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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

The US has the 13th-best students in science, according to a global assessment by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

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.

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

Women work harder for Pulitzers

Why some nations reach economic success and others don't

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

University of California Santa Barbara produced 6 Nobel prize winners

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 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.

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.

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

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is the only supranational academy of sciences in the world, with its members giving up some of their sovereignty to achieve shared objectives.

The best photos of scientists at work in 2025

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

Understanding why graduate fellowships from the NSF have exacerbated funding inequities

The US lags behind other developed countries in math and science scores

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

Understanding why Republicans have challenged funding for the NSF

A 15-year bibliographic analysis identified systematic gender bias across Wikipedia

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

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

As of 2022, about 40% of scientific research aimed at generating new knowledge has been funded by the federal government—a percentage that has decreased from a high of 72% in 1967.

In 2021, the James Beard Awards began focusing on 'equity and sustainability'

More than 100,000 scientific publications between 1953 and 2018 reported using HeLa cells—the cancerous cells nonconsensually taken from a Black woman named Henrietta Lacks in 1951.

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.

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

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

Minorities are largely underrepresented in medical research, which compromises our understanding of how conditions and treatments may affect various populations, but recent efforts, like the African Ancestry Neuroscience Research Initiative and new genome research studies, are seeking to close that gap.

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

Browse a list of the most important scientific breakthroughs from each state

Meet the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project.

Women's health research continues to be underfunded