Nobel Prize in Physics

Introduction

The Nobel Prize in Physics is being awarded every year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to the scientist/physicists for their remarkable contribution in various fields of physics including Chemistry, Medicine, Economics, Literature and Peace. The award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and presented by the Academy every year on December 10 on Death anniversary of Alfred Nobel. The prize was established as per will of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish engineer and industrialist. The prize has been started to given since 1901. It is not awarded posthumously to any person. It is a high recognition for the laureates in their respective field of contribution. It is based on donation received by the Nobel Foundation in 1968. The prize may not be shared among more than three individuals except Nobel Peace prize. in 1968, the Nobel Foundation received grant from Swedish central bank to be disbursed an Award Money in honor of Alfred Nobel. As per Nobel Foundation, each laureate has to deliver a pubic lecture called Nobel Lecture on the topic of their prize. Generally, the laureate has to deliver the lecture within six months of receiving the prize.

The Noble Prize for Physics is given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences through a committee called Nobel Committee for Physics. The award consist of a Gold Medal, having an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the obverse showing his image and years of birth and death, a Diploma with citation from the hands of King of Sweden depicting name of the laureate along with his/her contribution and Award Money. The award money is not fix and depends upon how much money will be awarded by the Nobel Foundation. The money is distributed equally among laureate in case of shared award.

Selection Process

Selection of noble laureate in physics is through nomination only. The Nobel Committee for Physics forward forms to collect relevant information to the competent person for nomination.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is responsible for selection of nobel laureate through a selection committee, Nobel Committee for Physics, which after screening of candidate’s profile submits its report to the Academy for final selection. The Nobel Committee for Physics consists of five member for discussion and voting to prepare final proposal.It may have adjunct voting member if needed. It is possible to suggest that nobel prize may not given this year by the committee.

The qualified members of the committee are:

1. Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
2. Members of the Nobel Committee for Physics
3. Nobel Laureates in Physics
4. Tenured professors in physical science of universities and technical colleges
5. Holders of corresponding chair in universities/colleges selected by Academy of Sciences
6. Other scientists as endorsed by Academy of Sciences

Steps and Timeline for selecting Nobel Laureate in Physics:

S.No	Process	Timeline
1	Invitation for nomination	September (Previous Year)
2	Submission of nomination	January 31
3	Consultation with experts	March – May
4	Draft of report with recommendation	June – July
5	Final report to the Academy of Sciences	September (Current Year)
6	Announcement of Noble Prize	October
7	Nobel Prize Award Ceremony	December 10

List of Nobel Laureate for Physics

As of 2019, Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded 113 times to as many as 212 Individual since 1901. John Bardeen is the only Noble Laureate who has been awarded twice in Physics for his contribution, in 1956 and 1972.

