# List of Nobel laureates in Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics (Swedish: Nobelpriset i fysik) is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel (who died in 1896), awarded for outstanding contributions in physics. As dictated by Nobel's will, the award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The award is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death. Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma and a monetary award prize that has varied throughout the years.

## Statistics

The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to 226 individuals as of 2024. The first prize in physics was awarded in 1901 to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, of Germany, who received 150,782 SEK. John Bardeen is the only laureate to win the prize twice—in 1956 and 1972.
William Lawrence Bragg was the youngest Nobel laureate in physics; he won the prize in 1915 at the age of 25. He was also the youngest laureate for any Nobel prize until 2014 (when Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17). The oldest Nobel Prize laureate in physics was Arthur Ashkin who was 96 years old when he was awarded the prize in 2018.
Only five women have won the prize: Marie Curie (1903), Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1963), Donna Strickland (2018), Andrea Ghez (2020), and Anne L'Huillier (2023). Before L'Huillier, each woman only ever received a quarter share of the prize, although Marie Curie did receive an unshared Nobel prize in chemistry in 1911. In 2023, L'Huillier received a one-third share.
There have been six years for which the Nobel Prize in Physics was not awarded (1916, 1931, 1934, 1940–1942). There were also nine years for which the Nobel Prize in Physics was delayed for one year:
* The 1914 prize awarded to Max von Laue was announced only in November 1915.
* The Prize was not awarded in 1917, as the Nobel Committee for Physics decided that none of that year's nominations met the necessary criteria, but was awarded to Charles Glover Barkla in 1918 and counted as the 1917 prize.
* This precedent was followed for the 1918 prize awarded to Max Planck in 1919,
* the 1921 prize awarded to Albert Einstein in 1922,
* the 1924 prize awarded to Manne Siegbahn in 1925,
* the 1925 prize awarded to James Franck and Gustav Hertz in 1926,
* the 1928 prize awarded to Owen Richardson in 1929,
* the 1932 prize awarded to Werner Heisenberg in 1933, and
* the 1943 prize awarded to Otto Stern in 1944.
A 2020 study reported that half of the Nobel Prizes for science awarded between 1995 and 2017 are clustered in few disciplines. Particle physics (14%), atomic physics (10.9%), and 3 non-physics disciplines dominate the prize in recent decades, followed by semiconductor physics and magnetics.

## Laureates

* 1901
* 1910
* 1920
* 1930
* 1940
* 1950
* 1960
* 1970
* 1980
* 1990
* 2000
* 2010
* 2020
| Year | Image | Laureate | Nationality | Rationale | Ref |
| 1901 | | Wilhelm Röntgen (1845–1923) | German | "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him" | |
| 1902 | | Hendrik Lorentz (1853–1928) | Dutch | "in recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomena" | |
| 1902 | | Pieter Zeeman (1865–1943) | Dutch | "in recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomena" | |
| 1903 | | Henri Becquerel (1852–1908) | French | "for his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity" | |
| 1903 | | Pierre Curie (1859–1906) | French | "for their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel" | |
| 1903 | | Marie Curie (1867–1934) | Polish French | "for their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel" | |
| 1904 | | Lord Rayleigh (1842–1919) | British | "for his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of argon in connection with these studies" | |
| 1905 | | Philipp Lenard (1862–1947) | Hungarian German | "for his work on cathode rays" | |
| 1906 | | J. J. Thomson (1856–1940) | British | "for his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases" | |
| 1907 | | Albert A. Michelson (1852–1931) | American | "for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid" | |
| 1908 | | Gabriel Lippmann (1845–1921) | French | "for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference" | |
| 1909 | | Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937) | Italian | "for their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy" | |
| 1909 | | Karl Ferdinand Braun (1850–1918) | German | "for their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy" | |
| 1910 | | Johannes Diderik van der Waals (1837–1923) | Dutch | "for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids" | |
| 1911 | | Wilhelm Wien (1864–1928) | German | "for his discoveries regarding the laws governing the radiation of heat" | |
| 1912 | | Gustaf Dalén (1869–1937) | Swedish | "for his invention of automatic valves designed to be used in combination with gas accumulators in lighthouses and buoys" | |
| 1913 | | Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853–1926) | Dutch | "for his investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures which led, inter alia, to the production of liquid helium" | |
| 1914 | | Max von Laue (1879–1960) | German | "For his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals", an important step in the development of X-ray spectroscopy. | |
