SLAC
from : August 31, 1995 Updated Oct. 11, 1995 by L.K.
The Nobel Prize in Physics: 1995-1901
Origin of this material
Patrick Clancey
This page, hosted by the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is my
personal contribution: all errors and omissions are mine alone.
The information has been gathered from a wide variety of sources, and
the nationality indicated for each laureate is my best determination of
where the relevant work was done.
Included for each year are the names and "nationalities" of the recipients,
the commendation for the award, and bibliographic citations from the
SPIRES HEP databases
(including the full text of acceptance speeches, where available).
Additions, corrections, and pointers
to other relevant URLs will be gratefully accepted.
Copy for local purposes: L. Kocbach
1995 Nobel Prize in Physics
Martin L. Perl, United States; Frederick Reines, United States,
for pioneering experimental
contributions to lepton physics.
1994 Nobel Prize in Physics
Bertran N. Brockhouse (Canada)
(see also:
Great Canadian Scientists)
and
Clifford G. Schull (United States)
"for their pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering
techniques for studies of condensed matter"
1993 Nobel Prize in Physics
Russell Hulse (United States) and
Joseph Taylor (United States)
"for their discovery of
a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up
new possibilities for the study of gravitation"
1992 Nobel Prize in Physics
Georges Charpak (France)
"for his invention and development of particle detectors,
in particular the multiwire proportional chamber"
1991 Nobel Prize in Physics
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (France)
"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"
1990 Nobel Prize in Physics
Jerome I. Friedman (United States: MIT),
Henry W. Kendall (United States: MIT) and
Richard E. Taylor (United States: Stanford/SLAC)
(see also:
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"
1989 Nobel Prize in Physics
Norman F. Ramsey (United States)
"for the invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the
hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks"
Hans G. Dehmelt (United States) and
Wolfgang Paul (Germany)
"for the development of the ion trap technique"
1988 Nobel Prize in Physics
Leon M. Lederman (United States: Fermilab/U. Chicago),
Melvin Schwartz (United States: Stanford U.) and
Jack Steinberger (United States)
"for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure
of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino"
1987 Nobel Prize in Physics
J. Georg Bednorz (Germany) and
K. Alexander Muller (Switzerland)
"for their important breakthrough in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic
materials"
1986 Nobel Prize in Physics
Ernst Ruska (Germany)
"for his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the
first electron microscope"
Gerd Binnig (Germany) and
Heinrich Rohrer (Switzerland)
"for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope"
1985 Nobel Prize in Physics
Klaus von Klitzing (Germany)
"for the discovery of the quantized Hall effect"
1984 Nobel Prize in Physics
Carlo Rubbia (Italy) and
Simon van der Meer (The Netherlands)
"for their decisive contributions to the large project, which led to
the discovery of the field particles W and Z0 communicators of weak interaction"
1983 Nobel Prize in Physics
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (India)
"for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the
structure and evolution of the stars"
William A. Fowler (United States)
"for his theoretical and experimental studies of the
nuclear reactions
of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe"
1982 Nobel Prize in Physics
Kenneth G. Wilson (United States)
"for his theory for critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions"
1981 Nobel Prize in Physics
Nicolaas Bloembergen (United States) and
Arthur L. Schawlow (United States: Stanford)
"for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy"
Kai M. Siegbahn (Sweden)
"for his contribution to the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy"
1980 Nobel Prize in Physics
James Watson Cronin (United States: U. Chicago) and
Val Logsdon Fitch (United States: Princeton U.)
"
for their demonstration that the K-mesons resulting from proton collisions did not
obey the absolute principle of symmetry"
1979 Nobel Prize in Physics
Sheldon Lee Glashow (United States: Harvard U.),
Steven Weinberg (United States: Harvard U.) and
Abdus Salam (England)
"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 currents"
1978 Nobel Prize in Physics
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (Russia)
"for his work in low temperature physics, including studies of electrical properties
of matter and the liquefaction of gases"
Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson (United States)
"for work that made it possible to obtain information about
cosmic processes that took place a very long time ago, at the time of
the creation of the universe"
1977 Nobel Prize in Physics
Phillip Warren Anderson (United States),
John Hasbrouck Van Vleck (United States) and
Sir Nevill Francis Mott (England)
"for their fundamental theoretical investigation of the electronic structure of
magnetic and disordered systems"
1976 Nobel Prize in Physics
Burton Richter (United States: Stanford U./SLAC) and
Samuel Chao Chung Ting (United States: MIT)
"for their
discovery of the J/psi particle"
1975 Nobel Prize in Physics
Aage Niels Bohr (Denmark),
Benjamin Roy Mottelson (Denmark) and
Leo James Rainwater (United States)
"for their discovery of the connection between
collective motion and particle motion in the atomic nucleus
and the development of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection"
1974 Nobel Prize in Physics
Antony Hewish
"for his pioneering research in radio astrophysics, particularly the discovery
of pulsars"
Sir Martin Ryle (England)
"for his creative research in the area of radio astrophysics"
1973 Nobel Prize in Physics
Leo Esaki (Japan)
"for his discovery of tunneling in semiconductors"
Ivar Giaever (United States)
"for his work on tunneling effects in semiconductors and superconductors"
Brian David Josephson (Wales)
"for work in developing theories that advanced and expanded the world of
miniature electronics"
1972 Nobel Prize in Physics
John Bardeen (United States),
Leon Neil Cooper (United States) and
John Robert Schrieffer (United States)
"for their development of the BCS theory of superconductivity"
1971 Nobel Prize in Physics
Dennis Gabor (England)
"for his invention and development of holography"
1970 Nobel Prize in Physics
Hannes Olof Gosta Alfven (Sweden)
"for fundamental work in magnetohydrodynamics with fruitful applications
in different parts of plasma physics"
Louis Eugene Felix Neel (France)
"for his pioneering studies of the magnetic properties of solids"
1969 Nobel Prize in Physics
Murray Gell-Mann (United States: CalTech)
"for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of
elementary particles and their interactions"
1968 Nobel Prize in Physics
Luis Walter Alvarez (United States: UC, Berkeley)
"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 chambers and data analysis"
1967 Nobel Prize in Physics
Hans Albrecht Bethe (United States)
"for his several contributions to nuclear reaction theory, with special reference to
the energy production of stars"
1966 Nobel Prize in Physics
Alfred Kastler (France)
"for the discovery and development of optical methods for studying Herzian
resonances in atoms"
1965 Nobel Prize in Physics
Richard Phillips Feynman (United States: CalTech),
Julian Seymour Schwinger (United States: Harvard U.) and
Shinichiro Tomonaga (Japan)
"for their development of the theory of quantum electrodynamics"
1964 Nobel Prize in Physics
Nikolai Gennadievich Basov (Russia) and
Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov (Russia)
"for basic researches in the field of experimental physics, which led to the discovery
of the maser and the laser"
Charles Hard Townes (United States)
"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"
1963 Nobel Prize in Physics
Johannes Hans Daniel Jensen (Germany) and
Maria Goeppert Mayer (Germany)
"for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure"
Eugene Paul Wigner (United States)
"for systematically improving and extending the methods of quantum mechanics and
applying them widely"
1962 Nobel Prize in Physics
Lev Davidovich Landau (Russia)
"for his pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium"
1961 Nobel Prize in Physics
Robert Hofstadter (United States: Stanford U.)
