DOE Nobel Laureates

Among the most prestigious scientific awards in the world are the Nobel Prizes for Chemistry, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine.

All three of these Nobel Prizes have been presented since 1901, with the Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet. (For more information about the Nobel Prize, visit nobelprize.org.)

Going back to the earliest days of the Manhattan Project, the Department of Energy and its predecessor agencies blended cutting-edge research and innovative problem-solving to keep the United States in the forefront of scientific discovery. The 118 Nobel Laureates associated with DOE serve as a proud testimony to both the high quality and the impact of the research underwritten by or associated with the Department.

A list of the 118 DOE-affiliated Nobel Prize winners is provided below.

 Chemistry/Physics Prize
Year Prize Name Home Institution(s) DOE-SC Affiliation  Other DOE Affiliation 
2022 Physics  John F. Clauser  J.F. Clauser & Assoc. 
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
 
2022 Chemistry
Carolyn Bertozzi  Stanford University 
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
 

2020

Chemistry

Jennifer A. Doudna
Nobel Lecture

University of California, Berkeley

  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
 

2019

Chemistry

John B. Goodenough
Nobel Lecture

University of Texas, Austin

  • Basic Energy Sciences
  • Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

2019

Chemistry

M. Stanley Whittingham
Nobel Lecture

Binghamton University, State University of New York

  • Basic Energy Sciences
  • Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
2018
Physics

Gérard Mourou

Nobel Lecture

University of Michigan

École Polytechnique, France

 
  • Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester
  • National Nuclear Security Administration
2018
Physics

Donna Strickland

Nobel Lecture
University of Waterloo, Canada
 
  • Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester
  • National Nuclear Security Administration
2018
Chemistry

Frances H. Arnold

Nobel Lecture

California Institute of Technology
  • Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences
  • Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
2013 Chemistry

Martin Karplus

Nobel Lecture

Universite dé Strasbourg; Harvard University
  • National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
 
2013 Chemistry

Michael Levitt

Nobel Lecture

Stanford University School of Medicine
  • Biological and Environmental Research
 
2012 Chemistry

Brian K. Kobilka

Nobel Lecture

Stanford University School of Medicine
  • Argonne National Laboratory
2011 Physics

Saul Perlmutter

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Berkeley
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • High Energy Physics
2009 Chemistry

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Nobel Lecture

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences
2009 Chemistry

Thomas A. Steitz

Nobel Lecture

Howard Hughes Medical Institute;
Yale University
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences
2009 Chemistry

Ada E. Yonath

Nobel Lecture

Weizman Institute of Science, Israel
  • Argonne National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences
2008 Chemistry

Roger Y. Tsien

Nobel Lecture

University of California, San Diego
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • Biological and Environmental Research
2008 Physics

Yoichiro Nambu

Nobel Lecture 

Enrico Fermi Institute;
University of Chicago
  • Atomic Energy Commission
2007 Physics

Peter Grünberg

Nobel Lecture

Forschungszentrum Jülich
  • Argonne National Laboratory
2006 Chemistry

Roger D. Kornberg

Nobel Lecture

Stanford University
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
2006 Physics

John C. Mather

Nobel Lecture

Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA)
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • High Energy Physics
2006 Physics

George F. Smoot

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Berkeley
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • High Energy Physics
  • 1994 E.O. Lawrence Award
2005 Chemistry

Robert H. Grubbs

Nobel Lecture

California Institute of Technology
  • Basic Energy Sciences
2005 Chemistry

Richard R. Schrock

Nobel Lecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Basic Energy Sciences
2004 Physics

David J. Gross

Nobel Lecture

Princeton University;
University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Fermi National Laboratory
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • High Energy Physics
2004 Physics

H. David Politzer

Nobel Lecture

California Institute of Technology
  • High Energy Physics
2004 Physics

Frank Wilczek

Nobel Lecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • High Energy Physics
2003 Chemistry

Peter Agre

Nobel Lecture

Johns Hopkins University
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Biological and Environmental Research 
2003 Chemistry

Roderick MacKinnon

Nobel Lecture

Rockefeller University
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
2003 Physics

Alexei A. Abrikosov

Nobel Lecture

Institute for Physical Problems
  • Argonne National Laboratory
2003 Physiology or Medicine

Sir Peter Mansfield

Nobel Lecture

University of Nottingham
  • Basic Energy Sciences
2002 Physics

Raymond Davis, Jr.

