Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel physics
Physics | Chemistry | Physiology or Medicine
Economic Sciences | Literature | Peace
| Year | Awardee(s) |
|---|---|
2021 |
Awarded with one half jointly to Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann for the physical modeling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming, and the other half to Giorgio Parisi for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales. See related AccessScience content: |
2020 |
Awarded with one half to Roger Penrose (AccessScience contributor: Polarization of waves) for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity, and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy. See related AccessScience content: |
2019 |
Awarded with one half to James Peebles for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology, and the other half jointly to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star. See related AccessScience content: |
2018 |
Awarded with one half to Arthur Ashkin (AccessScience contributor: Radiation pressure) for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems, and the other half jointly to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses. See related AccessScience content: |
2017 |
Awarded with one half to Rainer Weiss and the other half jointly to Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves. See related AccessScience content: |
2016 |
Awarded with one half to David J. Thouless and the other half jointly to F. Duncan M. Haldane (AccessScience contributor: Exchange interaction) and J. Michael Kosterlitz (AccessScience contributor: Crystal defects) for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter. See related AccessScience content: |
2015 |
Awarded jointly to: Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald (AccessScience contributor: Solar neutrinos) for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass. |
2014 |
Awarded jointly to: Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura (AccessScience contributor: Blue lasers) for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources. |
2013 |
Awarded jointly to: 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 |
Awarded jointly to: Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland (see video biography) for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems. |
2011 |
Awarded for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae, with one half to Saul Perlmutter and the other half jointly to Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess. |
2010 |
Awarded jointly to: Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene. |
2009 |
The prize was divided, with one half awarded to: Charles K. Kao for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication. |
and with one half to: Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit, the CCD sensor. |
|
2008 |
The prize was divided, with one half to: Yoichiro Nambu for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics. |
and with one half awarded jointly to: 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 |
Awarded jointly to: Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg for the discovery of giant magnetoresistance. |
2006 |
Awarded jointly to: George F. Smoot and John C. Mather for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation. |
2005 |
The prize was divided, with one half awarded jointly to: Theodor W. Hänsch (AccessScience contributor: Laser spectroscopy, Rydberg constant) and John L. Hall for contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique. |
and with one half to: Roy J. Glauber for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence. |
|
2004 |
Awarded jointly to: H. David Politzer, Frank Wilczek (AccessScience contributor: Geometric phase, Anyons, Symmetry breaking, Excited state, Conservation laws (physics), Symmetry laws (physics), Group theory), and David J. Gross (AccessScience contributor: Quantum field theory) for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction. |
2003 |
Awarded jointly to: Vitaly L. Ginzburg, Anthony J. Leggett (AccessScience contributor: Quantum theory of measurement), and Alexei A. Abrikosov for their work on the theory of superconductors and superfluids. |
2002 |
The prize was divided, with one half awarded jointly to: Masatoshi Koshiba and Raymond Davis, Jr. for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos. |
and with one half to: Riccardo Giacconi for pioneering contributions to astrophysics that led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources. |
|
2001 |
Awarded jointly to: Wolfgang Ketterle (AccessScience contributor: Atom laser, Bose-Einstein condensation), Carl E. Wieman, and Eric A. Cornell for the achievement of producing Bose-Einstein condensation in low density vapors of alkali atoms, and for their studies on the fundamental properties of the condensates. |
2000 |
The prize was awarded for basic work on information and communication technology, with one half awarded jointly to: Herbert Kroemer and Zhores I. Alferov for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics. |
and the other half to: Jack S. Kilby for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit. |
|
1999 |
The prize was awarded jointly to: Martinus J.G. Veltman and Gerardus 't Hooft for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics. |
1998 |
Awarded jointly to: 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 |
Awarded jointly to: Steven Chu (AccessScience contributor: Particle trap), Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, and William D. Phillips (AccessScience contributor: Laser cooling) for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light. |
1996 |
Awarded jointly to: David M. Lee (AccessScience contributor: Absolute zero), Douglas D. Osheroff, and Robert C. Richardson for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3. |
1995 |
Awarded for pioneering experimental contributions to lepton physics, with one half to: Martin L. Perl (AccessScience contributor: Lepton) for the discovery of the tau lepton. |
and the other half to: Frederick Reines for the detection of the neutrino. |
|
1994 |
Awarded for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter jointly with one half to: Bertram N. Brockhouse (AccessScience contributor: Slow neutron spectroscopy) for the development of neutron spectroscopy, |
and with one half to: Clifford G. Shull for the development of the neutron diffraction technique. |
