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General
Nobel Prizes

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General
Nationalities
Multiple Winners
Peace
Medicine and Physiology
Chemistry
Physics
Literature
Economics

Nobel Prizes

General

Alfred Nobel died Click to show or hide the answer
Immanuel Nobel, father of Alfred, invented a rotary lathe that was a crucial factor in the development of Click to show or hide the answer
Nobel prizes first awarded Click to show or hide the answer
Prize instituted in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden, in memory of Alfred Nobel; first awarded in 1969 Click to show or hide the answer
The most successful family in Nobel history Click for more information Click to show or hide the answer
First woman to win a Nobel prize; first person to win two (Physics 1903, Chemistry 1911) Click to show or hide the answer
Husband and wife, shared the Physics prize in 1903 (with Becquerel) Click to show or hide the answer
Won Chemistry in 1954, and Peace in 1962 for work on Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Click to show or hide the answer
Awarded by the Norwegian parliament (others by Swedish institutions) Click to show or hide the answer
The Peace prize is awarded on 10 December, in Click to show or hide the answer
The other prizes are awarded, also on 10 December, in Click to show or hide the answer

Nationalities

The only person born in Albania ever to win a Nobel prize Click to show or hide the answer
The only person born in Myanmar (Burma) ever to win a Nobel prize Click to show or hide the answer
The only Palestinian ever to win a Nobel prize Click to show or hide the answer
The only person from Tibet ever to win a Nobel prize Click to show or hide the answer

Multiple Winners

Four people (to date) have won two Nobel prizes:

Won Physics in 1903 (shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, for their work on radioactivity), and Chemistry in 1911 for the discovery of radium and polonium Click to show or hide the answer
US chemist, won Chemistry in 1954 for his work on chemical bonds, and Peace in 1962, for his initiative in organising a petition (in 1957) to end nuclear testing, which was signed by over 11,000 prominent figures and was a major precipitant of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 – the only person to win two unshared Nobel prizes Click to show or hide the answer
US physicist, won Physics in 1956 for the invention of the transistor, (shared with William Shockley and Walter Brattain – both US) and again in 1972 for the BCS theory of superconductivity (shared with Leon Cooper and John Schrieffer – both US) Click to show or hide the answer
English biochemist, born 1918: won Chemistry in 1958 for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin, and in 1980 shared half of the Chemistry prize with Walter Gilbert (USA), for their work on nucleic acids (the other half was awarded to US biochemist Paul Berg) Click to show or hide the answer
The largest single contribution to the mapping of the human genome was made by a charitable institute, based near Cambridge – founded in 1992, funded by the Wellcome Trust, and named in his honour

There are also two organisations that have won the Peace prize more than once:

1917 and 1944: for its work during the world wars, and in 1963 in recognition of its centenary: the International Committee of the Click to show or hide the answer
1954 and 1981: United Nations programme Click to show or hide the answer

Peace

1901: Swiss founder of the International Red Cross (shared) Click to show or hide the answer
1906: first US citizen to win a Nobel prize – after negotiating the peace treaty that ended the Russo–Japanese War Click to show or hide the answer
1917: international organisation (also won in 1944 and 1963) Click to show or hide the answer
1919: "for his crucial role in establishing the League of Nations" Click to show or hide the answer
1922: Norwegian explorer, for his work in aid of Russian famine victims and refugees in Asia Minor Click to show or hide the answer
1925: British Foreign Secretary, half–brother of a future prime minister – for negotiating the Locarno Pact, aimed at preventing war between France and Germany Click to show or hide the answer
1952: Alsace–born medical missionary Click to show or hide the answer
1957: Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs, and future Prime Minister (1963–8), for organising the UN Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Crisis Click to show or hide the answer
1959: Commonwealth Secretary, and later Minister for Fuel and Power, in Atlee's government, for his advocacy of multilateral nuclear disarmament; previously carried the flag for Great Britain in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, and won silver in the 1500m; the only person to win an Olympic medal and a Nobel prize Click to show or hide the answer
1961: UN Secretary General – the only posthumous winner Click to show or hide the answer
1964: US civil rights campaigner Click to show or hide the answer
1965: United Nations organisation Click to show or hide the answer
1971: German Chancellor, 1969–74 Click to show or hide the answer
1973
Click for more information
German–born American geopolitical consultant Click to show or hide the answer
North Vietnamese statesman, declined the prize awarded jointly with the above Click to show or hide the answer
1975: Soviet physicist and dissident (wasn't allowed to travel to Oslo to accept the prize; his wife, Yelena Bonner, accepted it in his stead) Click to show or hide the answer
1976: Irish peace campaigners Click to show or hide the answer
Click to show or hide the answer
1977: human rights pressure group Click to show or hide the answer
1978 Prime Minister of Israel Click to show or hide the answer
President of Egypt Click to show or hide the answer
1979: born Agnes Bojaxhiu (1910–1997) Click to show or hide the answer
1983: Polish activist and statesman (collected by his wife Danuta, as he feared he wouldn't be allowed back into Poland) Click to show or hide the answer
1984: Church of England bishop Click to show or hide the answer
1989: Religious leader (birth name Lhamo Dhondup, religious name Tenzin Gyatso) Click to show or hide the answer
1990: Soviet president Click to show or hide the answer
1993 South African anti–apartheid activist Click to show or hide the answer
President of South Africa Click to show or hide the answer
1994 Chairman of the PLO (later President of Palestine) Click to show or hide the answer
Prime Minister of Israel Click to show or hide the answer
Israeli Foreign Minister (also former Prime Minister, and future PM and President) Click to show or hide the answer
1995: British nuclear scientist, for work with the Pugwash Conferences Click to show or hide the answer
1998 Leader of the SDLP Click to show or hide the answer
Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party Click to show or hide the answer