Year	Name	Country	Area of Contribution
2020	Roger Penrose	United Kingdom	“for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity”
2020	Reinhard Genzel	Germany	“for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy”
2020	Andrea Ghez	USA	“for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy”
2019	Michel Mayor	Switzerland	“for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star”
2019	Didier Queloz	Switzerland	“for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star”
2019	James Peebles	Canada/ United States	“for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology”
2018	Arthur Ashkin	United States	“for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics”, in particular “for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems”
2018	Gérard Mourou	France	“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	Canada	“for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics”, in particular “for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses”
2017	Rainer Weiss	Germany/ United States	“for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves”
2017	Kip Thorne	United States	“for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves”
2017	Barry Barish	United States	“for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves”
2016	David J. Thouless	United Kingdom	“for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”
2016	F. Duncan M. Haldane	United Kingdom/ Slovenia	“for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”
2016	John M. Kosterlitz	United Kingdom/United States	“for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”
2015	Takaaki Kajita	Japan	“for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass”
2015	Arthur B. McDonald	Canada	“for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass”
2014	Isamu Akasaki	Japan	“for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”
2014	Hiroshi Amano	Japan	“for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”
2014	Shuji Nakamura	Japan/ United States	“for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”
2013	François Englert	Belgium	“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	United Kingdom	“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”
2012	Serge Haroche	France	“for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.”
2012	David J. Wineland	United States	“for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.”
2011	Saul Perlmutter	United States	“for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae”
2011	Brian P. Schmidt	Australia/ United States	“for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae”
2011	Adam G. Riess	United States	“for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae”
2010	Andre Geim	Russia/ United Kingdom/ Netherlands	“for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”
2010	Konstantin Novoselov	Russia/ United Kingdom	“for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”
2009	Charles K. Kao	Hong Kong/ United Kingdom/United States	“for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication”
2009	Willard S. Boyle	Canada/ United States	“for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor”
2009	George E. Smith	United States	“for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor”
2008	Yoichiro Nambu	Japan/ United States	“for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics”
2008	Makoto Kobayashi	Japan	“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	Japan	“for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature”
2007	Albert Fert	France	“for the discovery of giant magnetoresistance”
2007	Peter Grünberg	Germany	“for the discovery of giant magnetoresistance”
2006	John C. Mather	United States	“for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation”
2006	George F. Smoot	United States	“for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation”
2005	Roy J. Glauber	United States	“for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence”
2005	John L. Hall	United States	“for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique”
2005	Theodor W. Hänsch	Germany	“for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique”
2004	David J. Gross	United States	“for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction”
2004	Hugh David Politzer	United States	“for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction”
2004	Frank Wilczek	United States	“for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction”
2003	Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov	Russia/ United States	“for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids”
2003	Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg	Russia	“for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids”
2003	Anthony James Leggett	United Kingdom/ United States	“for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids”
2002	Raymond Davis Jr.	United States	“for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos”
2002	Masatoshi Koshiba	Japan	“for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos”
2002	Riccardo Giacconi	Italy/ United States	“for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources”
2001	Eric Allin Cornell	United States	“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 Edwin Wieman	United States	“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	Germany	“for the achievement of Bose–Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates”
2000	Zhores Ivanovich Alferov	Russia	“for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and optoelectronics”
2000	Herbert Kroemer	Germany	“for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and optoelectronics”
2000	Jack St. Clair Kilby	United States	“for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit”
1999	Gerard ‘t Hooft	Netherlands	“for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics”
1999	Martinus J. G. Veltman	Netherlands	“for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics”
1998	Robert B. Laughlin	United States	“for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations”
1998	Horst Ludwig Störmer	Germany/ United States	“for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations”
1998	Daniel Chee Tsui	Republic of China/ United States	“for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations”
1997	Steven Chu	United States	“for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.”
1997	Claude Cohen-Tannoudji	France	“for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.”
1997	William Daniel Phillips	United States	“for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.”
1996	David Morris Lee	United States	“for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3”
1996	Douglas D. Osheroff	United States	“for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3”
1996	Robert Coleman Richardson	United States	“for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3”
1995	Frederick Reines	United States	“for the detection of the neutrino” and “for pioneering experimental contributions to lepton physics”
1995	Martin Lewis Perl	United States	“for the discovery of the tau lepton” and “for pioneering experimental contributions to lepton physics”
1994	Bertram Brockhouse	Canada	“for the development of neutron spectroscopy” and “for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter”
1994	Clifford Glenwood Shull	United States	“for the development of the neutron diffraction technique” and “for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter”
1993	Russell Alan Hulse	United States	“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.	United States	“for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation”
1992	Georges Charpak	France/ Poland	“for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber”
1991	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	Jerome I. Friedman	United States	“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	United States	“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	Canada	“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”
1989	Hans Georg Dehmelt	United States/ Germany	“for the development of the ion trap technique”
1989	Wolfgang Paul	West Germany	“for the development of the ion trap technique”
1989	Norman Foster Ramsey	United States	“for the invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks”
1988	Leon Max Lederman	United States	“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	United States	“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	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	Johannes Georg Bednorz	West Germany	“for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials”
1987	Karl Alexander Müller	Switzerland	“for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials”
1986	Ernst Ruska	West Germany	“for his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope”
1986	Gerd Binnig	West Germany	“for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope”
1986	Heinrich Rohrer	Switzerland	“for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope”
1985	Klaus von Klitzing	West Germany	“for the discovery of the quantized Hall effect”
1984	Carlo Rubbia	Italy	“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	Netherlands	“for their decisive contributions to the large project, which led to the discovery of the field particles W and Z, communicators of weak interaction”
1983	William Alfred 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”
1983	Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar	India/ United States	“for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars”
1982	Kenneth G. Wilson	United States	“for his theory for critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions”
1981	Kai Manne Börje Siegbahn	Sweden	“for his contribution to the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy”
1981	Nicolaas Bloembergen	Netherlands/ United States	“for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy”
1981	Arthur Leonard Schawlow	United States	“for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy”
1980	James Watson Cronin	United States	“for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons”
1980	Val Logsdon Fitch	United States	“for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons”
1979	Sheldon Lee Glashow	United States	“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	Pakistan	“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	United States	“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”
1978	Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa	Soviet Union	“for his basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics”
1978	Arno Allan Penzias	United States	“for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation”
1978	Robert Woodrow Wilson	United States	“for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation”
1977	Philip Warren Anderson	United States	“for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems”
1977	Nevill Francis Mott	United Kingdom	“for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems”
1977	John Hasbrouck Van Vleck	United States	“for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems”
1976	Burton Richter	United States	“for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind”
1976	Samuel Chao Chung Ting	United States	“for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind”
1975	Aage Bohr	Denmark	“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	Denmark	“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	Leo James Rainwater	United States	“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”
1974	Martin Ryle	United Kingdom	“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	United Kingdom	“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”
1973	Brian David Josephson	United Kingdom	“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”
1973	Leo Esaki	Japan	“for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively”
1973	Ivar Giaever	United States/ Norway	“for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively”
1972	John Bardeen	United States	“for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory”
1972	Leon Neil Cooper	United States	“for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory”
1972	John Robert Schrieffer	United States	“for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory”
1971	Dennis Gabor	Hungary/ United Kingdom	“for his invention and development of the holographic method”
1970	Louis Néel	France	“for fundamental work and discoveries concerning antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism which have led to important applications in solid state physics”
1970	Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén	Sweden	“for fundamental work and discoveries in magneto-hydrodynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics”
1969	Murray Gell-Mann	United States	“for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions”
1968	Luis Walter Alvarez	United States	“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”
1967	Hans Albrecht Bethe	United States/ Germany	“for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars”
1966	Alfred Kastler	France	“for the discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms”
1965	Richard Phillips Feynman	United States	“for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles”
1965	Julian Schwinger	United States	“for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles”
1965	Shin’ichirō Tomonaga	Japan	“for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles”
1964	Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov	Soviet Union	“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	Soviet Union	“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 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	Eugene Paul Wigner	Hungary/ United States	“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	United States	“for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure”
1963	J. Hans D. Jensen	West Germany	“for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure”
1962	Lev Davidovich Landau	Soviet Union	“for his pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium”
1961	Robert Hofstadter	United States	“for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons”
1961	Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer	West Germany	“for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name”
1960	Donald Arthur Glaser	United States	“for the invention of the bubble chamber”
1959	Emilio Gino Segrè	Italy/ United States	“for their discovery of the antiproton”
1959	Owen Chamberlain	United States	“for their discovery of the antiproton”
1958	Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov	Soviet Union	“for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect”
1958	Ilya Frank	Soviet Union	“for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect”
1958	Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm	Soviet Union	“for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect”
1957	Tsung-Dao Lee	Republic of China	“for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles”
1957	Chen-Ning Yang	Republic of China	“for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles”