"for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and
for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons"
Rudolf Ludwig Moessbauer (Germany)
"for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma-radiation and
his discovery in the connection of the effect which bears his name"
1960 Nobel Prize in Physics
Donald Arthur Glaser (United States: UC, Berkeley)
"for the invention of the bubble chamber"
1959 Nobel Prize in Physics
Owen Chamberlain (United States: UC, Berkeley)
"for his confirmation of the existence of the antiproton"
Emillio Gino Segre (United States: UC, Berkeley)
"for the discovery of the antiproton"
1958 Nobel Prize in Physics
Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov (Russia),
Ilya Mikaylovich Frank(Russia) and
Igor Evgenevich Tamm (Russia)
"for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect"
1957 Nobel Prize in Physics
Tsung-dao Lee (United States) and
Chen Ning Yang (United States)
"for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has let to
important discoveries regarding the elementary particles"
1956 Nobel Prize in Physics
John Bardeen (United States),
Walter Houser Brattain (United States) and
William Bradford Shockley (United States)
"for their investigations on semiconductors and the discovery of the transistor effect"
1955 Nobel Prize in Physics
Polycarp Kusch (United States: U. Texas)
"for his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron"
Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. (United States)
"for his discoveries regarding the hyperfine structure of the hydrogen spectrum"
1954 Nobel Prize in Physics
Max Born (Germany)
"for his statistical interpretation of the quantum theory"
Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe (Germany)
"for the coincidence method and his discoveries with this method"
1953 Nobel Prize in Physics
Frits Zernike (The Netherlands)
"for his demonstration of the phase-contrast method, especially for his invention
of the phase-contrast microscope"
1952 Nobel Prize in Physics
Felix Bloch (United States: Stanford U.)
"for his development of high precision methods in the field of nuclear magnetism
and the discoveries which were made through the use of these methods"
Edward Mills Purcell (United States: Harvard U.)
"for his development of new methods of nuclear magnetic precision measurements and
discoveries in connection therewith"
1951 Nobel Prize in Physics
Sir John Douglas Cockcroft (England) and
Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (Ireland)
"for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially
accelerated atomic particles"
1950 Nobel Prize in Physics
Cecil Frank Powell (England)
"for his development of the photographic method in the study of nuclear processes
and for his discoveries concerning mesons"
1949 Nobel Prize in Physics
Hideki Yukawa (Japan)
"for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work
on nuclear forces"
1948 Nobel Prize in Physics
Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett (England)
"for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber and his discoveries therewith
in the field of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation"
1947 Nobel Prize in Physics
Sir Edward Victor Appleton (England)
"for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere, especially for the
discovery of the so-called Appleton layer"
1946 Nobel Prize in Physics
Percy Williams Bridgman (United States)
"for the invention of apparatus for obtaining very high pressures and
for discoveries which he made by means of this apparatus in the field of
high pressure physics"
1945 Nobel Prize in Physics
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (Germany)
"for his decisive contribution through his discovery in 1925 of a new law of
nature, the exclusion principle, or Pauli Principle"
1944 Nobel Prize in Physics
Isidor Isaac Rabi (United States: Columbia U.)
"for his atomic- and molecular-beam work and for his discovery of the resonance method"
1943 Nobel Prize in Physics
Otto Stern (United States: Carnegie Inst.)
"for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and
his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton"
1942 Nobel Prize in Physics
None
1941 Nobel Prize in Physics
None
1940 Nobel Prize in Physics
None
1939 Nobel Prize in Physics
Ernest Orlando Lawrence (United States: UC, Berkeley)
"for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained
with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements"
1938 Nobel Prize in Physics
Enrico Fermi (Italy)
"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"
1937 Nobel Prize in Physics
Clinton Joseph Davisson (United States: Bell Telephone) and
Sir George Paget Thomson (England)
"for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals"
1936 Nobel Prize in Physics
Carl David Anderson (United States: CalTech)
"for his discovery of the positron"
Victor Franz Hess (Austria)
"for his discovery of cosmic radiation"
1935 Nobel Prize in Physics
Sir James Chadwick (England)
"for his discovery of the neutron"
1934 Nobel Prize in Physics
None
1933 Nobel Prize in Physics
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (England) and
Erwin Schrodinger (Austria)
"for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory"
1932 Nobel Prize in Physics
Werner Karl Heisenberg (Germany)
"for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has,
