# List of Asian Nobel laureates

The Nobel Prize is an annual, international prize first awarded in 1901 for achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. An associated prize in Economics has been awarded since 1969. Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 800 individuals.
Asians have been the recipients of all six award categories: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economics. The first Asian recipient, Rabindranath Tagore, was awarded the Literature Prize in 1913. In 1930, C. V. Raman became the first Asian recipient of a Nobel Prize in one of the sciences. The most Nobel Prizes awarded to Asians in a single year was in 2014, when five Asians became laureates. The most recent Asian laureates, South Korean writer Han Kang, Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, and Turkish-American economist Daron Acemoglu were awarded their prizes in 2024.
To date (2024), there have been Sixty-three Asian winners of the Nobel Prize, including thirty Japanese, twelve Israeli, nine Indian (not including non-Indian Laureates born in India) and eight Chinese (not including non-Chinese Laureates born in China). The list does not include Russians.

## Physics

As of 2021, there are 21 Asians or Asian Americans who have won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Japanese comprise the majority, with 12 laureates.
| Year | Laureate | Country at the time of the award | Category | Comment |
| 1930 | Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman | British India | Physics | First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate in Science |
| 1949 | Hideki Yukawa | Japan | Physics | First Japanese Nobel laureate |
| 1957 | Chen Ning Yang | China | Physics | First Chinese Nobel laureate |
| 1957 | Tsung-Dao Lee | China | Physics | First Chinese Nobel laureate |
| 1965 | Shin'ichiro Tomonaga | Japan | Physics | |
| 1973 | Leo Esaki | Japan | Physics | |
| 1976 | Samuel C. C. Ting | United States | Physics | Dual-citizen of United States and Republic of China |
| 1979 | Abdus Salam | Pakistan | Physics | First Pakistani Nobel laureate |
| 1983 | Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar | United States | Physics | Born in India |
| 1997 | Steven Chu | United States | Physics | Born in United States |
| 1998 | Daniel C. Tsui | United States | Physics | Born in China |
| 2002 | Masatoshi Koshiba | Japan | Physics | |
| 2008 | Yoichiro Nambu | United States | Physics | Born in Japan |
| 2008 | Makoto Kobayashi | Japan | Physics | |
| 2008 | Toshihide Maskawa | Japan | Physics | |
| 2009 | Charles K. Kao | United Kingdom and United States | Physics | First Hong Kong citizenship Nobel laureate |
| 2014 | Isamu Akasaki | Japan | Physics | |
| 2014 | Hiroshi Amano | Japan | Physics | |
| 2014 | Shuji Nakamura | United States | Physics | Born in Japan |
| 2015 | Takaaki Kajita | Japan | Physics |
| 2021 | Syukuro Manabe | United States | Physics | Born in Japan |

## Chemistry

As of 2024, there are 20 Asians or Asian Americans who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with the Japanese comprising the most with 8 laureates.
| Year | Laureate | Country at the time of the award | Category | Comment |
| 1981 | Kenichi Fukui | Japan | Chemistry | First Asian and Japanese Nobel laureate in Chemistry |
| 1986 | Yuan T. Lee | Taiwan and United States | Chemistry | First Taiwanese Nobel laureate |
| 1987 | Charles J. Pedersen | United States | Chemistry | Japanese mother; born in Korea |
| 2000 | Hideki Shirakawa | Japan | Chemistry | |
| 2001 | Ryōji Noyori | Japan | Chemistry | |
| 2002 | Koichi Tanaka | Japan | Chemistry | |
| 2004 | Aaron Ciechanover | Israel | Chemistry | |
| 2004 | Avram Hershko | Israel | Chemistry | |
| 2008 | Osamu Shimomura | Japan | Chemistry | |
| 2008 | Roger Y. Tsien | United States | Chemistry | Born in United States |
| 2009 | Venki Ramakrishnan | United Kingdom and United States | Chemistry | Born in India |
| 2009 | Ada Yonath | Israel | Chemistry | |
| 2010 | Ei-ichi Negishi | Japan | Chemistry | |
| 2010 | Akira Suzuki | Japan | Chemistry | |
| 2011 | Dan Shechtman | Israel | Chemistry | |
| 2013 | Arieh Warshel | Israel and United States | Chemistry | |
| 2013 | Michael Levitt | Israel, United Kingdom and United States | Chemistry | |
| 2015 | Aziz Sancar | Turkey and United States | Chemistry | First Turkish Nobel laureate in science |
| 2019 | Akira Yoshino | Japan | Chemistry | |
| 2024 | Demis Hassabis | United Kingdom | Chemistry | Singaporean mother |