1956	John Bardeen	United States	“for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect”
1956	Walter Houser Brattain	United States	“for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect”
1956	William Bradford Shockley	United States	“for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect”
1955	Willis Eugene Lamb	United States	“for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum”
1955	Polykarp Kusch	United States/ Germany	“for his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron”
1954	Max Born	West Germany	“for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction”
1954	Walther Bothe	West Germany	“for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith”
1953	Frits Zernike	Netherlands	“for his demonstration of the phase contrast method, especially for his invention of the phase contrast microscope”
1952	Felix Bloch	Switzerland/ United States	“for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith”
1952	Edward Mills Purcell	United States	“for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith”
1951	John Douglas Cockcroft	United Kingdom	“for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles”
1951	Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton	Ireland	“for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles”
1950	Cecil Frank Powell	United Kingdom	“for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with this method”
1949	Hideki Yukawa	Japan	“for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces”
1948	Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett	United Kingdom	“for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation”
1947	Edward Victor Appleton	United Kingdom	“for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer”
1946	Percy Williams Bridgman	United States	“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”
1945	Wolfgang Pauli	Austria	“for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli principle”
1944	Isidor Isaac Rabi	United States/Poland	“for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei”
1943	Otto Stern	United States/ Germany	“for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton”
1942	Not Awarded WW II
1941	Not Awarded WW II
1940	Not Awarded WW II
1939	Ernest Lawrence	United States	“for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements”
1938	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	Clinton Joseph Davisson	United States	“for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals”
1937	George Paget Thomson	United Kingdom	“for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals”
1936	Victor Francis Hess	Austria	“for his discovery of cosmic radiation”
1936	Carl David Anderson	United States	“for his discovery of the positron”
1935	James Chadwick	United Kingdom	“for the discovery of the neutron”
1934	Not Awarded
1933	Erwin Schrödinger	Austria	“for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory”
1933	Paul Dirac	United Kingdom	“for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory”
1932	Werner Heisenberg	Germany	“for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen”
1931	Not Awarded		“for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him”
1930	Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman	India	“for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him”
1929	Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, 7th Duc de Broglie	France	“for his discovery of the wave nature of electrons”
1928	Owen Willans Richardson	United Kingdom	“for his work on the thermionic phenomenon and especially for the discovery of the law named after him”
1927	Arthur Holly Compton	United States	“for his discovery of the effect named after him”
1927	Charles Thomson Rees Wilson	United Kingdom	“for his method of making the paths of electrically charged particles visible by condensation of vapour”
1926	Jean Baptiste Perrin	France	“for his work on the discontinuous structure of matter, and especially for his discovery of sedimentation equilibrium”
1925	James Franck	Germany	“for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom”
1925	Gustav Hertz	Germany	“for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom”
1924	Manne Siegbahn	Sweden	“for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy”
1923	Robert Andrews Millikan	United States	“for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect”
1922	Niels Bohr	Denmark	“for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them”
1921	Albert Einstein	Germany/  Switzerland	“for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”
1920	Charles Édouard Guillaume	Switzerland	“for the service he has rendered to precision measurements in physics by his discovery of anomalies in nickel-steel alloys”
1919	Johannes Stark	Germany	“for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields”
1918	Max Planck	Germany	“for the services he rendered to the advancement of physics by his discovery of energy quanta”
1917	Charles Glover Barkla	United Kingdom	“For his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements”, another important step in the development of X-ray spectroscopy
1916	Not Awarded
1915	William Henry Bragg	United Kingdom	“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	William Lawrence Bragg	Australia/ United Kingdom	“For their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays”, an important step in the development of X-ray crystallography
1914	Max von Laue	Germany	“For his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals”, an important step in the development of X-ray spectroscopy.
1913	Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes	Netherlands	“for his investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures which led, inter alia, to the production of liquid helium”
1912	Nils Gustaf Dalén	Sweden	“for his invention of automatic valves designed to be used in combination with gas accumulators in lighthouses and buoys”
1911	Wilhelm Wien	Germany	“for his discoveries regarding the laws governing the radiation of heat”
1910	Johannes Diderik van der Waals	Netherlands	“for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids”
1909	Guglielmo Marconi	Italy	“for their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy”
1909	Karl Ferdinand Braun	Germany	“for their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy”
1908	Gabriel Lippmann	France	“for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference”
1907	Albert Abraham Michelson	United States	“for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid”
1906	Joseph John Thomson	United Kingdom	“for his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases”
1905	Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard	Austria-Hungary/ Germany	“for his work on cathode rays”
1904	Lord Rayleigh	United Kingdom	“for his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of argon in connection with these studies”
1903	Antoine Henri Becquerel	France	“for his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity”
1903	Pierre Curie	France	“for their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel”
1903	Maria Skłodowska-Curie	Poland	“for their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel”
1902	Hendrik Lorentz	Netherlands	“in recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomena”
1902	Pieter Zeeman	Netherlands	“in recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomena”
1901	Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen	Germany	“in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him”

Reference: www.nobelprize.org