|
1993 |
Awarded jointly to: 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 |
Awarded to: Georges Charpak for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber. |
1991 |
Awarded to: 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 |
Awarded jointly to: 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 |
One half of the award was given to: Norman F. Ramsey (AccessScience contributor: Negative temperature) for the invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks |
and the other half jointly to: Hans G. Dehmelt (AccessScience contributor: Nuclear quadrupole resonance) and Wolfgang Paul for the development of the ion trap technique. |
|
1988 |
Awarded jointly to: 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 |
Awarded jointly to: J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alexander Müller for their important breakthrough in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials. |
1986 |
Awarded with one half to: Ernst Ruska for his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope. |
and one half to: Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope. |
|
1985 |
Awarded to: Klaus Von Klitzing for the discovery of the quantized Hall effect. |
1984 |
Awarded jointly to: 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 |
Divided equally between: Subramanyan Chandrasekhar for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars, |
and: William A. Fowler for his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe. |
|
1982 |
Awarded to: Kenneth G. Wilson for his theory for critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions. |
1981 |
Awarded with one half jointly to: Nicolaas Bloembergen and Arthur L. Schawlow (AccessScience contributor: Laser) for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy, |
and the other half to: Kai M. Siegbahn for his contribution to the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy. |
|
1980 |
Divided equally between: Val L. Fitch (AccessScience contributor: Flavor, CPT theorem) and James W. Cronin for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons. |
1979 |
Divided equally between: Abdus Salam (AccessScience contributor: Fundamental interactions), Steven Weinberg, and Sheldon L. Glashow 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 |
Divided, with one half awarded to: Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa for his basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics, |
and the other half divided equally between: Robert W. Wilson and Arno A. Penzias for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation. |
|
1977 |
Divided equally between: 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 |
Divided equally between: Burton Richter and Samuel C. C. Ting (AccessScience contributor: J/psi particle) for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind. |
1975 |
Awarded jointly to: Aage Bohr, Ben 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 the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection. |
1974 |
Awarded jointly to: Anthony Hewish and Sir Martin Ryle 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 |
Divided, with one half equally shared between: Leo Esaki (AccessScience contributor: Tunneling in solids) and Ivar Giaever for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively, |
and the other half to: 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 |
Awarded jointly to: Leon N. Cooper, J. Robert Schrieffer, and John Bardeen for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory. |
1971 |
Awarded to: Dennis Gabor for his invention and development of the holographic method. |
1970 |
Divided equally between: Hannes Alfvén for fundamental work and discoveries in magneto-hydrodynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics, |
and: Louis Néel for fundamental work and discoveries concerning antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism which have led to important applications in solid state physics. |
|
1969 |
Awarded to: Murray Gell-Mann for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions. |
1968 |
Awarded to: Luis W. 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 |
Awarded to: Hans Albrecht Bethe (AccessScience contributor: Theoretical physics) for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars. |
1966 |
Awarded to: Alfred Kastler for the discovery and development of optical methods for studying hertzian resonances in atoms. |
1965 |
Awarded jointly to: 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 |
Divided, with one half awarded to: Charles H. Townes (AccessScience contributor: Maser), the other half jointly to: Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov and Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov 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. See related AccessScience content: Laser|Maser|Quantum electronics |
1963 |
Divided, with one half awarded to: Eugene P. 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 , |
and the other half jointly to: Maria Goeppert-Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure. |
|
1962 |
Awarded to: Lev Davidovich Landau for his pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium. |
1961 |
Divided equally between: Robert Hofstadter (AccessScience contributor: Scintillation counter) for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons, |
and: 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 |
Awarded to: Donald A. Glaser for the invention of the bubble chamber. |
1959 |
Awarded jointly to: Emilio Gino Segrè and Owen Chamberlain for their discovery of the antiproton. |
1958 |
Awarded jointly to: Pavel Alekseyevich Cerenkov, Il'ja Mikhailovich Frank, and Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect. |
1957 |
Awarded jointly to: Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws, which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles. |
1956 |
Awarded jointly, one third each, to: William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Houser Brattain for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect. |
1955 |
Divided equally between: Willis Eugene Lamb for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum, |
and: Polykarp Kusch (AccessScience contributor: Atomic beams) for his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron. |
|
1954 |
Divided equally between: Max Born for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction, |
