[Physics FAQ] - [Copyright]

Compiled by Scott Chase, Phil Gibbs, and Johan Wevers.


The Nobel Prize for Physics, 1901–2011

The following is a complete listing of Nobel Prize awards, from the first award in 1901.  Prizes were not awarded in every year.  The date in brackets is the approximate date of the work.  The description following the names is an abbreviation of the official citation.

The Physics prize is announced near the beginning of October each year.  One of the quickest ways to get the announcement is to watch the Nobel Foundation web site at http://nobelprize.org.

1901  [1895]  Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen          X-rays

1902  [1896]  Hendrik Antoon Lorentz          Magnetism in radiation phenomena
              Pieter Zeeman

1903  [1896]  Antoine Henri Bequerel          Spontaneous radioactivity
      [1898]  Pierre Curie
              Marie Sklodowska-Curie 

1904  [1894]  Lord Rayleigh                   Density of gases and discovery of argon
              (a.k.a. John William Strutt)

1905  [1899]  Pilipp Eduard Anton von Lenard  Cathode rays

1906  [1897]  Joseph John Thomson             Conduction of electricity by gases

1907          Albert Abraham Michelson        Precision meteorological investigations

1908          Gabriel Lippman                 Reproducing colors photographically
                                               based on the phenomenon of interference

1909  [1901]  Carl Ferdinand Braun            Wireless telegraphy
              Guglielmo Marconi
              

1910  [1873]  Johannes Diderik van der Waals  Equation of state of fluids

1911  [1896]  Wilhelm Wien                    Laws of radiation of heat

1912  [1909]  Nils Gustaf Dalén               Automatic gas flow regulators 

1913  [1911]  Heike Kamerlingh Onnes          Matter at low temperature

1914  [1912]  Max von Laue                    Crystal diffraction of X-rays

1915  [1913]  William Henry Bragg             X-ray analysis of crystal structure
              William Lawrence Bragg

1916  No award

1917  [1911]  Charles Glover Barkla           Characteristic X-ray spectra of elements

1918  [1900]  Max Planck                      Energy quanta

1919  [1913]  Johannes Stark                  Splitting of spectral lines in E fields

1920          Charles-Edouard Guillaume       Anomalies in nickel steel alloys

1921  [1905]  Albert Einstein                 Photoelectric Effect

1922  [1913]  Niels Bohr                      Structure of atoms

1923  [1909]  Robert Andrew Millikan          Elementary charge of electricity

1924          Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn       X-ray spectroscopy

1925  [1914]  James Franck                    Impact of an electron upon an atom
              Gustav Hertz

1926          Jean Baptiste Perrin            Sedimentation equilibrium

1927  [1924]  Arthur Holly Compton            Compton effect
      [1912]  Charles Thomson Rees Wilson     Invention of the cloud chamber

1928  [1903]  Owen Willans Richardson         Thermionic phenomena, Richardson's Law

1929  [1923]  Prince Louis-Victor de Broglie  Wave nature of electrons

1930  [1928]  Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman Scattering of light, Raman effect

1931  No award

1932  [1925]  Werner Heisenberg               Quantum Mechanics 

1933  [1926]  Erwin Schrödinger               Atomic theory
      [1928]  Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac

1934  No award

1935  [1932]  James Chadwick                  The neutron

1936  [1932]  Carl Anderson                   The positron
      [1911]  Victor Franz Hess               Cosmic rays
      

1937  [1925]  Clinton Joseph Davisson         Crystal diffraction of electrons
              George Paget Thomson

1938  [1935]  Enrico Fermi                    New radioactive elements 

1939  [1929]  Ernest Orlando Lawrence         Invention of the cyclotron

1940   No award

1941   No award

1942   No award

1943  [1933]  Otto Stern                      Proton magnetic moment

1944  [1935]  Isador Isaac Rabi               Magnetic resonance in atomic nuclei

1945  [1924]  Wolfgang Pauli                  The Exclusion principle

1946  [1925]  Percy Williams Bridgman         Production of extremely high pressures

