list of nobel prize winners in physics
List of Nobel Prize Winners in Physics
Alfred Nobel, in his will, declared a large share of his fortune for awarding Nobel Prizes to those, who shall make inventions and discoveries in the subject of physics. Here is a list of Nobel laureates in Physics till date.
"Everything is energy and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics." - Albert Einstein
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden looks after the nomination and selection of Nobel Laureates in physics all over the world since 1901. If we see till date, 47 physics awards have been given to one laureate, 31 have been given to two laureates, and 29 have been shared between three laureates.
To add a fact, Lawrence Bragg is the youngest laureate to win an award in the subject of physics at the age of 25 years along with his father. He is not only the youngest award winner in the field of physics but also among the rest of the winners from other fields.
Check out the list of laureates, who earned the Nobel prize award for their extraordinary work and research in the field of physics.
INDEX
List of Laureates
1901
Wilhelm C. Röntgen (Germany)
Awarded in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him.1902
Hendrik A. Lorentz (Netherlands)
Pieter Zeeman (Netherlands)
Awarded in recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomena.1903
Antoine Henri Becquerel (France)
Awarded for discovery of spontaneous radioactivity.1903
Pierre Curie (France)
Marie Curie (Poland/France)
Awarded for recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel.1904
John Strutt (United Kingdom)
Awarded for his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of argon in connection with these studies.1904
Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard (Germany)
Awarded for work on cathode rays.1906
Joseph John Thomson (United Kingdom)
Awarded for investigation on the conduction of electricity by gases.1907
Albert Michelson (United States)
Awarded for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid.1908
Gabriel Lippmann (France)
Awarded for his method of reproducing colors photographically based on the phenomenon of interference.1909
Guglielmo Marconi (Italy)
Karl Ferdinand Braun (Germany)
Awarded for their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy.1910
Johannes Diderik van der Waals (Netherlands)
Awarded for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids.1911
Wilhelm Wien (Germany)
Awarded for his discoveries regarding the laws governing the radiation of heat.1912
Nils Gustaf Dalén (Sweden)
Awarded for discovery of automatic regulators used in lighting lighthouses and light buoys.1913
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (Netherlands)
Awarded for his investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures which led, inter alia, to the production of liquid helium.1914
Max von Laue (Germany)
Awarded for discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals.1915
William Henry Bragg (United Kingdom)
William Lawrence Bragg (United Kingdom)
Awarded for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays.1917
Charles G. Barkla (United Kingdom)
Awarded for his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements.1918
Max Planck (Germany)
Awarded for the services he rendered to the advancement of physics by his discovery of energy quanta.1919
Johannes Stark (Germany)
Awarded for discovery of Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields.1920
Charles E. Guillaume (Switzerland)
Awarded for his discoveries of anomalies in nickel-steel alloys.1921
Albert Einstein (Germany)
Awarded for discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.1922
Niels Bohr (Denmark)
Awarded for investigation of structure of atoms and radiation emanating from them.1923
Robert A. Millikan (United States)
Awarded for work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect.1924
Karl M.G. Siegbahn (Sweden)
Awarded for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy.1925
James Franck (Germany)
Gustav Hertz (Germany)
Awarded for discovery of laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom.1926
Jean Baptiste Perrin (France)
Awarded for his work on the discontinuous structure of matter, and especially for his discovery of sedimentation equilibrium.1927
Arthur H. Compton (United States)
Awarded for discovery of Compton phenomenon.1927
Charles T. R. Wilson (United Kingdom)
Awarded for method of making the path of electrically charged particles visible by condensation of vapor.1928
Owen W. Richardson (United Kingdom)
Awarded for work on the thermionic phenomenon and discovery of the Richardson law.1929
Prince Louis-Victor de Broglie (France)
Awarded for discovery of the wave nature of electrons.1930
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (India)
Awarded for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him.1932
Werner Heisenberg (Germany)
Awarded for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen.1933
Erwin Schrödinger (Austria)
Paul Dirac (United Kingdom)
Awarded for discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory.1935
James Chadwick (United Kingdom)
Awarded for the discovery of the neutron.1936
Victor Francis Hess (Austria)
Awarded for discovery of cosmic radiation.1936
Carl David Anderson (United States)
Awarded for discovery of the positron.1937
Clinton Joseph Davisson (United States)
George P. Thomson (United Kingdom)
Awarded for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals.1938
Enrico Fermi (Italy)
Awarded for discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons and for identification of new radioactivity elements.1939
Ernest Lawrence (United States)
Awarded for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements.1943
Otto Stern (United States)
Awarded for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton.1944
Isidor Isaac Rabi (United States)
Awarded for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei.1945
Wolfgang Pauli (Austria)
