In 2011, the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded to a deceased scientist, which is forbidden under the Nobel Foundation's rules.

Read more about the backstory on the 2025 Nobel Prize for immune system work

The first Nobel Prize ceremony, which honored the discovery of X-rays and the cofounder of the Red Cross, occurred five years after Alfred Nobel's death.

The Nobel Prizes are among the highest science honors, though they have long been criticized for their limited scope and representation of disciplines and minorities.

Since 1901, the Nobel Prizes have honored major global achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace efforts.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been criticized for sometimes honoring individuals who embody certain ideals, rather than those with recognizable achievements.

How Nobel Prize-winning research unraveled why the immune system doesn't always attack itself

As of 2025, only five people have won two Nobel Prizes, with Marie Curie the only person to do so in two different sciences.

Some Nobel laureates have expressed beliefs in pseudoscience after winning

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was not among the prizes in Alfred Nobel's will but was established by Sweden's central bank in 1968.

Nominations for each Nobel Prize in science are submitted by an invitation-only group of thousands of people, which includes leading academics and former Nobel laureates.

With rules established when scientists worked in small labs or in isolation, the Nobel Prizes have struggled to reflect the collaborative nature of modern research.

Of the 736 Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and economics awarded through 2023, more than 95% went to the same academic family.

Hundreds of individuals are nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize each year, and nominees have included controversial figures like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.

The discovery of insulin led to a controversial Nobel Prize in 1923

After the dynamite he invented to make handling explosives safer was instead used for warfare, Alfred Nobel reshaped his legacy by establishing the Nobel Prizes.

Various awards have been established to honor contributions in science, technology, and mathematics beyond the disciplines honored by the Nobel Prizes.

As of 2026, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which advises the pope on scientific matters, has included 90 Nobel laureates among its members.

Nobel Prizes in science have favored male, North American, and European scientists from established academic institutions, with only 11 female winners in the 20th century.

The Ig Nobel Prize—a satirical version of the Nobel Prize—aims to engage broader audiences by spotlighting scientific achievements that make people laugh before they think.

In 2016, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his lyrics, marking the first time a rock songwriter had won the award.

Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier received the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry for showing how the CRISPR-Cas9 system enables precise gene editing in living cells.

Explore a list of Nobel Prize winners supported by National Science Foundation grants.

The 2018 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for applications in laser physics, including the creation of light-based tweezers.

A Nobel laureate discuss whether stem cells can extend lifespan

The Nobel Prize committee was not enthusiastic about selecting John Steinbeck, whom they considered past his prime.

The Pius XI Medal—named after the pope who rebranded the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1936—has been awarded every two years to a promising scientist under 45.

Explore the full list of Nobel laureates, which spans about 1,000 individuals, and their accomplishments.

Chinese scientists transplanted a pig lung into a human being in 2025—but it had to be removed.

The 2017 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to LIGO's founders

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1964

Penicillin's pioneers were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945

After the first gene-edited pig heart transplant patient died, a latent pig virus was discovered inside his xenotransplant.

For his 1922 Nobel Prize in physics, Niels Bohr was awarded a lifetime of free beer by Denmark's Carlsberg Brewery.

Rosalind Franklin’s work led to Nobel Prize-winning discoveries in DNA and virology

In 1936, Eugene O'Neill became the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize in literature.

Watch writer John Steinbeck's Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

As of 2025, the US has more Nobel laureates than any other nation and more than the next five nations combined.

Robert Koch won the Nobel for his tuberculosis work, but he also pioneered cholera research

Pig brain cellular activity was restarted hours after death in study published in 2019

Explore a library of educational games and animated interactives based on Nobel Prize awarded achievements.

Xenotransplants are an experimental last resort for the terminally ill when they cannot or will not receive a human organ.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to a health condition

The woman erased from the DNA breakthrough

In 2017, researchers won a Nobel Prize for their work controlling fruit fly circadian rhythms

In 2012, the Pulitzer board chose not to award a prize for literature

Marie Curie's research on radioactivity made her the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win awards in two sciences.

Nicknamed the 'dark lady of DNA,' Rosalind Franklin was the long-overlooked contributor to discovering the molecule's structure.

60 years after seeing Henrietta Lacks as a patient, her doctor still remembered the unique cervical tumor that gave rise to the 'immortal' cell line now commonly used in biomedical research—it was purple, shiny, and soft—an appearance he said is very different from a typical tumor.

Scientists may have discovered why gene-edited pig kidneys are rejected in humans

Some allege that Bob Dylan plagiarized his Nobel Prize in literature lecture.