1999: French humanitarian organisation Click to show or hide the answer

2001: shared by the United Nations, and its secretary general ... Click to show or hide the answer
2002: former US president – "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development" Click to show or hide the answer
2005: international peace–keeping organisation (shared) Click to show or hide the answer
2006: Bangladeshi 'microcredit' banker (Grameen Bank) Click to show or hide the answer
2007: former US vice–president (for disseminating knowledge about climate change) – jointly with a Swiss government panel on the same subject Click to show or hide the answer
2009: for strengthening international diplomacy and cooperation, especially in nuclear non–proliferation and in reaching out to the Muslim world Click to show or hide the answer
2014: Pakistani activist for female education; the youngest ever Nobel laureate (aged 17) Click to show or hide the answer
2017: international organisation known as ICAN – the International Campaign to abolish Click to show or hide the answer

Nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 (three times) and 1948 (six times); shortlisted twice (1937 and 1947); but never wonClick for more information Click to show or hide the answer

Medicine and Physiology

1902: Anglo–Indian physician, for discovering the life cycle of the malarial parasite plasmodium – the first British Nobel laureateClick for more information Click to show or hide the answer
1904: Russian behavioural psychologist Click to show or hide the answer
1905: German physician, regarded as the founder of modern bacteriology, for his research into tuberculosis Click to show or hide the answer
1913: Austrian immunologist, for the discovery of the ABO system for classification of blood (1900–2) Click to show or hide the answer
1945: Scottish bacteriologist (shared with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain) Click to show or hide the answer
1962: for discovering the structure of DNA British molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist Click to show or hide the answer
US molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist Click to show or hide the answer
New–Zealand born British physicist and molecular biologist Click to show or hide the answer
1988: ICI researcher (shared) Click to show or hide the answer
2003: for development of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner British physicist Click to show or hide the answer
US chemist Click to show or hide the answer

Chemistry

1904: Scottish; involved in the discovery of argon, neon, krypton, xenon Click to show or hide the answer
1908: New Zealand; discovered alpha, beta and gamma rays Click to show or hide the answer
1918: German; for the isolation of ammonia Click to show or hide the answer
1921: English; researched radioactive decay, coined the term 'isotope' Click to show or hide the answer
1958, 1980: English; first person to win the Chemistry prize twice Click to show or hide the answer
1964: English; for discovering the structure of Vitamin B12; third woman to win the Chemistry prize Click to show or hide the answer

Physics

1901: German – awarded the first Nobel Physics prize for his discovery of X–rays in 1895 Click to show or hide the answer
1903: French, shared Physics with the Curies, for discovering radioactivity Click to show or hide the answer
1904: Cambridge professor, involved in the discovery of argon Click to show or hide the answer
1906: English discoverer of the electron Click to show or hide the answer
1909: Italian pioneer of wireless telegraphy Click to show or hide the answer
1915: British father and son, shared the prize for their work in the analysis of crystal structure using X–rays; the Australian–born son – commonly known by his middle name – is still (in 2020) the youngest–ever Physics laureate (he was 25) Click to show or hide the answer
Click to show or hide the answer
1918: German, framed the Quantum Theory 1900 Click to show or hide the answer
1921: German / Swiss – for his work on the photoelectric effect Click to show or hide the answer
1922: Danish, proved that electrons move in well–defined orbits Click to show or hide the answer
1927: Scottish physicist and meteorologist, for inventing the cloud chamber Click for more information Click to show or hide the answer
1932: German, for the creation of quantum mechanics, and its application especially to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen – best known for his uncertainty principle (a.k.a. the indeterminancy principle) which is one of the basic principles of quantum mechanics Click to show or hide the answer
1933: British, predicted the existence of the positron, shared the prize Click to show or hide the answer
1935: British discoverer of the neutron Click for more information Click to show or hide the answer
1945: Austrian / US, for his work on atomic structure – the 'exclusion principle' (also known by his name), concerning the quantum states of electrons and other fermions Click to show or hide the answer
1947: English, for proving the existence of the ionosphere during experiments carried out in 1924 Click to show or hide the answer
1951: (effectively) for splitting an atomic nucleus in 1932 British physicist Click to show or hide the answer
Irish physicist, working at Cambridge Click to show or hide the answer
1956: for their work in developing the transistor US physicist and electrical engineer Click to show or hide the answer
US physicist Click to show or hide the answer
US physicist and inventor Click to show or hide the answer
1965: US – shared with two others, for their work in quantum electrodynamics; also a great populariser of science through books such as Surely You're Joking, Mr. ... (1985 – actually transcribed from interview tapes); died in 1988 aged 69 Click to show or hide the answer
1969: US, formulated the theory of the quark 1964 Click to show or hide the answer
1971: Hungarian–born British engineer, for the invention of holography Click to show or hide the answer
1975: son of the 1922 winner, for development of the theory of the atomic nucleus (jointly with Ben Roy Mottelson and Leo James Rainwater) Click to show or hide the answer
2010: Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, two Russian–born Professors at Manchester University, "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two–dimensional material ... " Click to show or hide the answer
2013: British theoretical physicist, who proposed a mechanism that predicts the existence of a new particle, which was named after him; awarded a share Click to show or hide the answer