1947  [1924]  Sir Edward Victor Appleton      Physics of the upper atmosphere

1948  [1932]  Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett Cosmic ray showers in cloud chambers

1949  [1935]  Hideki Yukawa                   Prediction of mesons 

1950  [1947]  Cecil Frank Powell              Photographic emulsion for meson studies

1951  [1932]  Sir John Douglas Cockroft       Artificial acceleration of atomic 
              Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton      particles and transmutation of nuclei

1952  [1946]  Felix Bloch                     Nuclear magnetic precision methods 
              Edward Mills Purcell

1953  [1935]  Frits Zernike                   Phase-contrast microscope

1954  [1926]  Max Born                        Fundamental research in QM
      [1925]  Walther Bothe                   Coincidence counters

1955  [1947]  Polykarp Kusch                  Electron magnetic moment
      [1947]  Willis Eugene Lamb              Hydrogen fine structure

1956  [1948]  William Shockley                Transistors
              John Bardeen
              Walter Houser Brattain

1957          Tsung Dao Lee                   Parity violation
      [1956]  Chen Ning Yang
              

1958  [1934]  Pavel Aleksejevic Cerenkov      Interpretation of the Cerenkov effect
      [1937]  Il'ja Mickajlovic Frank
              Igor' Evgen'evic Tamm

1959          Owen Chamberlain                The Antiproton  
      [1955]  Emilio Gino Segre
                

1960  [1952]  Donald Arthur Glaser            The bubble chamber

1961  [1953]  Robert Hofstadter               Electron scattering on nucleons
              Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer         Resonant absorption of photons

1962  [1941]  Lev Davidovic Landau            Theory of liquid helium

1963  [1931]  Eugene Wigner                   Fundamental symmetry principles
      [1949]  Hans Jensen                     Nuclear shell structure
              Maria Goeppert Mayer

1964          Nikolai Basov                   Maser-Laser principle
              Alexander Prochorov
      [1958]  Charles Townes

1965  [1948]  Richard Feynman                 Quantum electrodynamics
              Julian Schwinger
              Sin-Itiro Tomonaga

1966  [1950]  Alfred Kastler                  Study of hertzian resonance in atoms

1967  [1938]  Hans Albrecht Bethe             Energy production in stars 

1968  [1955]  Luis W. Alvarez                 Discovery of many particle resonances

1969  [1964]  Murray Gell-Mann                Quark model for particle classification

1970  [1942]  Hannes Alfvén                   Magneto-hydrodynamics in plasma physics
      [1932]  Louis Néel                      Antiferromagnetism and ferromagnetism

1971  [1947]  Dennis Gabor                    Principles of holography

1972  [1957]  John Bardeen                    Theory of superconductivity
              Leon Cooper
              Robert Schrieffer

1973  [1960]  Leo Esaki                       Tunneling in superconductors
              Ivar Giaever 
      [1962]  Brian Josephson                 Super-current through tunnel barriers

1974  [1974]  Antony Hewish                   Discovery of pulsars
      [1958]  Sir Martin Ryle                 Pioneering radioastronomy work

1975  [1950]  Aage Bohr                       Structure of the atomic nucleus
              Ben Mottelson
              James Rainwater

1976  [1974]  Burton Richter                  Discovery of the J/Psi particle
              Samual Chao Chung Ting

1977  [1958]  Philip Warren Anderson          Electronic structure of magnetic and 
      [1967]  Nevill Francis Mott             disordered solids
              John Hasbrouck Van Vleck

1978  [1932]  Pyotr Kapitsa                   Liquefaction of helium
      [1965]  Arno Penzias                    Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
              Robert Wilson

1979  [1961]  Sheldon Glashow                 Electroweak theory, especially
      [1967]  Steven Weinberg                  weak neutral currents
      [1968]  Abdus Salam                     

1980  [1964]  James Cronin                    Discovery of CP violation in the 
              Val Fitch                        asymmetric decay of neutral K-mesons

1981          Kai Seigbahn                    High resolution electron spectroscopy
      [1962]  Nicolaas Bloembergen            Laser spectroscopy
              Arthur Schawlow

1982  [1972]  Kenneth Wilson                  Critical phenomena in phase transitions 

