The Nobel Prize in Physics is an international scientific award presented by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for important discoveries or inventions in physics. First awarded in 1901, it is one of the five original Nobel Prizes established through the will of Alfred Nobel. Its recipients, called laureates, receive a medal, a diploma, and a monetary award. The prize recognizes particular scientific achievements rather than functioning as a general lifetime-achievement award. (nobelprize.org)
Origins and institutional structure
Nobel signed his final will on 27 November 1895, directing that most of his estate support prizes for achievements benefiting humanity. Physics was the first field mentioned. The Nobel Foundation, established in 1900, administers the financial assets and organizational framework, while the Academy independently selects the physics laureates. The same Academy selects recipients of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, although the latter was established separately in 1968. (nobelprize.org)
The first physics laureate was Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, honored in 1901 for discovering X-rays in 1895. Early awards coincided with major changes in understanding matter and radiation. In 1903, Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, and Marie Curie shared the prize for work on radioactivity. These awards recognized discoveries that helped reveal previously unknown features of atomic structure. (nobelprize.org)
Nomination and selection
Candidates enter consideration through nominations submitted by qualified, invited nominators; self-nomination is not permitted. Eligible nominators include Academy members, previous physics laureates, designated university professors, and other scientists invited by the Academy. Invitations are normally distributed in September, and completed nominations must arrive by 31 January of the following year. (nobelprize.org)
The physics Nobel Committee screens nominations and obtains assessments from specially appointed experts. It prepares recommendations for discussion within the Academy’s Physics Class. The final decision belongs to the Academy, which selects laureates by majority vote, normally in early October. Its decision cannot be appealed. The committee therefore evaluates and recommends candidates but does not alone make the final award. (nobelprize.org)
Nomination records, expert investigations, and deliberations remain confidential for 50 years. Consequently, an official nomination is neither an endorsement nor evidence that someone reached a final shortlist. Historical nomination archives become available only after the confidentiality period. (nobelprize.org)
Award rules and presentation
A physics prize may be awarded to one individual or shared by two or three. Foundation statutes permit division between two prizeworthy works, with joint recognition when a rewarded work has multiple contributors, but prohibit sharing the monetary award among more than three people. Equal shares are possible, as are allocations such as one-half to one recipient and one-quarter to each of two others. (nobelprize.org)
The statutes require that a rewarded work’s importance be established through experience or expert scrutiny. Although Nobel’s will referred to achievements of the preceding year, awards can recognize much older discoveries. For example, the theory of superconductivity developed by John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John Robert Schrieffer in 1957 received the prize in 1972. (nobelprize.org)
Under the rules applied since 1974, prizes are not awarded posthumously, except when a laureate dies after the announcement. An award may also be withheld. No physics prize was awarded in 1916, 1931, 1934, or 1940–1942. (nobelprize.org)
The presentation normally takes place in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel’s death. The Swedish monarch presents the diploma and Nobel Prize medal, and the celebrations include the Nobel Banquet. For 2025, the full prize amount was 11 million Swedish kronor, divided among its three recipients. (nobelprize.org)
Scientific range
The prize’s history encompasses theoretical discoveries, experiments, and enabling technologies. Max Planck received the 1918 prize for discovering energy quanta, an important foundation of quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein received the 1921 prize, particularly for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, rather than specifically for relativity. Both awards were presented in the following calendar year. (nobelprize.org)
Technological discoveries also qualify. Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley shared the 1956 prize for semiconductor research and discovery of the transistor effect. Bardeen’s subsequent superconductivity award made him the only person to receive the physics prize twice through 2025. (educationalgames.nobelprize.org)
Recent awards illustrate its continuing range. In 2022, Alain Aspect, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger were recognized for experiments involving quantum entanglement, tests of Bell inequalities, and pioneering quantum information science. In 2024, John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton received the prize for discoveries and inventions enabling machine learning with artificial neural networks. The Academy explained their use of physical concepts in developing associative memory and methods for identifying patterns in data. (nobelprize.org)
The 2025 prize went jointly to John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis for discovering macroscopic quantum tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit. Their recognized experiments showed quantum behavior in a superconducting circuit rather than only in individual microscopic particles. (nobelprize.org)
Laureates and historical records
From 1901 through 2025, the physics prize was awarded 119 times, producing 230 laureate awards to 229 distinct individuals because Bardeen won twice. Of those individuals, five were women: Marie Curie, Maria Goeppert Mayer, Donna Strickland, Andrea Ghez, and Anne L’Huillier. Lawrence Bragg, aged 25 when awarded the 1915 prize, was the youngest physics laureate; Arthur Ashkin, aged 96 in 2018, was the oldest. These figures distinguish individual recipients from the number of awards and shared prize occasions. (nobelprize.org)