Literature

1901: French poet – most famous work Le vase brisé (The Broken Vase) Click to show or hide the answer
1907: first writer in English to win – still the youngest ever recipient (41) Click to show or hide the answer
1913: Bengali poet, Asia's first Nobel laureate Click to show or hide the answer
1923: Irish poet, and senator 1922–8; the first Irish recipient (in any field) Click to show or hide the answer
1925: Irish dramatist, novelist, critic and socialist Click to show or hide the answer
1932: English novelist (The Forsyte Saga) Click to show or hide the answer
1936: US playwright (Long Day's Journey into Night, etc.) Click to show or hide the answer
1945: Chilean poet (female) Click to show or hide the answer
1946: German – Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, The Glass Bead Game Click to show or hide the answer
1947: French – The immoralist, Strait is the Gate, The Vatican Cellars Click to show or hide the answer
1948: US–born, British–based poet, playwright and critic Click to show or hide the answer
1949: US novelist (The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying) Click to show or hide the answer
1950: British philosopher, mathematician and peace campaigner Click to show or hide the answer
1953: British statesman Click to show or hide the answer
1954: US novelist (A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls) Click to show or hide the answer
1957: Algerian–born French writer and journalist (The Plague) Click to show or hide the answer
1958: Russian novelist, declined the prize Click to show or hide the answer
1962: US novelist (Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath) Click to show or hide the answer
1964: French philosopher, declined the prize Click to show or hide the answer
1969: Irish novelist and playwright (Waiting for Godot, Endgame); the only Nobel laureate to appear in Wisden Cricketers' Almanac (played two games for Dublin University against Northamptonshire in the 1920s) Click to show or hide the answer
Lived in Paris for most of his adult life (from 1939); wrote in both French and English; a member of the French Resistance during WWII – awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1949
1970: Soviet novelist (One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, etc.; didn't feel able to accept the prize immediately, fearing that he wouldn't be let back into the Soviet Union. He accepted it in 1974, after he was expelled from his home country) Click to show or hide the answer
1971: Chilean poet, diplomat and Communist leader Click to show or hide the answer
1982: Columbian–born Mexican novelist (One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera) Click to show or hide the answer
1983: British novelist (Lord of the Flies, The Spire, Rites of Passage) Click to show or hide the answer
1991: South African novelist Click to show or hide the answer
1992: St. Lucian–born poet and playwright Click to show or hide the answer
1993: US novelist whose work records black life in the South Click to show or hide the answer
1995: Irish poet (died 2013) Click to show or hide the answer
1997: Italian playwright (Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Can't pay? Won't pay!) Click to show or hide the answer
1999: German novelist (died 2015) Click to show or hide the answer
2001: Trinidad–born British novelist Click to show or hide the answer
2003: South African novelist Click to show or hide the answer
2005: English playwright Click to show or hide the answer
2007: British novelist – the oldest ever Literature laureate, a few days before her 88th birthday (born in Iran, 1919; died 2013) Click to show or hide the answer
2015: the second person (after George Bernard Shaw) to win a Nobel Prize and an Oscar Click for more information Click to show or hide the answer
2017: Japanese–born British novelist, whose most famous work is The Remains of the Day (1989) Click to show or hide the answer

Economics

1976: US monetarist Click to show or hide the answer
2009: first woman to win (shared with Oliver E. Williamson) – for her "analysis of economic governance, especially the commons"; died in 2012 Click to show or hide the answer
2019: second ditto – shared with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer, "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty" Click to show or hide the answer

© Haydn Thompson 2017–21