1983  [1935]  Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar      Evolution of stars
      [1957]  William Fowler

1984  [1970]  Simon van der Meer              Stochastic cooling for colliders
      [1983]  Carlo Rubbia                    Discovery of W and Z particles


1985  [1977]  Klaus von Klitzing              Discovery of (integer) quantum Hall effect

1986  [1981]  Gerd Binnig                     Scanning Tunneling Microscopy
              Heinrich Rohrer
      [1932]  Ernst August Friedrich Ruska    Electron microscopy

1987  [1986]  Georg Bednorz                   High-temperature superconductivity
              Alex Müller 

1988  [1962]  Leon Max Lederman               Discovery of the muon neutrino leading
              Melvin Schwartz                  to classification of particles in families
              Jack Steinberger

1989          Hans Georg Dehmelt              Penning trap for charged particles
              Wolfgang Paul                   Paul trap for charged particles
              Norman Ramsey                   Control of atomic transitions by the
                                               separated oscillatory fields method

1990  [1972]  Jerome Isaac Friedman           Deep inelastic scattering experiments
              Henry Way Kendall                leading to the discovery of quarks
              Richard Edward Taylor

1991          Pierre-Gilles de Gennes         Order-disorder transitions in liquid 
                                               crystals and polymers

1992          Georges Charpak                 Multiwire Proportional Chamber

1993  [1974]  Russell Hulse                   Discovery of the first binary pulsar
              Joseph Taylor                     and subsequent tests of GR

1994  [1960]  Bertram Brockhouse              Neutron scattering experiments 
      [1946]  Clifford Shull 

1995  [1975]  Martin Perl                     Discovery of the tau lepton
      [1953]  Frederick Reines                Detection of the neutrino 

1996          David Lee                       Superfluidity in helium-3
              Douglas Osheroff
              Robert Richardson

1997  [1985]  Steven Chu                      Development of methods to cool 
              Claude Cohen-Tannoudji           and trap atoms with laser light
              William Phillips

1998  [1982]  Robert Laughlin                 Discovery and theory of the
              Horst Störmer                     fractional quantum Hall effect
              Daniel Tsui

1999  [1972]  Gerard 't Hooft                 Development of a renormalisation scheme
              Martin Veltman                   for non-abelian gauge theories

2000  [1957]  Herbert Kroemer                 Growing of heterostructures
      [1963]  Zhores Alferov                  Semiconductor laser based on heterostructures
      [1958]  Jack Kilby                      Invention of the IC

2001          Eric Cornell                    Bose-Einstein condensation
              Carl Wieman                      of alkali metals
              Wolfgang Ketterle

2002          Raymond Davis Jr                Detection of cosmic neutrinos.
              Masatosh Koshiba
              Riccardo Giacconi               Detection of cosmic X-rays.

2003          Alexei Abrikosov                Pioneering contributions to the theory of
      [1950]  Vitaly Ginzburg                  superconductors and superfluids.
      [1970]  Anthony Leggett

2004  [1973]  David Gross                     Discovery of asymptotic freedom in
              David Politzer                   the theory of the strong interaction.
              Frank Wilczek

2005          Roy Glauber                     Quantum theory of optical coherence.
              John Hall                       Development of ultra high precision
	      Theodor Hänsch                   measurements of light.

2006          John Mather                     Study of the early universe, and developing
              George Smoot                     the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) experiment. 

2007          Albert Fert                     Discovery of giant magnetoresistance.
              Peter Grünberg

2008          Yoichiro Nambu                  Discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking.
      
              Makoto Kobayashi                Discovery of the origin of symmetry breaking.
              Toshihide Maskawa

2009          Charles Kao                     Achievements concerning transmission of light in optical fibres

              Willard Boyle                   Invention of the charge-coupled device (CCD)
              George Smith

2010          Andre Geim                      Experiments in graphene
              Konstantin Novoselov

2011          Saul Perlmutter                 Discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe
              Brian Schmidt
              Adam Riess

2012          Serge Haroche                   New experimental methods for studying individual quantum systems
              David Wineland