Awarded for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli principle.1946
Percy Williams Bridgman (United States)
Awarded for the invention of an apparatus to produce extremely high pressures, and for the discoveries he made there within the field of high pressure physics.1947
Edward Victor Appleton (United Kingdom)
Awarded for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer.1948
Patrick M. S. Blackett (United Kingdom)
Awarded for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation.1949
Hideki Yukawa (Japan)
Awarded for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces.1950
Cecil F. Powell (United Kingdom)
Awarded for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with this method.1951
John Douglas Cockcroft (United Kingdom)
Ernest T. S. Walton (Ireland)
Awarded for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles.1952
Felix Bloch (United States)
Edward M. Purcell (United States)
Awarded for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith.1953
Frits Zernike (Netherlands)
Awarded for his demonstration of the phase contrast method, especially for his invention of the phase contrast microscope.1954
Max Born (United Kingdom)
Awarded for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction.1954
Walther Bothe (Germany)
Awarded for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith.1955
Willis E. Lamb (United States)
Awarded for discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum.1955
Polykarp Kusch (United States)
Awarded for his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron.1956
John Bardeen (United States)
Walter H. Brattain (United States)
William Shockley (United States)
Awarded for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect.1957
Tsung-Dao Lee (China, United States)
Chen Ning Yang (China, United States)
Awarded for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles.1958
Pavel Cherenkov (Soviet Union)
Ilya Frank (Soviet Union)
Igor Y. Tamm (Soviet Union)
Awarded for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect.1959
Owen Chamberlain (United States)
Emilio Gino Segrè (Italy)
Awarded for discovery of antiproton.1960
Donald A. Glaser (United States)
Awarded for the invention of the bubble chamber.1961
Robert Hofstadter (United States)
Awarded for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons.1961
Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer (Germany)
Awarded for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name.1962
Lev Davidovich Landau (Soviet Union)
Awarded for his pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium.1963
Eugene Paul Winger (Hungary/United States)
Awarded for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles.1963
Maria Goeppert-Mayer (United States)
J. Hans D. Jensen (Germany)
Awarded for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure.1964
Nikolai G. Basov (Soviet Union)
Alexander Prokhorov (Soviet Union)
Charles H. Townes (United States)
Awarded 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.1965
Richard P. Feynman (United States)
Julian Schwinger (United States)
Sin-Itiro Tomonaga (Japan)
Awarded for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles.1966
Alfred Kastler (France)
Awarded for the discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms.1967
Hans A. Bethe (United States)
Awarded for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars.1968
Luis W. Alvarez (United States)
Awarded discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis.1969
Murray Gell-Mann (United States)
Awarded for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions.1970
Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén (Sweden)
Awarded for fundamental work and discoveries in magneto-hydrodynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics.1970
Louis Néel (France)
Awarded for fundamental work and discoveries concerning antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism which have led to important applications in solid state physics.1971
Dennis Gabor (Hungary/United Kingdom)
Awarded for invention and development of the holographic method.1972
John Bardeen (United States)
Leon N. Cooper (United States)
John R. Schrieffer (United States)
Awarded for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory.1973
Ivar Giaever (Norway/United States)
Leo Esaki (Japan)
Awarded for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively.1973
Brian D. Josephson (United Kingdom)
Awarded 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 effect.1974
Martin Ryle (United Kingdom)
Antony Hewish (United Kingdom)
Awarded for their observations and inventions: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars.1975
Aage Bohr (Denmark)
Ben Roy Mottelson (Denmark)
Leo James Rainwater (United States)
Awarded 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.1976
Burton Richter (United States)
Samuel C. C. Ting (United States)
Awarded for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind.1977
Philip W. Anderson (United States)
Nevill Francis Mott (United Kingdom)
John H. Van Vleck (Germany)
Awarded for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems.1978
Pyotr Kapitsa (Soviet Union)
Awarded for his basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics.1978
Arno Allan Penzias (United States)
Robert Wilson (United States)
Awarded for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation.1979
Sheldon Lee Glashow (United Kingdom)
Abdus Salam (Pakistan)
Steven Weinberg (United States)
Awarded 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.1980
James W. Cronin (United States)
Val Logsdon Fitch (United States)
Awarded for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons.1981
Nicolaas Bloembergen (United States)
Arthur Schaalow (United Kingdom)
Awarded for development of laser spectroscopy.1981
Kai M. Siegbahn (Sweden)
Awarded for development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy.1982
Kenneth G. Wilson (United States)
Awarded for phenomena in connection with phase transitions.1983
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (India)
