NOBLE PRIZE

Women Nobel Prize Winners for Literature

1909	Selma Lagerof of Sweden
1926	Grazia Deledda of Italy
1928	Sigrid Undset of Norway
1938	Pearl Buck of the U.S.
1945	Gabriela Mistral of Chile
1966	Nelly Sachs of Sweden
1991	Nadine Gordimer of South Africa
1993	Toni Morrison of the U.S. Archive Photos
1996	Wislawa Szymborska of Poland
2004	Elfriede Jelinek of Austria
2007	Doris Lessing of the United Kingdom

Women Nobel Peace Prize Winners

1905	Bertha von Suttner (Austria)
1931	Jane Addams (U.S.)
1946	Emily G. Balch and John R. Mott (U.S.)
1976	Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams (both Northern Ireland)
1979	Mother Teresa of Calcutta (India) Archive Photos
1982	Alva Myrdal (Sweden)
1991	Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma)
1992	Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemala)
1997	International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Jody Williams (U.S.)
2003	Shirin Ebadi (Iran)
2004	Wangari Maathai (Kenya)

Women Nobel Prize Winners in Science

Linda Buck

(Physiology or Medicine, 2004)

She and fellow American Richard Axel discovered how the olfactory system—the sense of smell—works and how people are able to recognize and remember more than 10,000 odors.

Marie Sklodowska Curie

AIP Niels Bohr Library

(Physics, 1903 and Chemistry, 1911)

Marie Curie is considered the most famous of all women scientists. She was the only woman ever to win two Nobel Prizes. By the time she was 16, Marie had already won a gold medal at the Russian lycée in Poland upon the completion of her secondary education. In 1891, almost penniless, she began her education at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1903 her discovery of radioactivity earned her the Nobel Prize in physics. In 1911 she won it for chemistry.

Irene Curie

(Chemistry, 1935)

Irene Curie was the daughter of Marie Curie. She furthered her mother's work in radioactivity and won the Nobel Prize for discovering that radioactivity could be artificially produced.

Gerty Radnitz Cori

(Physiology or Medicine, 1947)

Gerty Cori was the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in science. She studied enzymes and hormones, and her work brought researchers closer to understanding diabetes. She won the Nobel Prize for discovering the enzymes that convert glycogen into sugar and back again to glycogen.

Barbara McClintock

(Physiology or Medicine, 1983)

Barbara McClintock studied the chromosomes in corn/maize and her work uncovered antibiotic-resistant bacteria and a possible cure for African sleeping sickness.

Maria Goeppert Mayer

(Physics, 1963)

Maria researched the structure of atomic nuclei. During World War II she worked on isotope separation for the atomic bomb project.

Rita Levi-Montalicini

(Physiology or Medicine, 1986)

Rita is an Italian neuroembryologist known for her co-discovery in 1954 of nerve growth factor, a previously unknown protein that stimulates the growth of nerve cells and plays a role in degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease. She received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986.

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin

(Chemistry, 1964)

Dorothy discovered the structures of penicillin and vitamin B₍₁₂₎. She won the Nobel Prize for determining the structure of biochemical compounds essential to combating pernicious anemia.

Gertrude Elion

(Physiology or Medicine, 1988)

Gertrude Elion is the only woman inventor inducted into The Inventors Hall of Fame. She invented the leukemia-fighting drug 6-mercaptopurine. Her continued research led to Imuran, a derivative of 6-mercaptopurine that blocks the body's rejection of foreign tissues.

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

(Physiology or Medicine, 1977)

Rosayln Yalow won the Nobel Prize for developing radioimmunoassay, a test of body tissues that uses radioactive isotopes to measure the concentrations of hormones, viruses, vitamins, enzymes, and drugs.

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

(Physiology or Medicine, 1995)

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard won the Nobel Prize using the fruit fly to help explain birth defects in humans.

Nobel Prize for Economic Science

For years not listed, no award was made.

1969

Ragnar Frisch (Norway) and Jan Tinbergen (Netherlands), for work in econometrics (application of mathematics and statistical methods to economic theories and problems)

1970

Paul A. Samuelson (U.S.), for efforts to raise the level of scientific analysis in economic theory

1971

Simon Kuznets (U.S.), for developing concept of using a country's gross national product to determine its economic growth

1972

Kenneth J. Arrow (U.S.) and Sir John R. Hicks (U.K.), for theories that help to assess business risk and government economic and welfare policies

1973

Wassily Leontief (U.S.), for devising the input-output technique to determine how different sectors of an economy interact

1974

Gunnar Myrdal (Sweden) and Friedrich A. von Hayek (U.K.), for pioneering analysis of the interdependence of economic, social, and institutional phenomena

1975

Leonid V. Kantorovich (U.S.S.R.) and Tjalling C. Koopmans(U.S.), for work on the theory of optimum allocation of resources

1976

Milton Friedman (U.S.), for work in consumption analysis and monetary history and theory, and for demonstration of complexity of stabilization policy

1977

Bertil Ohlin (Sweden) and James E. Meade (U.K.), for contributions to theory of international trade and international capital movements

1978

Herbert A. Simon (U.S.), for research into the decision-making process within economic organizations

1979

Sir Arthur Lewis (U.K.) and Theodore Schultz (U.S.), for work on economic problems of developing nations

