The 2025 Nobel awards comprised the five annual Nobel Prizes and the associated Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Fourteen individuals received awards across six categories. Their recognised contributions concerned quantum phenomena in electrical circuits, porous molecular materials, immune regulation, literary writing, democratic rights in Venezuela, and innovation-driven economic growth. The announcements took place between 6 and 13 October 2025, followed by award ceremonies on 10 December in Stockholm and Oslo. (nobelprize.org)
Award structure and announcements
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences selected the physics, chemistry, and economic sciences laureates. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet selected the physiology or medicine recipients, while the Swedish Academy awarded the literature prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee selected the peace laureate. These institutions made separate decisions rather than operating as a single jury. (nobelprize.org)
The announcement sequence was physiology or medicine on 6 October, physics on 7 October, chemistry on 8 October, literature on 9 October, peace on 10 October, and economic sciences on 13 October. The economics award is distinct from the prizes established through Alfred Nobel’s will: Sweden’s central bank established it in 1968, and it was first awarded in 1969. It follows the same principles of selection as the Nobel Prizes and is presented alongside them. (nobelprize.org)
Physics: quantum effects in electrical circuits
The Nobel Prize in Physics was shared equally by John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for discovering macroscopic quantum-mechanical tunnelling and quantised energy levels in an electrical circuit. Their experiments at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1984 and 1985 demonstrated quantum behaviour in a system containing billions of paired electrons, rather than only in individual particles or very small assemblies. (nobelprize.org)
The work showed that a collective electrical system could exhibit macroscopic quantum tunnelling and energy quantisation. These findings extended the experimental reach of quantum mechanics to engineered circuits and provided foundations for subsequent quantum technologies. The awarding academy identified quantum computers, quantum sensors, and quantum cryptography as fields to which the discoveries contributed. The prize recognised the underlying experimental discoveries, not a particular commercial computing device. (nobelprize.org)
Chemistry: metal–organic frameworks
Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing metal–organic frameworks, commonly abbreviated MOFs. These crystalline materials combine metal ions with organic molecular components to form structures containing extensive internal cavities. Changing their building blocks allows researchers to alter the frameworks and the substances accommodated within them. (nobelprize.org)
Robson developed early frameworks in 1989, demonstrating how chemical building blocks could be assembled into open crystalline structures. Kitagawa and Yaghi subsequently developed more flexible and stable frameworks, helping establish a broadly usable class of porous materials. Their cavities can capture, retain, or permit the movement of molecules. (nobelprize.org)
The Nobel announcement described applications including harvesting water from dry air, carbon capture, gas storage, and catalysis. The award concerned the development of the material platform; it did not imply that every proposed application had reached the same level of practical deployment. (nobelprize.org)
Physiology or medicine: peripheral immune tolerance
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded equally to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance. This encompasses mechanisms that prevent the immune system from damaging the body’s own tissues outside the central processes through which immune cells develop. (nobelprize.org)
In 1995, Sakaguchi identified regulatory T cells, a population that restrains other immune cells. In 2001, Brunkow and Ramsdell identified a mutation in the Foxp3 gene associated with severe autoimmune disease in a particular mouse strain. Subsequent work connected FOXP3 with the development of regulatory T cells, linking the genetic and cellular findings. (nobelprize.org)
The discoveries established important mechanisms underlying immune tolerance and autoimmunity. The Nobel Assembly also described their relevance to research on cancer, autoimmune diseases, and transplantation, while noting that several treatments arising from this research were undergoing clinical trials. (nobelprize.org)
Literature and peace
Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy’s citation emphasised his visionary body of work and its affirmation of art amid apocalyptic terror. His books include Sátántangó, first published in Hungarian in 1985, and The Melancholy of Resistance, published in Hungarian in 1989. The award recognised his oeuvre rather than a single publication. (nobelprize.org)
The Nobel Peace Prize went to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. The Norwegian Nobel Committee stated that it recognised her work promoting democratic rights for Venezuela’s population and her efforts toward a peaceful transition to democracy. Its announcement highlighted her role in bringing opposition groups together around demands for free elections and representative government. These were the committee’s stated grounds for the award. (nobelprize.org)
Economic sciences: innovation and sustained growth
Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt received the economic sciences prize for explaining innovation-driven economic growth. Mokyr received one half; Aghion and Howitt shared the other half equally. Mokyr’s historical research examined the conditions that allow scientific knowledge and practical applications to reinforce each other, sustaining technological progress. (nobelprize.org)
Aghion and Howitt developed a mathematical model, published in 1992, of growth through creative destruction. In this process, improved products and production methods displace earlier ones: innovation creates new economic opportunities while reducing the value of older technologies. Their work formalised how this continuing replacement process can generate sustained growth. (nobelprize.org)
Prize amounts and ceremonies
Each full prize carried 11 million Swedish kronor in 2025, divided according to the recipients’ prize shares. Awards included a medal and diploma. The Stockholm ceremony took place at the Stockholm Concert Hall on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel’s death, and was followed by the Nobel Banquet at Stockholm City Hall. The peace prize ceremony was held separately at Oslo City Hall. (nobelprize.org)