| 1915 | | William Henry Bragg (1862–1942) | British | "'For their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays', an important step in the development of X-ray crystallography" | |
| 1915 | | Lawrence Bragg (1890–1971) | British | "'For their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays', an important step in the development of X-ray crystallography" | |
| 1916 | Not awarded due to World War I | Not awarded due to World War I | Not awarded due to World War I | Not awarded due to World War I | Not awarded due to World War I |
| 1917 | | Charles Glover Barkla (1877–1944) | British | "'For his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements', another important step in the development of X-ray spectroscopy" | |
| 1918 | | Max Planck (1858–1947) | German | "for the services he rendered to the advancement of physics by his discovery of energy quanta" | |
| 1919 | | Johannes Stark (1874–1957) | German | "for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields" | |
| 1920 | | Charles Édouard Guillaume (1861–1938) | Swiss | "for the service he has rendered to precision measurements in physics by his discovery of anomalies in nickel-steel alloys" | |
| 1921 | | Albert Einstein (1879–1955) | German Swiss | "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect" | |
| 1922 | | Niels Bohr (1885–1962) | Danish | "for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them" | |
| 1923 | | Robert Andrews Millikan (1868–1953) | American | "for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect" | |
| 1924 | | Manne Siegbahn (1886–1978) | Swedish | "for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy" | |
| 1925 | | James Franck (1882–1964) | German | "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom" | |
| 1925 | | Gustav Hertz (1887–1975) | German | "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom" | |
| 1926 | | Jean Baptiste Perrin (1870–1942) | French | "for his work on the discontinuous structure of matter, and especially for his discovery of sedimentation equilibrium" | |
| 1927 | | Arthur Compton (1892–1962) | American | "for his discovery of the effect named after him" | |
| 1927 | | Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869–1959) | British | "for his method of making the paths of electrically charged particles visible by condensation of vapour" | |
| 1928 | | Owen Willans Richardson (1879–1959) | British | "for his work on the thermionic phenomenon and especially for the discovery of the law named after him" | |
| 1929 | | Louis de Broglie (1892–1987) | French | "for his discovery of the wave nature of electrons" | |
| 1930 | | C. V. Raman (1888–1970) | Indian | "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him" | |
| 1931 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 1932 | | Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) | German | "for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen" | |
| 1933 | | Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) | Austrian | "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory" | |
| 1933 | | Paul Dirac (1902–1984) | British | "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory" | |
| 1934 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 1935 | | James Chadwick (1891–1974) | British | "for the discovery of the neutron" | |
| 1936 | | Victor Francis Hess (1883–1964) | Austrian | "for his discovery of cosmic radiation" | |
| 1936 | | Carl David Anderson (1905–1991) | American | "for his discovery of the positron" | |
| 1937 | | Clinton Davisson (1881–1958) | American | "for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals" | |
| 1937 | | George Paget Thomson (1892–1975) | British | "for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals" | |
| 1938 | | Enrico Fermi (1901–1954) | Italian | "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" | |
| 1939 | | Ernest Lawrence (1901–1958) | American | "for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements" | |
| 1940 | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II |
| 1941 | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II |
| 1942 | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II |
| 1943 | | Otto Stern (1888–1969) | American | "for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton" | |
| 1944 | | Isidor Isaac Rabi (1898–1988) | American | "for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei" | |
| 1945 | | Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958) | Austrian | "for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli principle" | |
| 1946 | | Percy Williams Bridgman (1882–1961) | American | "for the invention of an apparatus to produce extremely high pressures, and for the discoveries he made there within the field of high pressure physics" | |
| 1947 | | Edward Victor Appleton (1892–1965) | British | "for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer" | |
| 1948 | | Patrick Blackett (1897–1974) | British | "for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation" | |
| 1949 | | Hideki Yukawa (1907–1981) | Japanese | "for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces" | |
| 1950 | | C. F. Powell (1903–1969) | British | "for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with this method" | |
| 1951 | | John Cockcroft (1897–1967) | British | "for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles" | |
| 1951 | | Ernest Walton (1903–1995) | Irish | "for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles" | |