Nobel Lecture

University of Pennsylvania
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
2002 Physics

Masatoshi Koshiba

Nobel Lecture

University of Tokyo
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • High Energy Physics
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
2000 Chemistry

Alan J. Heeger

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • Argonne National Laboratory
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
2000 Chemistry

Alan G. MacDiarmid

Nobel Lecture

University of Pennsylvania
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences
1999 Chemistry

Ahmed H. Zewail

Nobel Lecture

California Institute of Technology
1999 Physics

Martinus J.G. Veltman

Nobel Lecture

University of Utrecht, Netherlands;
University of Michigan
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
  • 1998 E.O. Lawrence Award
1998 Chemistry

John A. Pople

Nobel Lecture

Northwestern University
  • Argonne National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences

 

1998 Physics

Robert B. Laughlin

Nobel Lecture

Stanford University;
Bell Laboratories
  • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
1997 Chemistry

Paul D. Boyer

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Los Angeles
  • Basic Energy Sciences
  • Biological and Environmental Research
1997 Physics

Steven Chu

Nobel Lecture

Stanford University;
Bell Laboratories
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
1997 Physiology or Medicine

Stanley B. Prusiner

Nobel Lecture

University of California, San Francisco
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences
  • Biological and Environmental Research
1996 Chemistry

Robert F. Curl, Jr.

Nobel Lecture

Rice University
  • Basic Energy Sciences
1996 Chemistry

Richard E. Smalley

Nobel Lecture

Rice University
  • Basic Energy Sciences
1996 Physics

David M. Lee

Nobel Lecture

Cornell University
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
1996 Physics

Douglas D. Osheroff

Nobel Lecture

Cornell University;
Stanford University
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
1995 Chemistry

Mario J. Molina

Nobel Lecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Basic Energy Sciences
1995 Chemistry

F. Sherwood Rowland

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Irvine
  • Basic Energy Sciences
1995 Physics

Martin L. Perl

Nobel Lecture

Stanford University
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
1995 Physics

Frederick Reines

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Irvine
  • Hanford Site
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
1994 Chemistry

George A. Olah

Nobel Lecture

University of Southern California
  • Basic Energy Sciences
1994 Physics

Bertram N. Brockhouse

Nobel Lecture

Chalk River Laboratories, Canada
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences 
1994 Physics

Clifford G. Shull

Nobel Lecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences
1993 Physics

Russell A. Hulse

Nobel Lecture

Princeton University;
University of Massachusetts
  • Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
1993 Physics

Joseph H. Taylor, Jr.

Nobel Lecture

Princeton University
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • High Energy Physics
1992 Chemistry

Rudolph A. Marcus

Nobel Lecture

California Institute of Technology

 

1992 Physics

Georges Charpak

Nobel Lecture

  • Fermi National Laboratory
  • High Energy Physics
  • CERN
1990 Physics

Jerome I. Friedman

Nobel Lecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
1990 Physics

Henry W. Kendall

Nobel Lecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
1990 Physics

Richard E. Taylor

Nobel Lecture

Stanford University
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
1989 Chemistry

Thomas R. Cech

Nobel Lecture

University of Colorado
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
1989 Physics

Norman F. Ramsey

Nobel Lecture

Harvard University
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • US Atomic Energy Commission
1988 Chemistry

Johann Deisenhofer

Nobel Lecture

Max Planck Institute
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Argonne National Laboratory
  • Biological and Environmental Research
1988 Physics

Leon M. Lederman

Nobel Lecture

Columbia University
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
1988 Physics

Melvin Schwartz

Nobel Lecture

Columbia University
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
1988 Physics

Jack Steinberger

Nobel Lecture

Columbia University
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
1987 Chemistry

Donald J. Cram

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Los Angeles
  • Basic Energy Sciences
1986 Chemistry

Yuan T. Lee

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Berkeley
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
1986 Chemistry

Dudley R. Herschbach

Nobel Lecture

Harvard University
  • Basic Energy Sciences
1983 Physics

William Alfred Fowler

Nobel Lecture

California Institute of Technology
1983 Physiology or Medicine

Barbara McClintock

Nobel Lecture

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
1983 Chemistry

Henry Taube

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Berkeley;
Stanford University
  • Basic Energy Sciences
1982 Physics

Kenneth G. Wilson

Nobel Lecture

Cornell University
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
1981 Chemistry

Roald Hoffmann

Nobel Lecture

Cornell University
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences
1980 Physics

Val Logsdon Fitch

Nobel Lecture

Princeton University
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
1980 Physics

James Watson Cronin

Nobel Lecture

University of Chicago
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
1979 Physiology or Medicine

Allan M. Cormack

Nobel Lecture

Tufts University
1979 Physics

Sheldon Lee Glashow

Nobel Lecture

Harvard University;
Lyman Laboratory
  • Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
1979 Physics

