Nobel Prizes
in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded 110 times to 204
Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2016. John Bardeen is the only Nobel Laureate
who has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice, in 1956 and 1972. This
means that a total of 203 individuals have received the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Click on the links to get more information.
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 has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”
2013
François Englert and Peter W. Higgs: “for the 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
Serge Haroche and
David J. Wineland: “for
ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring 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”
2009
Charles Kuen Kao: “for groundbreaking achievements concerning the
transmission of light in fibers 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 the broken symmetry
which predicts 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 A. 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 have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources”
2001
Eric A. Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle and Carl
E. Wieman: “for the achievement of
Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early
fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates”
2000
Zhores I. Alferov and Herbert Kroemer: “for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in
high-speed- and opto-electronics”
Jack S. Kilby: “for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit”
1999
Gerardus ‘t Hooft and Martinus J.G. Veltman: “for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak
interactions in physics”
1998
Robert B. Laughlin, Horst L. Störmer and Daniel
C. Tsui: “for their discovery of a new
form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations”
1997
Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips: “for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with
laser light”
1996
David M. Lee, Douglas D. Osheroff and Robert C. Richardson: “for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3”
1995
Martin L. Perl: “for the discovery of the tau lepton”
Frederick Reines: “for the detection of the neutrino”
1994
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 generalized to more complex forms
of matter, in particular to 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”
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
J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alexander Müller: “for their important break-through 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 tunneling microscope”
1985
Klaus von Klitzing: “for the discovery of the quantized 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 weak interaction”
1983
Subramanyan Chandrasekhar: “for his theoretical studies of the physical
processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars”
William Alfred Fowler: “for his theoretical and experimental studies of
the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements
in the universe”
1982
Kenneth G. Wilson: “for his theory for critical phenomena in
connection with phase transitions”
1981
Nicolaas Bloembergen and Arthur Leonard 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 Watson Cronin and Val Logsdon Fitch: “for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry
principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons”
1979
Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg: “for their 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
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa: “for his basic inventions and discoveries in the
area of low-temperature physics”
Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson: “for their discovery of cosmic microwave background
radiation”
1977
Philip Warren Anderson, Sir Nevill Francis Mott and John
Hasbrouck van Vleck: “for their
fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic
and disordered systems”
1976
Burton Richter and Samuel Chao Chung Ting: “for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy
elementary particle of a new kind”
1975
Aage Niels Bohr, Ben Roy Mottelson and Leo
James Rainwater: “for the 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
Sir Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish: “for their 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
Leo Esaki and
Ivar Giaever: “for
their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors
and superconductors, respectively”
Brian David 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 Neil Cooper and John 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 Olof Gösta Alfvén: “for fundamental work and discoveries in
magnetohydro-dynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma
physics”
Louis Eugène Félix Néel: “for fundamental work and discoveries concerning
antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism which have led to important applications
in solid state physics”
1969
Murray Gell-Mann: “for his contributions and discoveries
concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions”
1968
Luis Walter 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 technique of using
hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis”
1967
Hans Albrecht Bethe: “for his contributions to the theory of nuclear
reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the 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 deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of
elementary particles”
1964
Charles Hard Townes, Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov and Aleksandr
Mikhailovich 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 Paul Wigner: “for his contributions to the theory of the
atomic nucleus and the 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 Davidovich 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 for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning
the structure of the nucleons”
Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer: “for his researches concerning the resonance
absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the
effect which bears his name”
1960
Donald Arthur Glaser: “for the invention of the bubble chamber”
1959
Emilio Gino Segrè and Owen Chamberlain: “for their discovery of the antiproton”
1958
Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Il´ja Mikhailovich Frank and Igor
Yevgenyevich Tamm: “for the discovery and
the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect”
1957
Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao (T.D.) Lee: “for their penetrating investigation of the so-called
parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary
particles”
1956
William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain: “for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery
of the transistor effect”
1955
Willis Eugene 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 wavefunction”
Walther Bothe: “for the coincidence method and his discoveries made
therewith”
1953
Frits Zernike: “for his demonstration of the phase contrast method,
especially for his invention of the phase contrast microscope”
1952
Felix Bloch and
Edward Mills Purcell: “for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic
precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith”
1951
Sir John Douglas Cockcroft and Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton: “for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic
nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles”
1950
Cecil Frank Powell: “for his development of the photographic method
of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with
this method”
1949
Hideki Yukawa: “for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis
of theoretical work on nuclear forces”
1948
Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett: “for his development of the Wilson cloud
chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and
cosmic radiation”
1947
Sir Edward Victor Appleton: “for his investigations of the physics of the
upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer”
1946
Percy Williams Bridgman: “for the invention of an apparatus to produce extremely
high pressures, and for the discoveries he made therewith 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
Note: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with 1/3
allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize
section.
1941
Note: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with 1/3
allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize
section.
1940
Note: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with 1/3
allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize
section.
1939
Ernest Orlando Lawrence: “for the invention and development of the
cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to
artificial radioactive elements”
1938
Enrico Fermi: “for his 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
Clinton Joseph Davisson and George Paget Thomson: “for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of
electrons by crystals”
1936
Victor Franz Hess: “for his discovery of cosmic radiation”
Carl David Anderson: “for his discovery of the positron”
1935
James Chadwick: “for the discovery of the neutron”
1934
Note: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with 1/3
allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize
section.
1933
Erwin Schrödinger and Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac: “for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic
theory”
1932
Werner Karl Heisenberg: “for the creation of quantum mechanics, the
application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic
forms of hydrogen”
1931
Note: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was
allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
1930
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman: “for his work on the scattering of light
and for the discovery of the effect named after him”
1929
Prince Louis-Victor Pierre Raymond 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 Holly Compton: “for his discovery of the effect named after
him”
Charles Thomson Rees Wilson: “for his method of making the paths of
electrically charged particles visible by 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 Ludwig Hertz: “for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron
upon an atom”
1924
Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn: “for his discoveries and research in the field
of X-ray spectroscopy”
1923
Robert Andrews Millikan: “for his work on the elementary charge of
electricity and on the photoelectric effect”
1922
Niels Henrik David Bohr: “for his services in the investigation of the
structure of atoms and of 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: “in recognition of the service he has rendered
to precision measurements in Physics by his discovery of anomalies in nickel
steel alloys”
1919
Johannes Stark: “for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and
the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields”
1918
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck: “in recognition of the services he
rendered to the advancement of Physics by his discovery of energy quanta”
1917
Charles Glover Barkla: “for his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen
radiation of the elements”
1916
Note: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was
allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
1915
Sir William Henry Bragg and William 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 on the properties of
matter at low temperatures which led, inter alia, to the production of liquid
helium”
1912
Nils 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”
1909
Guglielmo Marconi and Karl 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 Abraham Michelson: “for his optical precision instruments and the
spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid”
1906
Joseph John Thomson: “in recognition of the great merits of his
theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by
gases”
1905
Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard: “for his work on cathode rays”
1904
Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt): “for his investigations
of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of argon in
connection with these studies”
1903
Antoine Henri Becquerel: “in recognition of the extraordinary services he
has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity”
Pierre Curie and
Marie Curie, née Sklodowska: “in recognition of the extraordinary services they have
rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by
Professor Henri Becquerel”
1902
Hendrik Antoon 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”
prof premraj pushpakaran (male) writes -- 2018 marks the 100th birth year of Martin Ryle!!!
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