| 1952 | | Felix Bloch (1905–1983) | Swiss American | "for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith" | |
| 1952 | | Edward Mills Purcell (1912–1997) | American | "for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith" | |
| 1953 | | Frits Zernike (1888–1966) | Dutch | "for his demonstration of the phase contrast method, especially for his invention of the phase contrast microscope" | |
| 1954 | | Max Born (1882–1970) | West German British | "for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction" | |
| 1954 | | Walther Bothe (1891–1957) | West German | "for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith" | |
| 1955 | | Willis Lamb (1913–2008) | American | "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum" | |
| 1955 | | Polykarp Kusch (1911–1993) | American | "for his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron" | |
| 1956 | | John Bardeen (1908–1991) | American | "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect" | |
| 1956 | | Walter Houser Brattain (1902–1987) | American | "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect" | |
| 1956 | | William Shockley (1910–1989) | American | "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect" | |
| 1957 | | Lee Tsung-Dao (1926–2024) | Chinese | "for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles" | |
| 1957 | | Yang Chen-Ning (b. 1922) | Chinese | "for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles" | |
| 1958 | | Pavel Cherenkov (1904–1990) | Soviet | "for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect" | |
| 1958 | | Ilya Frank (1908–1990) | Soviet | "for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect" | |
| 1958 | | Igor Tamm (1895–1971) | Soviet | "for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect" | |
| 1959 | | Emilio Segrè (1905–1989) | Italian American | "for their discovery of the antiproton" | |
| 1959 | | Owen Chamberlain (1920–2006) | American | "for their discovery of the antiproton" | |
| 1960 | | Donald A. Glaser (1926–2013) | American | "for the invention of the bubble chamber" | |
| 1961 | | Robert Hofstadter (1915–1990) | American | "for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons" | |
| 1961 | | Rudolf Mössbauer (1929–2011) | West German | "for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name" | |
| 1962 | | Lev Landau (1908–1968) | Soviet | "for his pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium" | |
| 1963 | | Eugene Wigner (1902–1995) | Hungarian American | "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles" | |
| 1963 | | Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1906–1972) | American | "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure" | |
| 1963 | | J. Hans D. Jensen (1907–1973) | West German | "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure" | |
| 1964 | | Nikolay Basov (1922–2001) | Soviet | "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" | |
| 1964 | | Alexander Prokhorov (1916–2002) | Soviet | "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" | |
| 1964 | | Charles H. Townes (1915–2015) | American | "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" | |
| 1965 | | Richard Feynman (1918–1988) | American | "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles" | |
| 1965 | | Julian Schwinger (1918–1994) | American | "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles" | |
| 1965 | | Shin'ichirō Tomonaga (1906–1979) | Japanese | "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles" | |
| 1966 | | Alfred Kastler (1902–1984) | French | "for the discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms" | |
| 1967 | | Hans Bethe (1906–2005) | American | "for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars" | |
| 1968 | | Luis Alvarez (1911–1988) | American | "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" | |
| 1969 | | Murray Gell-Mann (1929–2019) | American | "for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions" | |
| 1970 | | Hannes Alfvén (1908–1995) | Swedish | "for fundamental work and discoveries in magneto-hydrodynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics" | |
| 1970 | | Louis Néel (1904–2000) | French | "for fundamental work and discoveries concerning antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism which have led to important applications in solid state physics" | |
| 1971 | | Dennis Gabor (1900–1979) | Hungarian British | "for his invention and development of the holographic method" | |
| 1972 | | John Bardeen (1908–1991) | American | "for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory" | |
| 1972 | | Leon Cooper (1930–2024) | American | "for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory" | |
| 1972 | | John Robert Schrieffer (1931–2019) | American | "for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory" | |
| 1973 | | Leo Esaki (b. 1925) | Japanese | "for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively" | |
| 1973 | | Ivar Giaever (b. 1929) | Norwegian American | "for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively" | |
| 1973 | | Brian Josephson (b. 1940) | British | "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 effect" | |
| 1974 | | Martin Ryle (1918–1984) | British | "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" | |
| 1974 | | Antony Hewish (1924–2021) | British | "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" | |
| 1975 | | Aage Bohr (1922–2009) | Danish | "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" | |
| 1975 | | Ben Roy Mottelson (1926–2022) | American Danish | "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" | |
| 1975 | | James Rainwater (1917–1986) | American | "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" | |
| 1976 | | Samuel C. C. Ting (b. 1936) | American | "for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind" | |
| 1976 | | Burton Richter (1931–2018) | American | "for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind" | |
| 1977 | | Philip Warren Anderson (1923–2020) | American | "for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems" | |
| 1977 | | Nevill Francis Mott (1905–1996) | British | "for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems" | |
| 1977 | | John Hasbrouck Van Vleck (1899–1980) | American | "for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems" | |
| 1978 | | Pyotr Kapitsa (1894–1984) | Soviet | "for his basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics" | |
| 1978 | | Arno Allan Penzias (1933–2024) | American | "for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation" | |
| 1978 | | Robert Woodrow Wilson (b. 1936) | American | "for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation" | |
| 1979 | | Sheldon Glashow (b. 1932) | American | "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" | |
| 1979 | | Abdus Salam (1926–1996) | Pakistani | "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" | |
| 1979 | | Steven Weinberg (1933–2021) | American | "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" | |
| 1980 | | James Cronin (1931–2016) | American | "for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons" | |
| 1980 | | Val Logsdon Fitch (1923–2015) | American | "for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons" | |
| 1981 | | Nicolaas Bloembergen (1920–2017) | Dutch American | "for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy" | |
| 1981 | | Arthur Leonard Schawlow (1921–1999) | American | "for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy" | |
| 1981 | | Kai Siegbahn (1918–2007) | Swedish | "for his contribution to the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy" | |
| 1982 | | Kenneth G. Wilson (1936–2013) | American | "for his theory for critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions" | |
| 1983 | | Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995) | Indian American | "for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars" | |
| 1983 | | William Alfred Fowler (1911–1995) | American | "for his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe" | |
| 1984 | | Carlo Rubbia (b. 1934) | Italian | "for their decisive contributions to the large project, which led to the discovery of the field particles W and Z, communicators of weak interaction" | |
| 1984 | | Simon van der Meer (1925–2011) | Dutch | "for their decisive contributions to the large project, which led to the discovery of the field particles W and Z, communicators of weak interaction" | |
| 1985 | | Klaus von Klitzing (b. 1943) | West German | "for the discovery of the quantized Hall effect" | |
| 1986 | | Ernst Ruska (1906–1988) | West German | "for his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope" | |
| 1986 | | Gerd Binnig (b. 1947) | West German | "for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope" | |
| 1986 | | Heinrich Rohrer (1933–2013) | Swiss | "for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope" | |
| 1987 | | Georg Bednorz (b. 1950) | West German | "for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials" | |
| 1987 | | K. Alex Müller (1927–2023) | Swiss | "for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials" | |
| 1988 | | Leon M. Lederman (1922–2018) | American | "for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino" | |
| 1988 | | Melvin Schwartz (1932–2006) | American | "for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino" | |
| 1988 | | Jack Steinberger (1921–2020) | American | "for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino" | |
| 1989 | | Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. (1915–2011) | American | "for the invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks" | |
| 1989 | | Hans Georg Dehmelt (1922–2017) | American | "for the development of the ion trap technique" | |
| 1989 | | Wolfgang Paul (1913–1993) | West German | "for the development of the ion trap technique" | |
| 1990 | | Jerome I. Friedman (b. 1930) | American | "for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics" | |
| 1990 | | Henry Way Kendall (1926–1999) | American | "for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics" | |
| 1990 | | Richard E. Taylor (1929–2018) | Canadian | "for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics" | |
| 1991 | | Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1932–2007) | French | "for discovering that methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalized to more complex forms of matter, in particular to liquid crystals and polymers" | |
| 1992 | | Georges Charpak (1924–2010) | French | "for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber" | |
| 1993 | | Russell Alan Hulse (b. 1950) | American | "for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation" | |
| 1993 | | Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. (b. 1941) | American | "for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation" | |
| 1994 | | Bertram Brockhouse (1918–2003) | Canadian | "for the development of neutron spectroscopy" and "for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter" | |
| 1994 | | Clifford Shull (1915–2001) | American | "for the development of the neutron diffraction technique" and "for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter" | |
| 1995 | | Martin Lewis Perl (1927–2014) | American | "for the discovery of the tau lepton" and "for pioneering experimental contributions to lepton physics" | |
| 1995 | | Frederick Reines (1918–1998) | American | "for the detection of the neutrino" and "for pioneering experimental contributions to lepton physics" | |
| 1996 | | David Lee (b. 1931) | American | "for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3" | |
| 1996 | | Douglas D. Osheroff (b. 1945) | American | "for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3" | |
| 1996 | | Robert Coleman Richardson (1937–2013) | American | "for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3" | |
| 1997 | | Steven Chu (b. 1948) | American | "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light." | |
| 1997 | | Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (b. 1933) | French | "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light." | |
| 1997 | | William Daniel Phillips (b. 1948) | American | "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light." | |
| 1998 | | Robert B. Laughlin (b. 1950) | American | "for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations" | |
| 1998 | | Horst Ludwig Störmer (b. 1949) | German | "for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations" | |
| 1998 | | Daniel C. Tsui (b. 1939) | American | "for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations" | |
| 1999 | | Gerard 't Hooft (b. 1946) | Dutch | "for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics" | |
| 1999 | | Martinus J. G. Veltman (1931–2021) | Dutch | "for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics" | |
| 2000 | | Zhores Alferov (1930–2019) | Russian | "for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and optoelectronics" | |
| 2000 | | Herbert Kroemer (1928–2024) | German | "for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and optoelectronics" | |
| 2000 | | Jack Kilby (1923–2005) | American | "for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit" | |
| 2001 | | Eric Allin Cornell (b. 1961) | American | "for the achievement of Bose–Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates" | |
| 2001 | | Carl Wieman (b. 1951) | American | "for the achievement of Bose–Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates" | |
| 2001 | | Wolfgang Ketterle (b. 1957) | German | "for the achievement of Bose–Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates" | |
| 2002 | | Raymond Davis Jr. (1914–2006) | American | "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos" | |
| 2002 | | Masatoshi Koshiba (1926–2020) | Japanese | "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos" | |
| 2002 | | Riccardo Giacconi (1931–2018) | Italian American | "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources" | |
| 2003 | | Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov (1928–2017) | Russian American | "for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids" | |
| 2003 | | Vitaly Ginzburg (1916–2009) | Russian | "for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids" | |
| 2003 | | Anthony James Leggett (b. 1938) | British American | "for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids" | |
| 2004 | | David Gross (b. 1941) | American | "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction" | |
| 2004 | | Hugh David Politzer (b. 1949) | American | "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction" | |
| 2004 | | Frank Wilczek (b. 1951) | American | "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction" | |
| 2005 | | Roy J. Glauber (1925–2018) | American | "for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence" | |
| 2005 | | John L. Hall (b. 1934) | American | "for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique" | |
| 2005 | | Theodor W. Hänsch (b. 1941) | German | "for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique" | |
| 2006 | | John C. Mather (b. 1946) | American | "for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation" | |
| 2006 | | George Smoot (b. 1945) | American | "for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation" | |
| 2007 | | Albert Fert (b. 1938) | French | "for the discovery of giant magnetoresistance" | |
| 2007 | | Peter Grünberg (1939–2018) | German | "for the discovery of giant magnetoresistance" | |
| 2008 | | Makoto Kobayashi (b. 1944) | Japanese | "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature" | |
| 2008 | | Toshihide Maskawa (1940–2021) | Japanese | "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature" | |
| 2008 | | Yoichiro Nambu (1921–2015) | Japanese American | "for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics" | |
| 2009 | | Charles K. Kao (1933–2018) | Chinese British | "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication" | |
| 2009 | | Willard S. Boyle (1924–2011) | Canadian | "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor" | |