Abdus Salam

Nobel Lecture

International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste;
Imperial College, London
  • Fermi National Laboratory
  • High Energy Physics
1979 Physics

Steven Weinberg

Nobel Lecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • High Energy Physics
  • Nuclear Physics
1977 Chemistry

Ilva Prigogine

Nobel Lecture

University of Texas
  • Office of Energy Research
1976 Physics

Burton Richter

Nobel Lecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
  • CERN
1976 Physics

Samuel Chao Chung Ting

Nobel Lecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • CERN
  • 1975 E.O. Lawrence Award
1975 Physics

Ben Roy Mottelson

Nobel Lecture

Niels Bohr Institute
  • US Atomic Energy Commission
  • CERN
1975 Physics

Leo James Rainwater

Nobel Lecture

Columbia University
  • US Atomic Energy Commission
  • 1963 E.O. Lawrence Award
1974 Chemistry

Paul J. Flory

Nobel Lecture

Cornell University;
Stanford University
1973 Physics

Ivar Giaever

Nobel Lecture

General Electric Research and Development Center;
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
1972 Physics

Leon Neil Cooper

Nobel Lecture

Brown University
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
1972 Physics

John Bardeen

Nobel Lecture

University of Illinois
1972 Physics

John Robert Schrieffer

Nobel Lecture

University of Illinois
1969 Physics Murray Gell-Mann California Institute of Technology
  • US Atomic Energy Commission
1968 Physics

Luis Walter Alvarez

Nobel Lecture

  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
1967 Physics

Hans Albrecht Bethe

Nobel Lecture

Cornell University
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
1965 Physics

Richard P. Feynman

Nobel Lecture

Princeton University;
California Institute of Technology
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
1965 Physics

Julian Schwinger

Nobel Lecture

Harvard University
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory
1964 Physics

Charles Hard Townes

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Berkeley;
Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Columbia University
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Basic Energy Sciences
1963 Physics

Eugene Paul Wigner

Nobel Lecture

University of Chicago
  • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
1963 Physics

Maria Goeppert-Mayer

Nobel Lecture

  • Argonne National Laboratory
1962 Physiology or Medicine

James Dewey Watson

Nobel Lecture

Cavendish Laboratory;
California Institute of Technology
1961 Physics

Robert Hofstadter

Nobel Lecture

Princeton University;
Stanford University
1961 Chemistry

Melvin Calvin

Nobel Lecture

  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
1960 Physics

Donald Arthur Glaser

Nobel Lecture

University of Michigan;
University of California, Berkeley
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
1960 Chemistry

Willard Frank Libby

Nobel Lecture

Columbia University;
University of California, Los Angeles
  • US Atomic Energy Commission
1959 Physics

Owen Chamberlain

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Berkeley;
University of Chicago
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
1959 Physics

Emilio Gino Segrè

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Berkeley
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
1958 Physiology or Medicine

George Wells Beadle

Nobel Lecture

California Institute of Technology;
University of Chicago
1957 Physics

Tsung-Dao (T.D.) Lee

Nobel Lecture

Columbia University
1957 Physics

Chen Ning Yang

Nobel Lecture

Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
1956 Physics

John Bardeen

Nobel Lecture

University of Illinois;
Bell Laboratories
1955 Physics

Polykarp Kusch

Nobel Lecture 

Columbia University
1955 Physics

Willis Eugene Lamb

Nobel Lecture

Columbia University;
Stanford University
1952 Physics

Felix Bloch

Nobel Lecture

Stanford University
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • CERN
1952 Physics

Edward Mills Purcell

Nobel Lecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1951 Chemistry

Edwin Mattison McMillan

Nobel Lecture

  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
1951 Chemistry

Glenn Theodore Seaborg

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Berkeley
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • US Atomic Energy Commission
1946 Physiology or Medicine

Hermann Joseph Muller

Nobel Lecture

Amherst College;
Indiana University
1944 Physics Isidor Isaac Rabi Columbia University;
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory
1939 Physics

Ernest Orlando Lawrence

Nobel Lecture

University of California, Berkeley
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
1938 Physics

Enrico Fermi

Nobel Lecture

Columbia University;
University of Chicago
1936 Physics

Carl David Anderson

Nobel Lecture

California Institute of Technology;
National Defense Research Committee
  • Office of Scientific Research and Development
1934 Chemistry

Harold Clayton Urey

Nobel Lecture

Johns Hopkins University
1934 Physiology or Medicine

George Hoyt Whipple

Nobel Lecture

University of Rochester
1927 Physics

Arthur Holly Compton

Nobel Lecture

University of Chicago
  • US Atomic Energy Commission
1925 Physics

James Franck

Nobel Lecture

University of Chicago
  • US Atomic Energy Commission