Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

List of nominees for the Nobel Prize in Physics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of nominees for the Nobel Prize in Physics
Remove ads

The Nobel Prize in Physics (Swedish: Nobelpriset i fysik) is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists who have made outstanding contributions in Physics.[1] It is one of the five Nobel Prizes which were established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895.[2]

Thumb
Chien-Shiung Wu, the first woman from Asia to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics

Every year, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences sends out forms, which amount to a personal and exclusive invitation, to about three thousand selected individuals to invite them to submit nominations. The names of the nominees are never publicly announced, and neither are they told that they have been considered for the Prize. Nomination records are strictly sealed for fifty years. As of 2025, the nominations for the years 1901 to 1974 are publicly available. Despite the annual sending of invitations, the prize was not awarded in six years (1916, 1931, 1934, 1940–1942) and have been delayed for a year nine times (1914, 1917, 1918, 1921, 1924, 1925, 1928, 1932, 1943).

From 1901 to 1974, 672 scientists were nominated for the prize, 100 of which were awarded either jointly or individually. 30 more scientists from these nominees were awarded after 1974. Of the 13 women nominees, only two were awarded the prize in physics. The first woman to be nominated was Marie Curie in 1902 by German scientist Emil Warburg and French mathematician Gaston Darboux, and she won the prize the next year. She is the only woman to win a Nobel Prize twice: Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911).[3] Besides 27 and 3 scientists from these nominees won the prizes in Chemistry (including two more women) and in Physiology or Medicine correspondingly (including years after 1974). Only one informal corporation and one organization have been nominated: the Nuclear scientists (1946 and 1947) and CERN (1970).

Despite the long list of nominated noteworthy physicists, astronomers, engineers, and chemists, there have been other famed scientists who were overlooked for the prize in physics, such as physicists G.Fr.FitzGerald, G.Stokes, J.W.Gibbs, P.Drude, H.Minkowski, W.Ritz, G.J.Stoney, Osb.Reynolds, Fr.C.Alw.Pockels, V.Schumann, N.Umov, Ernst Pringsheim Sr., M.Smoluchowski, W.Voigt, M.Abraham, Al.Friedmann, G.Wulff, Ant. van den Broek, F.Kurlbaum, G.Sagnac, Em.Wiechert, R.Pictet, P.Ehrenfest, P.Knipping, L.Shubnikov, M.P.Bronstein, Ett.Majorana, Edw.Hall, S.P.Schubin, D.S.Roschdestwenski, Ol.Lodge, J.Larmor, J.Ishiwara, N.Dm.Papaleksi, R.Ch.Tolman, A.H.Pfund, W. W. Hansen, H.Nagaoka, Y.Nishina, Ya.Frenkel, Th.Kaluza, J.Lennard-Jones, H.Weyl, Al.Proca, J. von Neumann, G.Mie, D.Hartree, Ad.Smekal, P. Pringsheim, H. von Halban, Fr.Houtermans, B.Podolsky, A.I.Alikhanov, Ern.Marsden and E.F.Gross; astronomers and astrophysicists: Ot.W.v.Struve and his grandson Otto Struve, P.J.C.Janssen, Ch.Aug.Young, S.Newcomb, G.V.Schiaparelli, W. Huggins, K.Schwarzschild, P.Lowell, W.de Sitter, brothers Edw.Ch. and W.H.Pickering, R.H.Fowler, G.W.Ritchey, J.Jeans, Gr.Shajn, Otto Schmidt, G.Adr.Tikhov, C.K.Seyfert and Dm.Dm.Maksutov; inventors and engineers: Al.St.Popov, B.Rosing, G.B.Pegram, Ig.Kurchatov and S.Korolev.

In addition, nominations of 10 scientists and two corporations more were declared invalid by the Nobel Committee.

Remove ads

Nominees by their first nomination

Summarize
Perspective

1901–1909

More information Picture, Name ...

1910–1919

More information Picture, Name ...

1920–1930

More information Picture, Name ...

1931–1939

More information Picture, Name ...

1940–1949

More information Picture, Name ...

1950–1959

More information Picture, Name ...

1960–1969

More information Picture, Name ...

