Nobel Prize for Physics: Winners by Year

Award years

• 2025

  • John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, John M. Martinis

    for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit

• 2024

  • John J. Hopfield, Geoffrey Hinton

    for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks

• 2023

  • Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, Anne L’Huillier

    for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter

• 2022

  • Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, Anton Zeilinger

    for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science

• 2021

  • Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann

    for the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying 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, Andrea M. Ghez

    for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy

• 2019

  • James Peebles

    for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology

  • Michel Mayor, Didier Queloz

    for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star

• 2018

  • Arthur Ashkin

    for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems

  • Gérard Mourou, Donna Strickland

    for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses

• 2017

  • Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish, Kip S. Thorne

    for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves

• 2016

  • David J. Thouless, F. Duncan M. Haldane, J. Michael Kosterlitz

    for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter

• 2015

  • Takaaki Kajita, Arthur B. McDonald

    for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass

• 2014

  • Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, Shuji Nakamura

    for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources

• 2013

  • François Englert, 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, David J. Wineland

    for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems

• 2011

  • Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, Adam G. Riess

    for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae

• 2010

  • Andre Geim, 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, 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, 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, Peter Grünberg

    for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance

• 2006

  • John C. Mather, 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, 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, Frank Wilczek

    for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction

• 2003

  • Alexei A. Abrikosov, Vitaly L. Ginzburg, Anthony J. Leggett

    for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids

• 2002

  • Raymond Davis Jr., 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, 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, Herbert Kroemer

    for basic work on information and communication technology; for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics

  • Jack S. Kilby

    for basic work on information and communication technology; for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit

• 1999

  • Gerardus 't Hooft, Martinus J.G. Veltman

    for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics

• 1998

  • Robert B. Laughlin, Horst L. Störmer, Daniel C. Tsui

    for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations

• 1997

  • Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, William D. Phillips

    for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light

• 1996

  • David M. Lee, Douglas D. Osheroff, Robert C. Richardson

    for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3

• 1995

  • Martin L. Perl

    for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter; for the discovery of the tau lepton

  • Frederick Reines

    for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter; for the detection of the neutrino

• 1994

  • Bertram N. Brockhouse

    for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter; for the development of neutron spectroscopy

  • Clifford G. Shull

    for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter; for the development of the neutron diffraction technique

• 1993

  • Russell A. Hulse, 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, 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, Wolfgang Paul

    for the development of the ion trap technique

• 1988

  • Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, Robert Woodrow Wilson

    for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation

• 1977

  • Philip Warren Anderson, Sir Nevill Francis Mott, John Hasbrouck van Vleck

    for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems

• 1976

  • Burton Richter, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, Owen Chamberlain

    for their discovery of the antiproton

• 1958

  • Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm, Il´ja Mikhailovich Frank

    for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect

• 1957

  • Chen Ning Yang, 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, 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, Edward Mills Purcell

    for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith

• 1951

  • Sir John Douglas Cockcroft, 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

• 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, 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

• 1933

  • Erwin Schrödinger, 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

• 1930

  • Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

    for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him

• 1929

  • 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, 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

• 1915

  • Sir William Henry Bragg, 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, 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, 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, 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