Nobel Prize in Physics Winners

Nobel Prize in Physics laureates from 1901 to 2025, organized by era. Select a name to see the citation, real-world impact, biography, and other research fields.

He was long responsible for managing precision measurement standards, including the international standard meter bar.

He founded a large research laboratory in Berkeley, California (today's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), creating the model for American big science.

After his Nobel Prize, he switched his research field entirely to molecular biology and co-founded a biotechnology startup.

1961-1980

1981-2000

2001-2025

Joint Awards Are Common in Physics

Unlike the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel Prize in Physics is very often shared by multiple people who contributed to the same discovery, rather than given to just one person. The rules allow the prize to be split among up to three laureates in a given year, and many of the laureates featured on this page share their award with other researchers. John Bardeen is the only person to appear twice on this page, having won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice — in 1956 (the transistor) and 1972 (the theory of superconductivity).

Some Years Had No Laureate

Due to circumstances including the two World Wars, the Nobel Prize in Physics was not awarded in a total of six years (1916, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1941, 1942). This page only includes cards for years that had a laureate.

About This Page

This page is educational content introducing Nobel Prize in Physics laureates and their achievements. The Nobel Committee's official citations have been translated into English, and each laureate's biography and real-world impact are summarized from widely known facts and assessments. Explanations of physics theories have been simplified for readability, so please consult specialized sources for precise academic details.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the Nobel Prize in Physics shared by multiple people so often?

Modern physics discoveries are frequently the product of collaboration between multiple researchers — for example, one developing the theory and another confirming it experimentally. When more than one person made a decisive contribution to the same discovery, the Nobel Committee can split the prize among up to three laureates. A substantial share of the laureates on this page are such joint winners.

Have there been any East Asian Nobel Physics laureates?

Yes. Japan's first laureate was Hideki Yukawa in 1949, and several more Japanese physicists have won since, especially from the 2000s onward (including Yoichiro Nambu, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa, Masatoshi Koshiba, Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura, and Takaaki Kajita). Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee (1957) were the first ethnic Chinese laureates in any scientific field. As of 2025, South Korea has not yet had a Nobel Prize in Physics laureate.

Was the Nobel Prize in Physics awarded for Einstein's theory of relativity?

No. Einstein's official 1921 citation was for "the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect" — his theory of relativity, which is what he's most famous for, was left out of the citation because it was considered not yet sufficiently verified at the time. This is a commonly misunderstood fact: the theory that made Einstein famous was not the official reason he won the Nobel Prize.