1970–

More information Picture, Name ...
Remove ads

See also

Motivations and remarks

  1. "The work done is in the physical field but among the latest discoveries, Röntgen's has been of greatest use in medicine"
  2. “in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy”
  3. "Work on immunochemistry"
  4. Nominations were declared invalid by the Nobel Committee – The Nobel Population 1901–1937: A Census of the Nominators and Nominees for the Prizes in Physics and Chemistry Elisabeth T. Crawford, J. L. Heilbron, Rebecca Ullrich (Office for History of Science and Technology, University of California, 1987)
  5. "Work on the perfection of the microscope and work on social hygiene"
  6. “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”
  7. “for his invention of automatic regulators for use in conjunction with gas accumulators for illuminating lighthouses and buoys”
  8. “for his work on the discontinuous structure of matter, and especially for his discovery of sedimentation equilibrium”
  9. “for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields”
  10. “for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals”
  11. “for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays”
  12. “for his method of making the paths of electrically charged particles visible by condensation of vapour”
  13. “for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect”
  14. “for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them”
  15. “for his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements”
  16. “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”
  17. "Work on the colloid state in sickness and in health"
  18. “for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom”
  19. “for his work on the thermionic phenomenon and especially for the discovery of the law named after him”
  20. Nevertheless most probable nominee is Jules Richard (1848–1930) – inventor of a few meteorological instruments (including aneroid barograph)
  21. “for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy”
  22. “for his discovery of the effect named after him”
  23. “for his discovery of the wave nature of electrons”
  24. “for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton”
  25. “for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen”
  26. “for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory”
  27. “for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals”
  28. “for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him”
  29. “for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction”
  30. “for his discovery of cosmic radiation”
  31. “for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli Principle”
  32. “for his discovery of the positron”
  33. “for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith”
  34. “for the discovery of the neutron”
  35. “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”
  36. “for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer”
  37. "Work on mitogenetic radiation"
  38. “for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation”
  39. “All joint nominations with C C Butler have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site”
  40. “for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles”
  41. “for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements”
  42. “for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei”
  43. “for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces”
  44. "The polarographic method and its biological applications"
  45. Chamberlain' motivation - “whose personal action has avoided a world war, and thus enabled all scientists to pursue their researches”
  46. “for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars”
  47. “for his demonstration of the phase contrast method, especially for his invention of the phase contrast microscope”
  48. “for his basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics”
  49. “for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith”
  50. “for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with this method”
  51. French physicist Alexandre Henri Georges Dauvillier (5 May 1892 Saint-Lubin-des-Joncherets – 23 September 1979 Bagnères-de-Bigorre) from Paris
  52. “for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles”
  53. “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”
  54. “for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum”
  55. “for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems”
  56. “for his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron”
  57. “for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect”
  58. “for fundamental work and discoveries concerning antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism which have led to important applications in solid state physics”
  59. “for fundamental work and discoveries in magnetohydro-dynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics”
  60. “for their discovery of the antiproton”
  61. “for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles”
  62. “for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory”
  63. “for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect”
  64. “for his pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium”
  65. “for his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope”
  66. "Development of the electron microscope"
  67. “for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure”
  68. “for the discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms”
  69. “for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars”
  70. “for the development of the neutron diffraction technique”
  71. “for the detection of the neutrino”
  72. “Data of C C Butler (id 13849) has been hidden at the Nomination Archive site”
  73. “Nomination 18574 to Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dau Lee has been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  74. “Data of Chen Ning Yang (id 13847) has been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  75. “for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles”
  76. “Data of Wu (id 14754) has been hidden at the Nomination Archive site”
  77. “for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons”
  78. “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”
  79. “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”
  80. “Nominations 15059-15061 to Korringa has been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  81. “Data of Korringa (id 10865) has been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  82. “for the invention of the bubble chamber”
  83. “for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino”
  84. "The introduction of deep X-ray therapy"
  85. “for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions”
  86. “for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy”
  87. “for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name”
  88. “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”
  89. “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”
  90. “for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino”
  91. “for his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe”
  92. “Nominations 18847&19324 to Yoshio Ohnuki have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  93. “Data of Y Ohnuki (id 13855) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  94. “for his invention and development of the holographic method”
  95. "Effects of radiation on cell division ("Zellteilung und Strahlung", Jul. Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1928)"
  96. “for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons”
  97. “for the development of neutron spectroscopy”
  98. “Nominations 19899 & 19900 to Hartmut Kallmann have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site”
  99. “Data of Hartmut Kallmann (id 14441) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site”
  100. “Data of Gerhart Lüders (id 15060) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site”
  101. “Data of Cormac Ó Ceallaigh (id 14496) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site”
  102. “Data of Rafael Armenteros (id 15061) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site”
  103. “Data of Danby (id 15065) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site”
  104. “Data of Isaak Pomeranchuk (id 14495) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site”
  105. “Nominations 19928&20219 and probably 20679&20800 to David Warren Turner have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  106. “Data of David Warren Turner (id 14450) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  107. “Nomination 20252 has been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  108. “Data of Leo Esaki (id 14575) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  109. “for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively”
  110. “Data of I Giaever (id 14755) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  111. “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”
  112. “Data of Brian David Josephson (id 14577) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  113. “All nominations with Br.Josephson have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  114. “Nominations 20234, 20701&20827 to Jeffrey Goldstone have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  115. “Data of Jeffrey Goldstone (id 14564) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  116. Osmund Dorenfeldt Jenssen (1923–2009) from the University of Trondheim
  117. “Nomination 20866 to J.Bell has been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  118. “Data of Jocelyn Bell (id 15505) have been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  119. “for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation”
  120. “for his contribution to the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy”
  121. “Nomination 20810 (with Br.Josephson) has been hidden at the Nomination Archive site according to § 8 of the statutes governing the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
  122. “for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids”
  123. "for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics"
  124. "for his theory for critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions"
  125. "for the invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks"
  126. "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos"
Remove ads

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads