Marie Curie, first woman to win a Nobel Prize

 

1901

Wilhelm C. Roentgen (German) for discovering X rays.

1902

Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and Pieter Zeeman (Dutch) for discovering the Zeeman effect of magnetism on light.

1903

Antoine Henri Becquerel (French) for discovering natural radioactivity and Pierre Curie and Marie Curie (French) for their research on radiation.

1904

Lord Rayleigh (British) for studying the density of gases and discovering argon.

1905

Philipp Lenard (German) for studying the properties of cathode rays.

1906

Sir Joseph John Thomson (British) for studying electrical discharge through gases.

1907

Albert A. Michelson (American) for his design of precise optical instruments and for the accurate measurements he obtained with them.

1908

Gabriel Lippmann (French) for his method of color photography.

1909

Guglielmo Marconi (Italian) and Karl Ferdinand Braun (German) for developing the wireless telegraph.

1910

Johannes D. van der Waals (Dutch) for studying the relationships of liquids and gases.

1911

Wilhelm Wien (German) for his discoveries on the heat radiated by black objects.

1912

Nils Dalen (Swedish) for inventing automatic gas regulators for lighthouses.

1913

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (Dutch) for experimenting with low temperatures and liquefying helium.

1914

Max T. F. von Laue (German) for using crystals to measure X rays.

1915

Sir William Henry Bragg and Sir William L. Bragg (British) for using X rays to study crystal structure.

1916

No award

1917

Charles Barkla (British) for studying the diffusion of light and the radiation of X rays from elements.

1918

Max Planck (German) for stating the quantum theory of light.

1919

Johannes Stark (German) for discovering the Stark effect of spectra in electric fields.

1920

Charles E. Guillaume (French) for discovering nickel-steel alloys with slight expansion, and the alloy invar.

1921

Albert Einstein (German) for contributing to mathematical physics and stating the law of the photoelectric effect.

1922

Niels Bohr (Danish) for studying the structure of atoms and their radiations.

1923

Robert A. Millikan (American) for measuring the charge on electrons and working on the photoelectric effect.

1924

Karl M. G. Siegbahn (Swedish) for working with the X-ray spectroscope.

1925

James Franck and Gustav Hertz (German) for stating laws on the collision of an electron with an atom.

1926

Jean Baptiste Perrin (French) for studying the discontinuous structure of matter and measuring the sizes of atoms.

1927

Arthur H. Compton (American) for discovering the Compton effect on X rays reflected from atoms, and Charles T. R. Wilson (British) for discovering a method for tracing the paths of ions.

1928

Sir Owen W. Richardson (British) for studying thermionic effect and electrons sent off by hot metals.

1929

Louis Victor de Broglie (French) for discovering the wave character of electrons.

1930

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (Indian) for discovering a new effect in radiation from elements.

1931

No award

1932

Werner Heisenberg (German) for founding quantum mechanics, which led to discoveries in hydrogen.

1933

Paul Dirac (British) and Erwin Schrodinger (Austrian) for discovering new forms of atomic theory.

1934

No award

1935

Sir James Chadwick (British) for discovering the neutron.

1936

Carl David Anderson (American) for discovering the positron, and Victor F. Hess (Austrian) for discovering cosmic rays.

1937

Clinton Davisson (American) and Sir George Thomson (British) for discovering the diffraction of electrons by crystals.

1938

Enrico Fermi (Italian) for discovering new radioactive elements beyond uranium.

1939

Ernest O. Lawrence (American) for inventing the cyclotron and working on artificial radioactivity.

1940-1942

No award

1943

Otto Stern (American) for discovering the molecular beam method of studying the atom.

1944

Isidor Isaac Rabi (American) for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei.

1945

Wolfgang Pauli (Austrian) for discovering the exclusion principle (Pauli principle) of electrons.

1946

Percy Williams Bridgman (American) for his work in the field of very high pressures.

1947

Sir Edward V. Appleton (British) for exploring the ionosphere.

1948

Patrick M. S. Blackett (British) for his discoveries in cosmic radiation.

1949

Hideki Yukawa (Japanese) for his prediction of the existence of mesons.

1950

Cecil Frank Powell (British) for his photographic method of studying atomic nuclei and his discoveries concerning mesons.

1951

Sir John D. Cockcroft (British) and Ernest T. S. Walton (Irish) for work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles.

1952

Felix Bloch and Edward Mills Purcell (American) for developing magnetic measurement methods for atomic nuclei.

1953

Frits Zernike (Dutch) for inventing the phase contrast microscope for cancer research.

1954

Max Born (German) for research in quantum mechanics, and Walther Bothe (German) for discoveries he made with his coincidence method.

1955

Willis E. Lamb, Jr. (American), for discoveries on the structure of the hydrogen spectrum, and Polykarp Kusch (American) for determining the magnetic moment of the electron.

1956

John Bardeen , Walter H. Brattain , and William Shockley (American) for inventing the transistor.

1957

Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang (American) for work disproving the law of conservation of parity.

1958

Pavel A. Cherenkov , Ilya M. Frank , and Igor Y. Tamm (Soviet) for discovering and interpreting the Cherenkov effect in studying high-energy particles.

1959

Emilio Segre and Owen Chamberlain (American) for their work in demonstrating the existence of the antiproton.

1960

Donald A. Glaser (American) for inventing the bubble chamber to study subatomic particles.

1961

Robert Hofstadter (American) for his studies of nucleons, and Rudolf L. Mossbauer (German) for his research on gamma rays.

1962

Lev Davidovich Landau (Soviet) for his research on liquid helium.

1963

Eugene Paul Wigner (American) for his contributions to the understanding of atomic nuclei and the elementary particles, and Maria Goeppert Mayer (American) and J. Hans Jensen (German) for their work on the structure of atomic nuclei.

1964

Charles H. Townes (American) and Nikolai G. Basov and Alexander M. Prokhorov (Soviet) for developing masers and lasers.

1965

Sin-Itiro Tomonaga (Japanese) and Julian S. Schwinger and Richard P. Feynman (American) for basic work in quantum electrodynamics.

1966

Alfred Kastler (French) for his work on the energy levels of atoms.

1967

Hans Albrecht Bethe (American) for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries on the energy production in stars.

1968

Luis W. Alvarez (American) for his contributions to the knowledge of subatomic particles.

1969

Murray Gell-Mann (American) for his discoveries concerning the classification of nuclear particles and their interactions.

1970

Hannes Olof Gosta Alfven (Swedish) for his work in magnetohydrodynamics, the study of electrical and magnetic effects in fluids that conduct electricity, and Louis Eugene Felix Neel (French) for his discoveries of magnetic properties that applied to computer memories.

1971

Dennis Gabor (British) for his work in holography, a method of making a three-dimensional photograph with coherent light produced by a laser.

1972

John Bardeen , Leon Cooper , and John Robert Schrieffer (American) for their work on superconductivity, the disappearance of electrical resistance.

1973

Ivar Giaever (American), Leo Esaki (Japanese), and Brian Josephson (British) for their work on the phenomena of electron "tunneling" through semiconductor and superconductor materials.

1974

Antony Hewish (British) for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars, and Sir Martin Ryle (British) for his use of small radio telescopes to "see" into space with great accuracy.

1975

L. James Rainwater (American) and Aage N. Bohr and Ben R. Mottelson (Danish) for their work on the structure of the atomic nucleus.

1976

Burton Richter and Samuel Chao Chung Ting (American) for their discovery of an elementary nuclear particle called the psi, or J, particle.

1977

Philip W. Anderson and John H. Van Vleck (American) and Sir Nevill F. Mott (British) for helping develop semiconductor devices.

1978

Pyotr Kapitsa (Soviet) for his research in low-temperature physics, and Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson (American) for their discovery and study of cosmic microwave background radiation.

1979

Sheldon L. Glashow and Steven Weinberg (American) and Abdus Salam (Pakistani) for developing a principle that unifies the weak nuclear force and the force of electromagnetism.

1980

James W. Cronin and Val L. Fitch (American) for their research on subatomic particles revealing that the fundamental laws of symmetry in nature could be violated.

1981

Nicolaas Bloembergen and Arthur L. Schawlow (American) for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy, and Kai Siegbahn (Swedish) for his contribution to the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy.

1982

Kenneth G. Wilson (American) for his method of analyzing the behavior of matter when it changes form--for example, from water to steam.

1983

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and William A. Fowler (American) for work on the evolution and death of stars.

1984

Carlo Rubbia (Italian) and Simon van der Meer (Dutch) for contributions to the discovery of two subatomic particles--the W particle and the Z particle.

1985

Klaus von Klitzing (West German) for developing a precise way of measuring electrical resistance.

1986

Ernst Ruska (West German) for his invention of the electron microscope and Gerd Binnig (West German) and Heinrich Rohrer (Swiss) for their invention of the scanning tunneling microscope.

1987

J. Georg Bednorz (West German) and K. Alex Muller (Swiss) for their discovery of superconductivity in a ceramic material.

1988

Leon M. Lederman , Melvin Schwartz , and Jack Steinberger (American) for their work on subatomic particles called neutrinos.

1989

Hans G. Dehmelt (American) and Wolfgang Paul (German) for isolating and measuring single atoms, and Norman F. Ramsey (American) for work that led to the atomic clock.

