrence Bragg	“For their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays.”
1914	Max von Laue	“For his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals.”
1913	Heike Kamerlingh Onnes	“For his investigations of the properties of matter at low temperatures, which led, among other things, to the production of liquid helium.”
1912	Gustaf Dalén	“For his invention of automatic regulators for use in conjunction with gas accumulators for illuminating lighthouses and buoys.”
1911	Wilhelm Wien	“For his discoveries regarding the laws governing the radiation of heat.”
1910	Johannes Diderik van der Waals	“For his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids.”

1900s

Year	Laureates	Why the Prize Was Awarded
1909	Guglielmo Marconi and Ferdinand Braun	“In recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy.”
1908	Gabriel Lippmann	“For his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference.”
1907	Albert A. Michelson	“For his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid.”
1906	J. Thomson	“In recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases.”
1905	Philipp Lenard	“For his work on cathode rays.”
1904	Lord Rayleigh	“For his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and his discovery of argon in connection with these studies.”
1903	Henri Becquerel	“In recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity.”
	Pierre Curie and Marie Curie	“In recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel.”
1902	Hendrik A. Lorentz and Pieter Zeeman	“In recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomena.”
1901	Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen	“In recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him.”