## Physiology or Medicine

As of 2018, there are 7 Asians who won Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with the Japanese comprising the most with 5 laureates.
| Year | Laureate | Country at the time of the award | Category | Comment |
| 1968 | Har Gobind Khorana | United States | Physiology or Medicine | First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. Born in India |
| 1987 | Susumu Tonegawa | Japan | Physiology or Medicine | First Japanese Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine |
| 2012 | Shinya Yamanaka | Japan | Physiology or Medicine | First Nobel Medicine Laureate to achieve rewarded results in Asia |
| 2015 | Satoshi Ōmura | Japan | Physiology or Medicine | |
| 2015 | Tu Youyou | China | Physiology or Medicine | First Chinese woman Nobel laureate |
| 2016 | Yoshinori Ohsumi | Japan | Physiology or Medicine | |
| 2018 | Tasuku Honjo | Japan | Physiology or Medicine | |

## Literature

As of 2024, there are 9 Asians who won Nobel Prize in Literature, with the Japanese comprising the most with 3 laureates.
| Year | Laureate | Country at the time of the award | Category | Comment |
| 1913 | Rabindranath Tagore | British India | Literature | First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate |
| 1968 | Yasunari Kawabata | Japan | Literature | |
| 1994 | Kenzaburō Ōe | Japan | Literature | |
| 2000 | Gao Xingjian | France | Literature | Born in China |
| 2001 | V. S. Naipaul | United Kingdom | Literature | Indian origin. Born in Trinidad and Tobago. |
| 2006 | Orhan Pamuk | Turkey | Literature | First Turkish Nobel laureate |
| 2012 | Mo Yan | China | Literature | |
| 2017 | Kazuo Ishiguro | United Kingdom | Literature | Born in Japan |
| 2024 | Han Kang | South Korea | Literature | First Asian female Nobel laureate in Literature |

## Peace

As of 2024, there are 23 Asians who won Nobel Peace Prize, with the Israeli and Indian comprising the most with 3 laureates.
| Year | Laureate | Country at the time of the award | Category | Comment |
| 1973 | Lê Đức Thọ (declined award) | North Vietnam | Peace | First Asian and Vietnamese Nobel laureate in Peace |
| 1974 | Eisaku Satō | Japan | Peace | |
| 1978 | Menachem Begin | Israel | Peace | |
| 1979 | Mother Teresa | India | Peace | First Asian woman Nobel laureate |
| 1989 | Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama | India, China and Tibet | Peace | First Tibetan Nobel laureate |
| 1991 | Aung San Suu Kyi | Burma | Peace | First Myanmar Nobel laureate |
| 1994 | Yasser Arafat | Palestine | Peace | First Palestinian Arab in Nobel laureate |
| 1994 | Shimon Peres | Israel | Peace | |
| 1994 | Yitzhak Rabin | Israel | Peace | |
| 1996 | Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo | Timor-Leste | Peace | First Timorese Nobel laureate |
| 1996 | José Ramos-Horta | Timor-Leste | Peace | First Timorese Nobel laureate |
| 2000 | Kim Dae-jung | South Korea | Peace | First Korean Nobel laureate |
| 2003 | Shirin Ebadi | Iran | Peace | First Iranian Nobel laureate |
| 2006 | Muhammad Yunus | Bangladesh | Peace | First Bangladeshi Nobel laureate in Peace |
| 2006 | Grameen Bank | Bangladesh | Peace | First Bangladeshi Nobel laureate in Peace and First Asian organization to receive the award |
| 2010 | Liu Xiaobo | China | Peace | First Asian Nobel laureate in prison |
| 2011 | Tawakkul Karman | Yemen | Peace | First Arab Woman and First Yemeni Nobel laureate |
| 2014 | Kailash Satyarthi | India | Peace | |
| 2014 | Malala Yousafzai | Pakistan | Peace | First Pakistani Woman Nobel laureate and youngest Nobel laureate |
| 2018 | Nadia Murad | Iraq | Peace | First Iraqi Nobel laureate |
| 2021 | Maria Ressa | Philippines | Peace | First Filipino Nobel laureate |
| 2023 | Narges Mohammadi | Iran | Peace | Second Iranian Nobel laureate and awarded while in prison |
| 2024 | Nihon Hidankyo | Japan | Peace | |

## Economics

As of 2024, five Asians have won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
| Year | Laureate | Country at the time of the award | Category | Comment |
| 1998 | Amartya Sen | India | Economics | First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate in Economics. |
| 2002 | Daniel Kahneman | Israel and United States | Economics | |
| 2005 | Robert Aumann | Israel and United States | Economics | |
| 2019 | Abhijit Banerjee | United States | Economics | Born in India |
| 2024 | Daron Acemoglu | Turkey and United States | Economics | |