1980

Lawrence R. Klein (U.S.), for developing models for forecasting economic trends and shaping policies to deal with them

1981

James Tobin (U.S.), for analyses of financial markets and their influence on spending and saving by families and businesses

1982

George J. Stigler (U.S.), for work on government regulation in the economy and the functioning of industry

1983

Gerard Debreu (U.S.), in recognition of his work on the basic economic problem of how prices operate to balance what producers supply with what buyers want

1984

Sir Richard Stone (U.K.), for his work to develop the systems widely used to measure the performance of national economics

1985

Franco Modigliani (U.S.), for his pioneering work in analyzing the behavior of household savers and the functioning of financial markets

1986

James M. Buchanan (U.S.), for his development of new methods for analyzing economic and political decision-making

1987

Robert M. Solow (U.S.), for seminal contributions to the theory of economic growth

1988

Maurice Allais (France), for his pioneering development of theories to better understand market behavior and the efficient use of resources

1989

Trygve Haavelmo (Norway), for his pioneering work in methods for testing economic theories

1990

Harry M. Markowitz, William F. Sharpe, and Merton H. Miller (all U.S.), whose work provided new tools for weighing the risks and rewards of different investments and for valuing corporate stocks and bonds

1991

Ronald Coase (U.S.), for his pioneering work in how property rights and the cost of doing business affect the economy

1992

Gary S. Becker (U.S.), for “having extended the domain of economic theory to aspects of human behavior which had previously been dealt with—if at all—by other social science disciplines”

1993

Robert W. Fogel and Douglass C. North (both U.S.), for their work in economic history

1994

John F. Nash, John C. Harsanyi (both U.S.), and Reinhard Selten (Germany), for their pioneering work in game theory

1995

Robert E. Lucas, Jr. (U.S.), for having had the greatest influence on macroeconomic research since 1970

1996

James A. Mirrlees (U.K.) and William Vickrey (U.S.), for “their fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives”

1997

Robert C. Merton and Myron S. Scholes (both U.S.), for developing a formula that determines the value of stock options and other derivatives

1998

Amartya Sen (India), for his contributions to welfare economics

1999

Robert A. Mundel (U.S.), for his work on monetary dynamics and optimum currency areas

2000

James J. Heckman and Daniel L. McFadden (both U.S.), for developing methods used in statistical analysis of individual and household behavior

2001

George A. Akerlof, A. Michael Spence, and Joseph E. Stiglitz (all U.S.), for market analyses with asymmetric information.

2002

Daniel Kahneman (U.S.) for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science and Vernon L. Smith (U.S.) for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis.

2003

Robert F. Engle (U.S.) and Clive W. J. Granger (UK), for developing statistical tools to improve analysis of stock prices and other data.

2004

Finn E. Kydland (Norway) and Edward C. Prescott (U.S.) “for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles.”

2005

Robert J. Aumann and Thomas C. Schelling (both U.S.)

2006

Edmund S. Phelps (U.S.) for “his analysis of intertemporal tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy”

Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

For years not listed, no award was made.

1901

Emil A. von Behring (Germany), for work on serum therapy against diphtheria

1902

Sir Ronald Ross (U.K.), for work on malaria

1903

Niels R. Finsen (Denmark), for his treatment of lupus vulgaris with concentrated light rays

1904

Ivan P. Pavlov (U.S.S.R.), for work on the physiology of digestion

1905

Robert Koch (Germany), for work on tuberculosis

1906

Camillo Golgi (Italy) and Santiago Ramón y Cajal (Spain), for work on structure of the nervous system

1907

Charles L. A. Laveran (France), for work with protozoa in the generation of disease

1908

Paul Ehrlich (Germany) and Elie Metchnikoff (Russia), for work on immunity

1909

Theodor Kocher (Switzerland), for work on the thyroid gland

1910

Albrecht Kossel (Germany), for achievements in the chemistry of the cell

1911

Allvar Gullstrand (Sweden), for work on the dioptrics of the eye

1912

Alexis Carrel (France), for work on vascular ligature and grafting of blood vessels and organs

1913

Charles Richet (France), for work on anaphylaxy

1914

Robert Bárány (Austria), for work on physiology and pathology of the vestibular system

1919

Jules Bordet (Belgium), for discoveries in connection with immunity

1920

August Krogh (Denmark), for discovery of regulation of capillaries' motor mechanism

1922

In 1923, the 1922 prize was shared by Archibald V. Hill (U.K.), for discovery relating to heat-production in muscles; and Otto Meyerhof (Germany), for correlation between consumption of oxygen and production of lactic acid in muscles

1923

Sir Frederick Banting (Canada) and John J. R. Macleod(Scotland), for discovery of insulin

1924

Willem Einthoven (Netherlands), for discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram

1926

Johannes Fibiger (Denmark), for discovery of the Spiroptera carcinoma

1927

Julius Wagner-Jauregg (Austria), for use of malaria inoculation in treatment of dementia paralytica

1928

Charles Nicolle (France), for work on typhus exanthematicus

1929

Christiaan Eijkman (Netherlands), for discovery of the antineuritic vitamins; and Sir Frederick Hopkins (U.K.), for discovery of growth-promoting vitamins

1930

Karl Landsteiner (U.S.), for discovery of human blood groups

1931

Otto H. Warburg (Germany), for discovery of the character and mode of action of the respiratory ferment

1932

Sir Charles Sherrington (U.K.) and Edgar D. Adrian (U.S.), for discoveries of the function of the neuron

1933

Thomas H. Morgan (U.S.), for discoveries on hereditary function of the chromosomes

1934

George H. Whipple, George R. Minot, and William P. Murphy(U.S.), for discovery of liver therapy against anemias

1935

Hans Spemann (Germany), for discovery of the organizer effect in embryonic development

1936

Sir Henry Dale (U.K.) and Otto Loewi (Germany), for discoveries on chemical transmission of nerve impulses

1937

Albert Szent-Györgyi von Nagyrapolt (Hungary), for discoveries on biological combustion

1938

Corneille Heymans (Belgium), for determining importance of sinus and aorta mechanisms in the regulation of respiration

1939

Gerhard Domagk (Germany), for antibacterial effect of prontocilate

1943

Henrik Dam (Denmark) and Edward A. Doisy (U.S.), for analysis of vitamin K

1944

Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Spencer Gasser (both U.S.), for work on functions of the nerve threads

1945

Sir Alexander Fleming, Ernst Boris Chain, and Sir Howard Florey(all U.K.), for discovery of penicillin

1946

Herman J. Muller (U.S.), for hereditary effects of X-rays on genes

1947

Carl F. and Gerty T. Cori (U.S.), for work on animal starch metabolism; Bernardo A. Houssay (Argentina), for study of pituitary

1948

Paul Mueller (Switzerland), for discovery of insect-killing properties of DDT

1949

Walter Rudolf Hess (Switzerland), for research on brain control of body; and Antonio Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz(Portugal), for development of brain operation

1950

Philip S. Hench, Edward C. Kendall (both U.S.), and Tadeus Reichstein (Switzerland), for discoveries about hormones of adrenal cortex

1951

Max Theiler (South Africa), for development of anti-yellow-fever vaccine

1952

Selman A. Waksman (U.S.), for co-discovery of streptomycin

1953

Fritz A. Lipmann (Germany-U.S.) and Hans Adolph Krebs(Germany-U.K.), for studies of living cells

1954

John F. Enders, Thomas H. Weller, and Frederick C. Robbins (all U.S.), for work with cultivation of polio virus

1955

Hugo Theorell (Sweden), for work on oxidation enzymes

1956

Dickinson W. Richards, Jr., André F. Cournand (both U.S.), andWerner Forssmann (Germany), for new techniques in treating heart disease

1957

Daniel Bovet (Italy), for development of drugs to relieve allergies and relax muscles during surgery

1958

Joshua Lederberg (U.S.), for work with genetic mechanisms;George W. Beadle and Edward L. Tatum (both U.S.), for discovering how genes transmit hereditary characteristics

1959

Severo Ochoa and Arthur Kornberg (both U.S.), for discoveries related to compounds within chromosomes that play a vital role in heredity

1960

Sir Macfarlane Burnet (Australia) and Peter Brian Medawar (U.K.), for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance

1961

Georg von Bekesy (U.S.), for discoveries about physical mechanisms of stimulation within cochlea

1962

James D. Watson (U.S.), Maurice H. F. Wilkins, and Francis H. C. Crick (both U.K.), for determining structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

1963

Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, Andrew Fielding Huxley (both U.K.), and Sir John Carew Eccles (Australia), for research on nerve cells

1964

Konrad E. Bloch (U.S.) and Feodor Lynen (Germany), for research on mechanism and regulation of cholesterol and fatty-acid metabolism

1965

François Jacob, André Lwoff, and Jacques Monod (all France), for study of regulatory activities in body cells

1966

Charles Brenton Huggins (U.S.), for studies in hormone treatment of cancer of prostate; Francis Peyton Rous (U.S.), for discovery of tumor-producing viruses

1967

Haldan K. Hartline, George Wald (both U.S.), and Ragnar Granit (Sweden), for work on human eye

1968

Robert W. Holley, Har Gobind Khorana, and Marshall W. Nirenberg (all U.S.), for studies of genetic code

1969

Max Delbruck, Alfred D. Hershey, and Salvador E. Luria (all U.S.), for study of mechanism of virus infection in living cells

1970

Julius Axelrod (U.S.), Ulf S. von Euler (Sweden), and Sir Bernard Katz (U.K.), for studies of how nerve impulses are transmitted within the body

1971

Earl W. Sutherland, Jr. (U.S.), for research on how hormones work

1972

Gerald M. Edelman (U.S.), and Rodney R. Porter (U.K.), for research on the chemical structure and nature of antibodies

1973

Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz (both Austria), and Nikolaas Tinbergen (Netherlands), for their studies of individual and social behavior patterns

1974

George E. Palade, Christian de Duve (both U.S.), and Albert Claude (Belgium), for contributions to understanding inner workings of living cells

1975

David Baltimore, Howard M. Temin, and Renato Dulbecco (all U.S.), for work in interaction between tumor viruses and genetic material of the cell

1976

Baruch S. Blumberg and D. Carleton Gajdusek (both U.S.), for discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases

1977

Rosalyn S. Yalow, Roger C. L. Guillemin, and Andrew V. Schally (all U.S.), for research in role of hormones in chemistry of the body

1978

Daniel Nathans, Hamilton Smith (both U.S.), and Werner Arber(Switzerland), for discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics

1979

Allan MacLeod Cormack (U.S.) and Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield (U.K.), for developing computed axial tomography (CAT scan) X-ray technique

1980

Baruj Benacerraf, George D. Snell (both U.S.), and Jean Dausset(France), for discoveries that explain how the structure of cells relates to organ transplants and diseases

1981

Roger W. Sperry, David H. Hubel (both U.S.), and Torsten N. Wiesel (Sweden), for studies vital to understanding the organization and functioning of the brain

1982

Sune Bergstrom, Bengt Samuelsson (both Sweden), and John R. Vane (U.K.), for research in prostaglandins, hormonelike substances involved in a wide range of illnesses

1983

Barbara McClintock (U.S.), for her discovery of mobile genes in the chromosomes of a plant that change the future generations of plants they produce

1984

Cesar Milstein (U.K./Argentina), Georges J. F. Kohler (West Germany), and Niels K. Jerne (U.K./Denmark), for their work in immunology

1985

Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein (both U.S.), for their work, which has drastically widened our understanding of the cholesterol metabolism and increased our possibilities to prevent and treat atherosclerosis and heart attacks

1986

Rita Levi-Montalcini (dual U.S./Italy) and Stanley Cohen (U.S.), for their contributions to the understanding of substances that influence cell growth

1987

Susumu Tonegawa (Japan), for his discoveries of how the body can suddenly marshal its immunological defenses against millions of different disease agents that it has never encountered before

1988

Gertrude B. Elion, George H. Hitchings (both U.S.), and Sir James Black (U.K.), for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment

1989

J. Michael Bishop and Harold E. Varmus (both U.S.), for their unifying theory of cancer development

1990

Joseph E. Murray and E. Donnall Thomas (both U.S.), for their pioneering work in transplants

1991

Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann (both Germany), for their research, particularly for the development of a technique called patch clamp

1992

Edmond H. Fischer and Edwin G. Krebs (both U.S.), for their discovery of a regulatory mechanism affecting almost all cells

1993

Phillip A. Sharp (U.S.) and Richard J. Roberts (U.K.), for their independent discovery in 1977 of “split genes”

1994

Alfred G. Gilman and Martin Rodbell (both U.S.), for discovery of G-proteins that help cells respond to outside signals

1995

Edward B. Lewis, Eric F. Wieschaus (both U.S.), and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (Germany), for studies of the fruit fly that will help explain congenital malformations in humans

1996

Peter C. Doherty (Australia) and Rolf M. Zinkernagel (Switzerland), for discoveries about how the immune system recognizes virus-infected cells

1997

Stanley B. Prusiner (U.S.), for discovery of a new type of germ, called prions, that causes degenerative brain disorders

1998

Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro, and Ferid Murad (all U.S.), for discovering that nitric oxide acts as a signal in the cardiovascular system

1999

Günter Blobel (Germany and U.S.), for discovering that proteins have signals that govern their transport and localization in the cell

2000

Arvid Carlsson (Sweden), Paul Greengard, and Eric Kandel (both U.S.), for discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system

2001

Leland H. Hartwell (U.S.), R. Timothy Hunt, and Paul M. Nurse (both UK), for discoveries concerning control of the cell cycle, which may make new cancer treatments possible.

2002

Sydney Brenner (UK), H. Robert Horvitz (U.S.), and John E. Sulston (UK) for discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death.

2003

Paul C. Lauterbur (U.S.) and Sir Peter Mansfield (UK) for discoveries leading to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

2004

Richard Axel and Linda Buck (both U.S.) “for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system.”

2005

Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren (both Australia)

2006

Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello (both U.S.) for “their discovery of RNA interference - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA”

2007

Mario R. Capecchi (U.S.), Sir Martin J. Evans (U.K.), and Oliver Smithies (U.S.) for "their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells"

Nobel Prize for Chemistry

1901

Jacobus H. van't Hoff (Netherlands), for laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions

1902

Emil Fischer (Germany), for experiments in sugar and purin groups of substances

1903

Svante A. Arrhenius (Sweden), for his electrolytic theory of dissociation

1904

Sir William Ramsay (U.K.), for discovery and determination of place of inert gaseous elements in air

1905

Adolf von Baeyer (Germany), for work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic combinations

1906

Henri Moissan (France), for isolation of fluorine, and introduction of electric furnace

1907

Eduard Buchner (Germany), discovery of cell-less fermentation and investigations in biological chemistry

1908

Sir Ernest Rutherford (U.K.), for investigations into disintegration of elements

1909

Wilhelm Ostwald (Germany), for work on catalysis and investigations into chemical equilibrium and reaction rates

1910

Otto Wallach (Germany), for work in the field of alicyclic compounds

1911

Marie Curie (France), for discovery of elements radium and polonium

1912

Victor Grignard (France), for reagent discovered by him; and Paul Sabatier (France), for methods of hydrogenating organic compounds

1913

Alfred Werner (Switzerland), for linking up atoms within the molecule

1914

Theodore W. Richards (U.S.), for determining atomic weight of many chemical elements

1915

Richard Willstätter (Germany), for research into coloring matter of plants, especially chlorophyll

1918

Fritz Haber (Germany), for synthetic production of ammonia

1920

Walther Nernst (Germany), for work in thermochemistry

1921

Frederick Soddy (U.K.), for investigations into origin and nature of isotopes

1922

Francis W. Aston (U.K.), for discovery of isotopes in nonradioactive elements and for discovery of the whole number rule

1923

Fritz Pregl (Austria), for method of microanalysis of organic substances discovered by him

1925

In 1926, the 1925 prize was awarded to Richard Zsigmondy (Germany), for work on the heterogeneous nature of colloid solutions

1926

Theodor Svedberg (Sweden), for work on disperse systems

1927

In 1928, the 1927 prize was awarded to Heinrich Wieland (Germany), for investigations of bile acids and kindred substances

1928

Adolf Windaus (Germany), for investigations on constitution of the sterols and their connection with vitamins

1929

Sir Arthur Harden (U.K.) and Hans K. A. S. von Euler-Chelpin (Sweden), for research of fermentation of sugars

1930

Hans Fischer (Germany), for work on coloring matter of blood and leaves and for his synthesis of hemin

1931

Karl Bosch and Friedrich Bergius (both Germany), for invention and development of chemical high-pressure methods

1932

Irving Langmuir (U.S.), for work in realm of surface chemistry

1934

Harold C. Urey (U.S.), for discovery of heavy hydrogen

1935

Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie (both France), for synthesis of new radioactive elements

1936

Peter J. W. Debye (Netherlands), for investigations on dipole moments and diffraction of X-rays and electrons in gases

1937

Walter N. Haworth (U.K.), for research on carbohydrates and vitamin C; and Paul Karrer (Switzerland), for work on carotenoids, flavins, and vitamins A and B

1938

Richard Kuhn (Germany), for carotenoid study and vitamin research (declined)

1939

Adolf Butenandt (Germany), for work on sexual hormones (declined the prize); and Leopold Ruzicka (Switzerland), for work with polymethylenes

1943

Georg Hevesy De Heves (Hungary), for work on use of isotopes as indicators

1944

Otto Hahn (Germany), for work on atomic fission

1945

Artturi Illmari Virtanen (Finland), for research in the field of conservation of fodder

1946

James B. Sumner (U.S.), for crystallizing enzymes; John H. Northrop and Wendell M. Stanley (both U.S.), for preparing enzymes and virus proteins in pure form

1947

Sir Robert Robinson (U.K.), for research in plant substances

1948

Arne Tiselius (Sweden), for biochemical discoveries and isolation of mouse paralysis virus

1949

William Francis Giauque (U.S.), for research in thermodynamics, especially effects of low temperature

1950

Otto Diels and Kurt Alder (both Germany), for discovery of diene synthesis enabling scientists to study structure of organic matter

1951

Glenn T. Seaborg and Edwin H. McMillan (both U.S.), for discovery of plutonium

1952

Archer John Porter Martin and Richard Laurence Millington Synge (both U.K.), for development of partition chromatography

1953

Hermann Staudinger (Germany), for research in giant molecules

1954

Linus C. Pauling (U.S.), for study of forces holding together protein and other molecules

1955

Vincent du Vigneaud (U.S.), for work on pituitary hormones

1956

Sir Cyril Hinshelwood (U.K.) and Nikolai N. Semenov (U.S.S.R.), for parallel research on chemical reaction kinetics

1957

Sir Alexander Todd (U.K.), for research with chemical compounds that are factors in heredity

1958

Frederick Sanger (U.K.), for determining molecular structure of insulin

1959

Jaroslav Heyrovsky (Czechoslovakia), for development of polarography, an electrochemical method of analysis

1960

Willard F. Libby (U.S.), for “atomic time clock” to measure age of objects by measuring their radioactivity

1961

Melvin Calvin (U.S.), for establishing chemical steps during photosynthesis

1962

Max F. Perutz and John C. Kendrew (U.K.), for mapping protein molecules with X-rays

1963

Carl Ziegler (Germany) and Giulio Natta (Italy), for work in uniting simple hydrocarbons into large molecule substances

1964

Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (U.K.), for determining structure of compounds needed in combatting pernicious anemia

1965

Robert B. Woodward (U.S.), for work in synthesizing complicated organic compounds

1966

Robert Sanderson Mulliken (U.S.), for research on bond holding atoms together in molecule

1967

Manfred Eigen (Germany), Ronald G. W. Norrish, and George Porter (both U.K.), for work in high-speed chemical reactions

1968

Lars Onsager (U.S.), for development of system of equations in thermodynamics

1969

Derek H. R. Barton (U.K.) and Odd Hassel (Norway), for study of organic molecules

1970

Luis F. Leloir (Argentina), for discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in biosynthesis of carbohydrates

1971

Gerhard Herzberg (Canada), for contributions to knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals

1972

Christian Boehmer Anfinsen, Stanford Moore, and William Howard Stein (all U.S.), for pioneering studies in enzymes

1973

Ernst Otto Fischer (W. Germany) and Geoffrey Wilkinson (U.K.), for work that could solve problem of automobile exhaust pollution

1974

Paul J. Flory (U.S.), for developing analytic methods to study properties and molecular structure of long-chain molecules

1975

John W. Cornforth (Australia) and Vladimir Prelog (Switzerland), for research on structure of biological molecules such as antibiotics and cholesterol

1976

William N. Lipscomb, Jr. (U.S.), for work on the structure and bonding mechanisms of boranes

1977

Ilya Prigogine (Belgium), for contributions to nonequilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures

1978

Peter Mitchell (U.K.), for contributions to the understanding of biological energy transfer

1979

Herbert C. Brown (U.S.) and Georg Wittig (West Germany), for developing a group of substances that facilitate very difficult chemical reactions

1980

Paul Berg, Walter Gilbert (both U.S.), and Frederick Sanger(U.K.), for developing methods to map the structure and function of DNA, the substance that controls the activity of the cell

1981

Roald Hoffmann (U.S.) and Kenichi Fukui (Japan), for applying quantum-mechanics theories to predict the course of chemical reactions

1982

Aaron Klug (U.K.), for research in the detailed structures of viruses and components of life

1983

Henry Taube (U.S.), for research on how electrons transfer between molecules in chemical reactions

1984

R. Bruce Merrifield (U.S.), for research that revolutionized the study of proteins

1985

Herbert A. Hauptman and Jerome Karle (both U.S.), for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures

1986

Dudley R. Herschback, Yuan T. Lee (both U.S.), and John C. Polanyi (Canada), for their work on “reaction dynamics”

1987

Donald J. Cram, Charles J. Pedersen (both U.S.), and Jean-Marie Lehn (France), for wide-ranging research that has included the creation of artificial molecules that can mimic vital chemical reactions of the processes of life

1988

Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber, and Hartmut Michel (all West Germany), for unraveling the structure of proteins that play a crucial role in photosynthesis

1989

Thomas R. Cech and Sidney Altman (both U.S.), for their discovery, independently, that RNA could actively aid chemical reactions in the cells

1990

Elias James Corey (U.S.), for developing new ways to synthesize complex molecules ordinarily found in nature

1991

Richard R. Ernst (Switzerland), for refinements he developed in nuclear magnetic-resonance spectroscopy

1992

Rudolph A. Marcus (U.S.), for his mathematical analysis of how the overall energy in a system of interacting molecules changes and induces an electron to jump from one molecule to another

1993

Kary B. Mullis (U.S.) and Michael Smith (Canada), for their contributions to the science of genetics

1994

George A. Olah (U.S.), University of Southern California in Los Angeles, for research that opened new ways to break apart and rebuild compounds of carbon and hydrogen

1995

F. Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina (both U.S.), and Paul Crutzen (Netherlands), for their pioneering work in explaining the chemical processes that deplete the earth's ozone shield

1996

Richard E. Smalley, Robert F. Curl, Jr. (both U.S.), and Harold W. Kroto (U.K.), for discovery of a new class of carbon molecule

1997

Paul D. Boyer (U.S.), Jens C. Skou (Denmark), and John E. Walker (U.K.), for discoveries about a molecule that allows the human body to store and transfer energy between cells

1998

Walter Kohn (U.S.) and John A. Pople (U.K.), for their developments in the study of the properties of molecules and the chemical processes in which they are involved

1999

Ahmed H. Zewail (Egypt and U.S.), for creating the world's fastest camera, which captures atoms in motion

2000

Alan J. Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid (both U.S.), and Hideki Shirakawa (Japan), for the discovery and development of conductive polymers

2001

William S. Knowles (U.S.) and Ryoji Noyori (Japan) “for their work on chirally catalyzed hydrogenation reactions,” and K. Barry Sharpless (U.S.) “for his work on chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions.”

2002

John B. Fenn (U.S.) and Koichi Tanaka (Japan) for ionization methods analyses of biological macromolecules, and Kurt Wüthrich (Switzerland) for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution.

2003

Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon (both U.S.) for studies on channels in cell walls.

2004

Aaron Ciechanover (Israel), Avram Hershko (Israel), and Irwin Rose (U.S.) “for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.”

2005

Yves Chauvin (France), Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock (both U.S.)

2006

Roger D. Kornberg (U.S.) for “his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription”

2007

Gerhard Ertl (Germany) for "his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces"

Nobel Prize for Peace

For years not listed, no award was made.

1901

Henri Dunant (Switzerland); Frederick Passy (France)

1902

Elie Ducommun and Albert Gobat (Switzerland)

1903

Sir William R. Cremer (U.K.)

1904

Institut de Droit International (Belgium)

1905

Bertha von Suttner (Austria)

1906

Theodore Roosevelt (U.S.)

1907

Ernesto T. Moneta (Italy) and Louis Renault (France)

1908

Klas P. Arnoldson (Sweden) and Frederik Bajer (Denmark)

1909

Auguste M. F. Beernaert (Belgium) and Baron Paul H. B. B. d'Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque (France)

1910

Bureau International Permanent de la Paix (Switzerland)

1911

Tobias M. C. Asser (Holland) and Alfred H. Fried (Austria)

1912

Elihu Root (U.S.)

1913

Henri La Fontaine (Belgium)

1917

International Red Cross

1919

Woodrow Wilson (U.S.)

1920

Léon Bourgeois (France)

1921

Karl H. Branting (Sweden) and Christian L. Lange (Norway)

1922

Fridtjof Nansen (Norway)

1925

Sir Austen Chamberlain (U.K.) and Charles G. Dawes (U.S.)

1926

Aristide Briand (France) and Gustav Stresemann (Germany)

1927

Ferdinand Buisson (France) and Ludwig Quidde (Germany)

1929

Frank B. Kellogg (U.S.)

1930

Lars Olaf Nathan Söderblom (Sweden)

1931

Jane Addams and Nicholas M. Butler (U.S.)

1933

Sir Norman Angell (U.K.)

1934

Arthur Henderson (U.K.)

1935

Karl von Ossietzky (Germany)

1936

Carlos de S. Lamas (Argentina)

1937

Lord Cecil of Chelwood (U.K.)

1938

Office International Nansen pour les Réfugiés (Switzerland)

1944

International Red Cross

1945

Cordell Hull (U.S.)

1946

Emily G. Balch and John R. Mott (U.S.)

1947

American Friends Service Committee (U.S.) and British Society of Friends' Service Council (U.K.)

1949

Lord John Boyd Orr (Scotland)

1950

Ralph J. Bunche (U.S.)

1951

Léon Jouhaux (France)

1952

Albert Schweitzer (French Equatorial Africa)

1953

George C. Marshall (U.S.)

1954

Office of U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees

1957

Lester B. Pearson (Canada)

1958

Rev. Dominique Georges Henri Pire (Belgium)

1959

Philip John Noel-Baker (U.K.)

1960

Albert John Luthuli (South Africa)

1961

Dag Hammarskjöld (Sweden)

1962

Linus Pauling (U.S.)

1963

Intl. Comm. of Red Cross; League of Red Cross Societies (both Geneva)

1964

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (U.S.)

1965

UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund)

1968

René Cassin (France)

1969

International Labor Organization

1970

Norman E. Borlaug (U.S.)

1971

Willy Brandt (West Germany)

1973

Henry A. Kissinger (U.S.); Le Duc Tho (North Vietnam)¹

1974

Eisaku Sato (Japan); Sean MacBride (Ireland)

1975

Andrei D. Sakharov (U.S.S.R.)

1976

Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams (both Northern Ireland)

1977

Amnesty International

1978

Menachem Begin (Israel) and Anwar el-Sadat (Egypt)

1979

Mother Teresa of Calcutta (India)

1980

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Argentina)

1981

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

1982

Alva Myrdal (Sweden) and Alfonso García
Robles (Mexico)

1983

Lech Walesa (Poland)

1984

Bishop Desmond Tutu (South Africa)

1985

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

1986

Elie Wiesel (U.S.)

1987

Oscar Arias Sánchez (Costa Rica)

1988

U.N. Peacekeeping Forces

1989

Dalai Lama (Tibet)

1990

Mikhail S. Gorbachev (U.S.S.R.)

1991

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma)

1992

Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemala)

1993

F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela (both South Africa)

1994

Yasir Arafat (Palestine), Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin (both Israel)

1995

Joseph Rotblat and Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs (U.K.)

1996

Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta (East Timor)

1997

International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Jody Williams(U.S.)

1998

John Hume and David Trimble (Northern Ireland)

1999

Doctors without Borders (France)

2000

Kim Dae Jung (South Korea)

2001

United Nations and Kofi Annan

2002

Jimmy Carter (U.S.)

2003

Shirin Ebadi (Iran)

2004

Wangari Maathai (Kenya)

2005

Mohamed ElBaradei (Egypt) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

2006

Muhammad Yunus (Bangladesh) and the Grameen Bank

2007

Al Gore (U.S.) and United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Switzerland)

Why Isn't There a Nobel Prize in Mathematics?

When I was a student at a leading American university one of my mathematics professors answered the above question in class. He claimed that the Swedish mathematician Gosta Magnus Mittag-Leffler had run off with Alfred Nobel's wife. Supposedly, later in revenge Nobel refused to endow one of his prizes in mathematics. I loved repeating this juicy story, but my faith in it was somewhat shaken when I found out that Nobel had never married! A Swedish version of the story even made it into one of Howard Eves' s collections of mathematical anecdotes (p.13O of Mathematical Circles, Quadrants III and no, 1969). According to this version Mittag-Leffler, in the process of accumulating his own considerable wealth, antagonized Nobel. Nobel, afraid that Mittag-Leffler as the leading Swedish mathematician might win a Nobel prize in mathematics, then refused to institute such a prize.

Both versions of the myth were debunked in the definitive article pithy "Is There No Nobel Prize in Mathematics?" by Lars Garding and Lars Hormander (pgs. 73-4 of Mathematical Intelligencer7:3,1985). The authors point out that Mittag-Leffler and Nobel had almost no relation to each other; Nobel emigrated from Sweden in 1865 when Mittag-Leffler was a student and rarely returned to visit. Garding and Hormander state, "The true answer to the question (of the title) is that, for natural reasons, the thought of a prize in mathematics never entered Nobel's mind." Nobel's final will of 1895 bequeathed $9,OOO,OOO for a foundation whose income would support five annual prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine-physiology, literature, and peace. Four of the original five prizes were in fields which were close to Nobel's own interests, medicine being the exception.

A sixth Nobel prize in economic science was added in 1969. The addition of this new Nobel prize suggests the possibility at some future date of a seventh Nobel prize. With the blossoming of computer science, statistics, and applied mathematics in addition to mathematics itself, a strong case could be made for a new Nobel prize in the mathematical sciences. Perhaps some Math Horizons reader, upon making his fortune,... of course, there are the Fields Medals that are awarded at each International Congress of Mathematicians. But these are given only every four years to a mathematician under forty, and they are not well-known outside of mathematical circles.

There is a larger question raised by the fact that apocryphal stories, such as the Nobel-math-prize myth, seem to have a life of their own. Are mathematicians justified in bending historical truth in order to serve laudable aims, such as illustrating that mathematicians are real people or interesting students in mathematics? Another example of this tendency concerns the famous story of Gauss's discovery as a ten- year old boy of a simple method for summing an arithmetic series. (Multiply the number of terms by the average of the smallest and largest terms.) Most mathematicians who teach will assert that the problem given to Gauss by his tyrannical school teacher was to sum the integers from 1 to 1OO. In fact, Gauss was given a more difficult problem "of the following sort, 81297 + 81495 + 81693 +... + lOO899, where the step from one number to the next is the same all along (here 198), and a given number of terms (here 1OO) are to be added." (p. 221 of E.T. Bell's Men of Mathematics, 1937). With this particular example it's easy to maintain historical truth by telling students that Gauss was given a problem like summing the integers from 1 to 1OO.

Mathematicians seem less likely to bend mathematical truth than historical truth. In this situation there is one technique which outstanding expositors like Paul Halmos have used in simplifying difficult mathematics. Halmos will either announce up front or in passing that he is going to lie a little. Perhaps mathematicians might use this technique when they find it necessary to bend historical truth

Nobel Prize for Literature 1901-2008

1. 2008 J.M Le Clezio
2. 2007 Doris Lessing
3. 2006 Orhan Pamuk
2. 2005 Harold Pinter
3. 2004 Elfriede Jelinek
4. 2003 J.M. Coetzee
5. 2002 Imre Kertész
6. 2001 V.S. Naipaul
7. 2000 Gao Xingjian
7. 1999 Günter Grass
8. 1998 José Saramago
9. 1997 Dario Fo
10. 1996 Wislawa Szymborska
11. 1995 Seamus Heaney
12. 1994 Kenzaburo Oe
8. 1993 Toni Morrison
9. 1992 Derek Walcott
10. 1991 Nadine Gordimer
11. 1990 Octavio Paz
12. 1989 Camilo José Cela
9. 1988 Naguib Mahfouz
10. 1987 Joseph Brodsky
11. 1986 Wole Soyinka
12. 1985 Claude Simon
13. 1984 Jaroslav Seifert
10. 1983 William Golding
11. 1982 Gabriel García Márquez
12. 1981 Elias Canetti
12. 1980 Czeslaw Milosz
13. 1979 Odysseus Elytis
14. 1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer
15. 1977 Vicente Aleixandre
13. 1976 Saul Bellow
14. 1975 Eugenio Montale
15. 1974 Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson
16. 1973 Patrick White
14. 1972 Heinrich Böll
15. 1971 Pablo Neruda
16. 1970 Alexander Solzhenitsyn
17. 1969 Samuel Beckett
18. 1968 Yasunari Kawabata
19. 1967 Miguel Angel Asturias
20. 1966 Samuel Agnon, Nelly Sachs
21. 1965 Mikhail Sholokhov
18. 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre
19. 1963 Giorgos Seferis
19. 1962 John Steinbeck
20. 1961 Ivo Andric
21. 1960 Saint-John Perse
22. 1959 Salvatore Quasimodo
23. 1958 Boris Pasternak
21. 1957 Albert Camus
22. 1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez
23. 1955 Halldór Laxness
22. 1954 Ernest Hemingway
23. 1953 Winston Churchill
24. 1952 François Mauriac
25. 1951 Pär Lagerkvist
26. 1950 Bertrand Russell
23. 1949 William Faulkner
24. 1948 T.S. Eliot
25. 1947 André Gide
26. 1946 Hermann Hesse
27. 1945 Gabriela Mistral
28. 1944 Johannes V. Jensen
29. 1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää
30. 1938 Pearl Buck
31. 1937 Roger Martin du Gard
32. 1936 Eugene O'Neill
27. 1934 Luigi Pirandello
28. 1933 Ivan Bunin
29. 1932 John Galsworthy
30. 1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt
31. 1930 Sinclair Lewis
28. 1929 Thomas Mann
29. 1928 Sigrid Undset
30. 1927 Henri Bergson
31. 1926 Grazia Deledda
29. 1925 George Bernard Shaw
30. 1924 Wladyslaw Reymont
30. 1923 William Butler Yeats
31. 1922 Jacinto Benavente
32. 1921 Anatole France
31. 1920 Knut Hamsun
32. 1919 Carl Spitteler
33. 1917 Karl Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
34. 1916 Verner von Heidenstam
35. 1915 Romain Rolland
36. 1913 Rabindranath Tagore
32. 1912 Gerhart Hauptmann
33. 1911 Maurice Maeterlinck
34. 1910 Paul Heyse
35. 1909 Selma Lagerlöf
36. 1908 Rudolf Eucken
37. 1907 Rudyard Kipling
38. 1906 Giosuè Carducci
39. 1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz
40. 1904 Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray
41. 1903 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
42. 1902 Theodor Mommsen
43. 1901 Sully Prudhomme