and: Walther Bothe for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith. |
|
1953 |
Awarded to: Frits (Frederik) Zernike for his demonstration of the phase contrast method, especially for his invention of the phase contrast microscope. |
1952 |
Awarded jointly to: Felix Bloch and Edward Mills Purcell for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith. |
1951 |
Awarded jointly to: 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 |
Awarded to: Cecil Frank Powell for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with this method. |
1949 |
Awarded to: Hideki Yukawa for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces. |
1948 |
Awarded to: Lord 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 |
Awarded to: 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 |
Awarded to: Percy Williams Bridgman (AccessScience contributor: Theorem, Postulate, Hypothesis, Physical theory, Science, Empirical method) 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 |
Awarded to: Wolfgang Pauli for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli Principle. |
1944 |
Awarded to: Isidor Isaac Rabi for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei. |
1943 |
Awarded to: Otto Stern for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton. |
1942 |
The prize money was allocated to the Main Fund (1/3) and to the Special Fund (2/3) of this prize section. |
1941 |
The prize money was allocated to the Main Fund (1/3) and to the Special Fund (2/3) of this prize section. |
1940 |
The prize money was allocated to the Main Fund (1/3) and to the Special Fund (2/3) of this prize section. |
1939 |
Awarded to: 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 |
Awarded to: 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 |
Awarded jointly to: Clinton Joseph Davisson and Sir George Paget Thomson for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals. |
1936 |
Divided equally between: Victor Franz Hess for his discovery of cosmic radiation,. See related AccessScience content: |
and: Carl David Anderson for his discovery of the positron. See related AccessScience content: |
|
1935 |
Awarded to: Sir James Chadwick for the discovery of the neutron. |
1934 |
The prize money was allocated to the Main Fund (1/3) and to the Special Fund (2/3) of this prize section. |
1933 |
Awarded jointly to: Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac and Erwin Schrödinger for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory. |
1932 |
Awarded to: Werner 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 |
The prize money was allocated tothe Main Fund (1/3) and to the SpecialFund (2/3) of this prize section. |
1930 |
Awarded to: Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him. |
1929 |
Awarded to: Prince Louis-Victor De Broglie for his discovery of the wave nature of electrons. |
1928 |
Awarded to: Sir Owen Willans Richardson for his work on the thermionic phenomenon and especially for the discovery of the law named after him. |
1927 |
Divided equally between: Arthur Holly Compton for his discovery of the effect named after him, |
and: Charles Thomson Rees Wilson for his method of making the paths of electrically charged particles visible by condensation of vapour. |
|
1926 |
Awarded to: Jean Baptiste Perrin for his work on the discontinuous structure of matter, and especially for his discovery of sedimentation equilibrium. |
1925 |
Awarded jointly to: James Franck and Gustav Hertz for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom. |
1924 |
Awarded to: Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy. |
1923 |
Awarded to: Robert Andrews Millikan for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect. |
1922 |
Awarded to: Niels Bohr for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them. |
1921 |
Awarded to: Albert Einstein for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. |
1920 |
Awarded to: 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 |
Awarded to: Johannes Stark for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields. |
1918 |
Awarded to: Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck in recognition of the services he rendered to the advancement of physics by his discovery of energy quanta. |
1917 |
Awarded to: Charles Glover Barkla for his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements. |
1916 |
The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section. |
1915 |
Awarded jointly to: Sir William Henry Bragg and Sir William Lawrence Bragg for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays. |
1914 |
Awarded to: Max Von Lane for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. |
1913 |
Awarded to: Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes for his investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures which led, inter alia, to the production of liquid helium.br> |
1912 |
Awarded to: Nils Gustaf Daléen for his invention of automatic regulators for use in conjunction with gas accumulators for illuminating lighthouses and buoys. |
1911 |
Awarded to: Wilhelm Wien for his discoveries regarding the laws governing the radiation of heat. |
1910 |
Awarded to: Johannes Diderik van der Waals for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids. |
1909 |
Awarded jointly to: Karl Ferdinand Braun and Guglielmo Marconi in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy. |
1908 |
Awarded to: Gabriel Lippmann for his method of reproducing colors photographically based on the phenomenon of interference. |
1907 |
Awarded to: Albert Abraham Michelson for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid. |
1906 |
Awarded to: Sir Joseph John Thomson in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases. |
1905 |
Awarded to: Philipp Eduard Anton Lenard for his work on cathode rays. |
1904 |
Awarded to: Lord John William Strutt Rayleigh for his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of argon in connection with these studies. |
1903 |
The prize was divided, one half being awarded to: Antoine Henri Becquerel in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity, |
and the other half jointly to: Pierre Curie and Marie Curie née Shlodowska, in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel. |
|
1902 |
Awarded jointly to: 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 |
Awarded to: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him. |