among other things, let to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen"
1931 Nobel Prize in Physics
None
1930 Nobel Prize in Physics
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (India)
"for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the
effect named after him"
1929 Nobel Prize in Physics
Louis-Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie (France)
"for his discovery of the wave nature of the electron"
1928 Nobel Prize in Physics
Sir Owen Willians Richardson (England)
"for his work on the thermionic phenomenon and especially for
the discovery of the law named after him"
1927 Nobel Prize in Physics
Arthur Holly Compton (United States: U. Chicago)
"for his discovery of the effect named after him"
Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (Scotland)
"for his method of making the paths of electrically charged particles visible
by condensation of vapour"
1926 Nobel Prize in Physics
Jean Baptiste Perrin (France)
"for his work on the discontinuous structure of matter, and especially
for his discovery of sedimentation equilibrium"
1925 Nobel Prize in Physics
James Franck (Germany) and
Gustav Ludwig Hertz (Germany)
"for their contributions to the discovery of the laws governing the impact
of an electron upon an atom"
1924 Nobel Prize in Physics
Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn (Sweden)
"for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy"
1923 Nobel Prize in Physics
Robert Andrews Millikan (United States: CalTech)
"for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the
photoelectric effect"
1922 Nobel Prize in Physics
Niels Henrik David Bohr (Denmark)
"for his investigation of the structure of atoms, and of the radiation
emanating from them"
1921 Nobel Prize in Physics
Albert Einstein (Germany)
"for his attainments in mathematical physics and especially for his
discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect"
1920 Nobel Prize in Physics
Charles Eduard Guillaume (Switzerland)
"in recognition of the service he has rendered to precision measurements
in physics by his discovery of anomalies in nickel steel alloys"
1919 Nobel Prize in Physics
Johannes Stark (Germany)
"for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting
of spectral lines in electrical fields"
1918 Nobel Prize in Physics
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (Germany)
"for his work on the establishment and development of the theory of
elementary quanta"
1917 Nobel Prize in Physics
Charles Glover Barkla (England)
"for his discovery of the characteristic Roentgen radiation of the elements"
1916 Nobel Prize in Physics
None
1915 Nobel Prize in Physics
Sir William Henry Bragg (England) and
Sir William Lawrence Bragg (England)
"for the value of their contribution to the study of crystal structures
by means of X-rays"
1914 Nobel Prize in Physics
Max Theodor Felix von Laue (Germany)
"for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays in crystals"
1913 Nobel Prize in Physics
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (The Netherlands)
"for researches on the properties of matter at low temperatures"
1912 Nobel Prize in Physics
Nils Gustaf Dalen (Sweden)
"for his invention of automatic regulators for use in conjunction with gas accumulators
for illuminating lighthouses and buoys"
1911 Nobel Prize in Physics
Carl Werner Otto Fritz Franz Wien (Germany)
"for his discoveries regarding the laws governing the radiation of heat"
1910 Nobel Prize in Physics
Johannes Diderik Van der Waals (The Netherlands)
"for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids"
1909 Nobel Prize in Physics
Karl Ferdinand Braun and Guglielmo Marconi (Italy)
"for contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy"
1908 Nobel Prize in Physics
Gabriel Jonas Lippmann (France)
"for his method, based on the interference phenomenon, for reproducing colours
photographically"
1907 Nobel Prize in Physics
Albert Abraham Michelson (Germany)
"for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological
investigations carried out with their aid"
1906 Nobel Prize in Physics
Sir Joseph John Thomson (England)
"in recognition of his merits for the theoretic and experimental study of the
conduction of electricity through gases"
1905 Nobel Prize in Physics
Phillipp Eduard Anton von Lenard (Hungary)
"for his work in connection with cathode rays"
1904 Nobel Prize in Physics
John William Strutt (Lord Rayleigh) (England)
"for his investigations into the density of the most important gases,
and for his discovery of argon in connection with these investigations"
1903 Nobel Prize in Physics
Antoine Henri Becquerel (France)
"in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of
spontaneous radioactivity"
Marie Curie and Pierre Curie (France)
"in recognition of the special services rendered by them in the work they jointly
carried out in investigating the phenomena of radiation discovered by
Professor Becquerel"
1902 Nobel Prize in Physics
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (The Netherlands) and
Pieter Zeeman (The Netherlands)
"in recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the
influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomena"
1901 Nobel Prize in Physics
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (Germany)
"in recognition of the extraordinary merit gained by the discovery of the special
rays bearing his name"
