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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

The Nobel Foundation has stated there is no 'substantial male chauvinist bias in the [selection] committees,' despite only one in 20 awards going to women.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Take a quiz to learn about the women who have won the Nobel Prize through 2025.

Some Nobel laureates have expressed beliefs in pseudoscience after winning

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Explore the list of Pontifical Academicians that make up the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

University of California Santa Barbara produced 6 Nobel prize winners

The 2011 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for the discovery of dark energy, which has driven the accelerated expansion of the universe.

Joel Mokyr won the 2025 Economics Nobel as a historian of scientific ideas

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

Penicillin's pioneers were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945

Marie Curie pioneered radioactivity research, for which she won two Nobel Prizes

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

Why some nations reach economic success and others don't

The discovery of neutron stars by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who was not awarded the corresponding Nobel Prize

The best photos of scientists at work in 2025

Watch writer John Steinbeck's Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

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

How scientists earned themselves a Nobel Prize by discovering what destroyed ozone

Watch a video overview of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which advises the pope on science, from one of its Nobel Prize-winning members.

Women work harder for Pulitzers

Watch Bill Nye be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The full list of every Pulitzer Prize winner

An overview of the National Science Foundation and the technologies it has helped fund

Fiction winners see the most financial gain

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

Jean-Paul Sartre rejected his Nobel Prize in literature in 1964, believing it was antithetical to his role as an artist.