1990

Jerome Friedman and Henry Kendall (American) and Richard Taylor (Canadian) for experiments that proved the existence of subatomic particles called quarks.

1991

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (French) for his analyses of alignments and other orderly arrangements of molecules in certain substances.

1992

Georges Charpak (French) for the invention of devices that detect subatomic particles in particle accelerators.

1993

Russell A. Hulse and Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. (American), for their discovery of extremely dense pairs of stars called binary pulsars.

1994

Clifford G. Shull (American) and Bertram N. Brockhouse (Canadian) for using neutrons to probe the atomic structure of solids.

1995

Martin Perl (American) for research on a subatomic particle called the tau, and Frederick Reines (American) for his discovery of a subatomic particle called the neutrino.

1996

David M. Lee , Robert C. Richardson , and Douglas D. Osheroff (American) for discovering that a type of helium called helium-3 becomes a superfluid, a rare form of matter, at an extremely low temperature.

1997

Steven Chu and William D. Phillips (Americans) and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (French) for developing a way to trap atoms with laser light.

1998

Robert B. Laughlin (American), Horst L. Stormer (German-born American), and Daniel C. Tsui (Chinese-born American) for discovering a magnetic phenomenon called the fractional quantum Hall effect .

1999

Gerardus 't Hooft (Dutch) and Martinus J. G. Veltman (Dutch) for developing calculation methods used with the electroweak theory , a description of the behavior of subatomic particles.

2000

Zhores I. Alferov (Russian) and Herbert Kroemer (German-born American) for developing certain layered structures that are used in electronic devices, and Jack S. Kilby (American) for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit.

2001

Eric A. Cornell (American), Wolfgang Ketterle (German), and Carl E. Wieman (American) for the discovery and study of a state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate.

2002

Raymond Davis, Jr. (American), and Masatoshi Koshiba (Japanese) for their development of equipment used to detect subatomic particles known as neutrinos that come from outer space, and Riccardo Giacconi (Italian-born American) for work that led to the discovery of X-ray sources in outer space.

2003

Alexeii Abrikosov (Russian-born American), Vitaly Ginzburg (Russian), and Anthony Leggett (British and American) for contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids.

2004

David Jonathan Gross , Hugh David Politzer , and Frank Anthony Wilczek (American) for developing a theory to explain the force that binds quarks together.

2005

Roy J. Glauber (American) for his contribution to the study of optics in quantum theory and John L. Hall (American) and Theodor W. Hansch (German) for developing more precise techniques for laser spectroscopy.

2006

John C. Mather and George F. Smoot III (American) for their discoveries confirming the big bang theory of the early universe.

2007

Albert Fert (French) and Peter Andreas Grünberg (German) for discovering a phenomenon called giant magnetoresistance, which enabled the development of small, high-capacity computer hard drives.

2008

Yoichiro Nambu (Japanese-born American) for his explanation of broken symmetry, an important property of subatomic particles; and Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa (Japanese) for identifying the particles that must exist for Nambu’s explanation to work.

2009

Charles K, Kao (Chinese-born British-American) for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication, and Willard S. Boyle (Canadian-born American) and George E. Smith (American) for the invention of the charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor, an imaging semiconductor circuit.

2010

Andre Konstantin Geim (Russian-born Dutch) and Konstantin Novoselov (British and Russian) for pioneering experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene, a single sheet of graphite. Graphene is an ultra-thin, extremely strong material.

2011

Saul Perlmutter (American), Brian P. Schmidt (American-born Australian), and Adam G. Riess (American) for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae (exploding stars).

2012

Serge Haroche (French) and David J. Wineland (American) for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.

2013

François Englert (Belgian) and Peter Higgs (British) for their theory of the existence of a subatomic particle, later called the Higgs boson, thought to give mass to other subatomic particles.

2014

Isamu Akasaki (Japanese), Hiroshi Amano (Japanese), and Shuji Nakamura (American) for inventing the blue light-emitting diode (LED), a tiny device that gives off light in response to an electric current.

2015

Takaaki Kajita (Japanese) and Arthur B. McDonald (Canadian) for their discovery that neutrinos change identities, and thus, contrary to previously held scientific views, must have mass.

2016

David J. Thouless , F. Duncan M. Haldane , and J. Michael Kosterlitz (British) for their theoretical discoveries using mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids, and thin magnetic films.

2017

Barry Barish, Kip Thorne, and Rainer Weiss (American) for their contributions to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and the detection of gravitational waves.

2018

Arthur Ashkin (American), Gérard Mourou (French), and Donna Strickland (Canadian) for their groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics.

2019

James Peebles (Canadian-born American) for developing a theoretical framework for the evolution of the universe, and Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz (Swiss) for their discovery of the first planet orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system.