| 2009 | | George E. Smith (b. 1930) | American | "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor" | |
| 2010 | | Andre Geim (b. 1958) | Russian British | "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene" | |
| 2010 | | Konstantin Novoselov (b. 1974) | Russian British | "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene" | |
| 2011 | | Saul Perlmutter (b. 1959) | American | "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae" | |
| 2011 | | Brian P. Schmidt (b. 1967) | Australian | "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae" | |
| 2011 | | Adam G. Riess (b. 1969) | American | "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae" | |
| 2012 | | Serge Haroche (b. 1944) | French | "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems." | |
| 2012 | | David J. Wineland (b. 1944) | American | "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems." | |
| 2013 | | François Englert (b. 1932) | Belgian | "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider" | |
| 2013 | | Peter Higgs (1929–2024) | British | "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider" | |
| 2014 | | Isamu Akasaki (1929–2021) | Japanese | "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources" | |
| 2014 | | Hiroshi Amano (b. 1960) | Japanese | "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources" | |
| 2014 | | Shuji Nakamura (b. 1954) | Japanese American | "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources" | |
| 2015 | | Takaaki Kajita (b. 1959) | Japanese | "for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass" | |
| 2015 | | Arthur B. McDonald (b. 1943) | Canadian | "for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass" | |
| 2016 | | David J. Thouless (1934–2019) | British | "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter" | |
| 2016 | | Duncan Haldane (b. 1951) | British | "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter" | |
| 2016 | | John M. Kosterlitz (b. 1943) | British American | "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter" | |
| 2017 | | Rainer Weiss (b. 1932) | American | "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves" | |
| 2017 | | Kip Thorne (b. 1940) | American | "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves" | |
| 2017 | | Barry Barish (b. 1936) | American | "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves" | |
| 2018 | | Arthur Ashkin (1922–2020) | American | "for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics", in particular "for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems" | |
| 2018 | | Gérard Mourou (b. 1944) | French | "for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics", in particular "for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses" | |
| 2018 | | Donna Strickland (b. 1959) | Canadian | "for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics", in particular "for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses" | |
| 2019 | | James Peebles (b. 1935) | Canadian American | "for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology" | |
| 2019 | | Michel Mayor (b. 1942) | Swiss | "for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star" | |
| 2019 | | Didier Queloz (b. 1966) | Swiss | "for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star" | |
| 2020 | | Roger Penrose (b. 1931) | British | "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity" | |
| 2020 | | Reinhard Genzel (b. 1952) | German | "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy" | |
| 2020 | | Andrea M. Ghez (b. 1965) | American | "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy" | |
| 2021 | | Syukuro Manabe (b. 1931) | Japanese American | "for the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming" | |
| 2021 | | Klaus Hasselmann (b. 1931) | German | "for the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming" | |
| 2021 | | Giorgio Parisi (b. 1948) | Italian | "for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales" | |
| 2022 | | Alain Aspect (b. 1947) | French | "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science" | |
| 2022 | | John Clauser (b. 1942) | American | "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science" | |
| 2022 | | Anton Zeilinger (b. 1945) | Austrian | "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science" | |
| 2023 | | Anne L'Huillier (b. 1958) | French | "for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter" | |
| 2023 | | Ferenc Krausz (b. 1962) | Hungarian | "for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter" | |
| 2023 | | Pierre Agostini (b. 1941) | French | "for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter" | |
| 2024 | | John Hopfield (b. 1933) | American | "for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks" | |
| 2024 | | Geoffrey Hinton (b. 1947) | British Canadian | "for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks" | |

### Number of Nobel laureates in Physics by country

| Country | Number of Nobel laureates |
| United States | 91 |
| Germany | 26 |
| United Kingdom | 25 |
| France | 16 |
| Russia/ Soviet Union | 10 |
| Netherlands | 9 |
| Japan | 9 |
| Canada | 6 |
| Switzerland | 6 |
| Italy | 6 |
| Austria | 5 |
| Sweden | 4 |
| Denmark | 3 |
| India | 2 |
| Republic of China (1912–1949) | 2 |
| Hungary | 2 |
| Republic of China (Taiwan) | 2 |
| Australia | 1 |
| Norway | 1 |
| Poland | 1 |
| Ireland | 1 |
| Pakistan | 1 |
| Belgium | 1 |