Awarded for study of the structure and evolution of the stars.1983
William A. Fowler (United States)
Awarded for his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe.1984
Carlo Rubbia (Italy)
Simon van der Meer (Netherlands)
Awarded for their decisive contributions to the large project, which led to the discovery of the field particles W and Z, communicators of weak interaction.1985
Klaus von Klitzing (Germany)
Awarded for the discovery of the quantized Hall effect.1986
Ernst Ruska (Germany)
Awarded for his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope.1986
Gerd Binnig (Germany)
Heinrich Rohrer (Switzerland)
Awarded for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope.1987
Johannes Georg Bednorz (Germany)
Karl Alexander Müller (Switzerland)
Awarded for their breakthrough in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials.1988
Leon M. Lederman (United States)
Melvin Schwartz (United States)
Jack Steinberger (United States)
Awarded for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino.1989
Norman F. Ramsey (United States)
Awarded for the invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks.1989
Hans G. Dehmelt (United States)
Wolfgang Paul (Germany)
Awarded for the development of the ion trap technique.1990
Henry W. Kendall (United States)
Jerome I. Friedman (United States)
Richard E. Taylor (Canada)
Awarded 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.1991
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (France)
Awarded 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.1992
Georges Charpak (Poland/France)
Awarded for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber.1993
Russell Alan Hulse (United States)
Joseph H. Taylor Jr. (United States)
Awarded for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation.1994
Bertram Brockhouse (Canada)
Awarded for the development of neutron spectroscopy and for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter.1994
Clifford G. Shull (United States)
Awarded for the development of the neutron diffraction technique and for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter.1995
Martin Perl (United States)
Awarded for discovery of tau lepton and contribution to lepton physics.1995
Frederick Reines (United States)
Awarded for discovery of neutrino and contribution to lepton physics.1996
David M. Lee (United States)
Douglas D. Osheroff (United States)
Robert C. Richardson (United States)
Awarded for discovery of superfluidity in helium-3.1997
Steven Chu (United States)
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (France)
William D. Phillips (United States)
Awarded for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.1998
Robert B. Laughlin (United States)
Horst L. Störmer (Germany)
Daniel C. Tsui (United States)
Awarded for discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations.1999
Gerardus 't Hooft (Netherlands)
Martinus J. G. Veltman (Netherlands)
Awarded for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics.2000
Zhores I. Alferov (Russia)
Herbert Kroemer (Germany)
Awarded for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed and optoelectronics.2000
Jack S. Kilby (United States)
Awarded for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit.2001
Eric A. Cornell (United States)
Carl E. Wieman (United States)
Wolfgang Ketterle (Germany)
Awarded achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates.2002
Raymond Davis Jr. (United States)
Masatoshi Koshiba (Japan)
Awarded for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos.2002
Riccardo Giacconi (Italy)
Awarded for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources.2003
Alexeyevich Abrikosov (Russia)
Vitaly L. Ginzburg (Russia)
Anthony J. Leggett (United Kingdom/United States)
Awarded for contribution to the theory of superconductors and superfluids.2004
David J. Gross (United States)
Hugh David Politzer (United States)
Frank Wilczek (United States)
Awarded for discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction.2005
Roy J. Glauber (United States)
Awarded for contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence.2005
John L. Hall (United States)
Theodor W. Hänsch (Germany)
Awarded for development of laser-based precision spectroscopy and the optical frequency comb technique.2006
John C. Mather (United States)
George F. Smoot (United States)
Awarded for discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation.2007
Albert Fert (France)
Peter Grünberg (Germany)
Awarded for discovery of giant magnetoresistance.2008
Makoto Kobayashi (Japan)
Toshihide Maskawa (Japan)
Awarded for discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry that predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature.2008
Yoichiro Nambu (United States)
Awarded for discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics.2009
Charles K. Kao (China/Hong Kong/US/UK)
Awarded for achievements regarding the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication.2009
Willard S. Boyle (Canada/United States)
George E. Smith (United States)
Awarded for discovery of an imaging semiconductor circuit - CCD sensor.2010
Andre Geim (Russia/Netherlands)
Konstantin Novoselov (Russia/United Kingdom)
Awarded for experiments concerning the two-dimensional material graphene.2011
Saul Perlmutter (United States)
Brian P. Schmidt (Australia/United States)
Adam G. Riess (United States)
Awarded for discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae.2012
Serge Haroche (France)
David J. Wineland (United States)
Awarded for methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.2013
François Englert (Belgium)
Peter Higgs (United Kingdom)
Awarded for theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles.2014
Akasaki Isamu (Japan)
Amano Hiroshi (Japan)
Shuji Nakamura (U.S.)
Awarded for their invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources.2015
Takaaki Kajita (Japan)
Arthur B. McDonald (Canada)
Awarded for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass.