The Nobel Prize was established in accordance with the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and holder of more than 350 patents. Awarded annually since 1901, the Nobel Prize is the first annual international award to recognise achievements in Physics, Medicine, Chemistry, Peace and Literature.
In addition, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences according to the same principles as for the Nobel Prizes.
Nobel Prizes have been awarded to members of the University of Cambridge for significant advances as diverse as the discovery of the structure of DNA, the development of a national income accounting system, the mastery of an epic and narrative psychological art and the discovery of penicillin.
Affiliates of University of Cambridge have received more Nobel Prizes than those of any other institution.
- 121 affiliates of the University of Cambridge have been awarded the Nobel Prize since 1904
- Trinity College has 34 Nobel Laureates, the most of any College at Cambridge
- Dorothy Hodgkin is the first woman from Cambridge to have been awarded a Nobel Prize, for her work on the structure of compounds used in fighting anaemia
- In 1950, Bertrand Russell became the first person from Cambridge to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, for his 1946 work A History of Western Philosophy
- Frederick Sanger, from St John’s and Fellow of King’s, is one of only four individuals to have been awarded a Nobel Prize twice – he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1958 and 1980
Our list includes: alumni; academics who carried out research at the University in postdoctoral or faculty positions; and official appointments (visiting fellowships, lectureships, etc). We have not included informal positions, non-academic positions and honorary positions. We have omitted several Laureates where there is insufficient information available to confirm their connection with the University.
Cambridge’s Nobel Laureates
2020
- Professor Sir Roger Penrose (St John's College, 1952, and honorary fellow)
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity.
2019
- Professor Didier Queloz (Trinity College)
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics with Michel Mayor from the University of Geneva for the first discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star (the other half of this prize was awarded to James Peebles, Princeton University, for his work on the evolution of the Universe).
- Sir Peter Ratcliffe (Gonville & Caius, 1972)
Jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.
2018
- Gregory Winter (Trinity College alumnus and Master), MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry with George P Smith from the University of Missouri, USA, for the phage display of peptides and antibodies (the other half of this prize was awarded to Frances H Arnold, California Institute of Technology, USA, for the directed evolution of enzymes). - William Nordhaus (Senior Visitor, 1970-1971)
Awarded one half of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis. The other half of the Prize was awarded to Paul Romer for integrating technological innovations into long-run macroeconomic analysis.
2017
- Richard Henderson (Corpus Christi College and Darwin College) and Joachim Frank, former Cavendish senior research associate
Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with Jacques Dubochet from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution
2016
- Oliver Hart (King's College 1966)
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for his contributions to contract theory - David Thouless (Trinity Hall 1952), Duncan Haldane (Christ’s College 1970) and Michael Kosterlitz (Gonville and Caius College 1962)
Nobel Prize in Physics for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter
2015
- Angus Deaton (Fitzwilliam College)
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare - William Campbell (visiting researcher in the laboratory of Lord Soulsby, Baron of Swaffham Prior)
Awarded one half jointly of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Satoshi Ōmura for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites. The other half of the Prize was awarded to Tu Youyou for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria.
2013
- Michael Levitt (Gonville and Caius College and Peterhouse)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems
2012
- John Gurdon (Churchill and Magdalene Colleges), Emeritus Professor in Cell Biology
Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent
2010
- Robert G Edwards (Churchill College), Emeritus Professor of Human Reproduction
Nobel Prize in Medicine for the development of in vitro fertilization - Peter Diamond (Churchill College)
- Nobel Prize in Economics for analysis of markets with search frictions
- Mario Vargas Llosa (Former Simón Bolívar Professor, 1977-1978)
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat.
2009
- Venki Ramakrishnan (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome - Elizabeth H Blackburn (Darwin College 1971)
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase
2008
- Roger Y Tsien (Churchill and Gonville and Caius Colleges)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein GFP
2007
- Martin Evans (Christ's College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells - Eric Maskin (Jesus College)
Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory
2005
- Richard R Schrock
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis
2002
- Sydney Brenner (King's College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death - John Sulston (Pembroke College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death
2001
- Tim Hunt (Clare College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle - Joseph Stiglitz (Gonville and Caius College)
Nobel Prize in Economics for analyses of markets with asymmetric information
2000
- Paul Greengard
Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system - Alan McDiarmid (Sidney Sussex College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and development of conductive polymers - Kim Dae-jung (Visiting and Honorary Fellow of Clare College)
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular.
1998
- John Pople (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of computational methods in quantum chemistry - Amartya Sen (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Economics for his contributions to welfare economics
1997
- John Walker (Sidney Sussex College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for studying how a spinning enzyme creates the molecule that powers cells in muscles
1996
- James Mirrlees (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Economics for studying behaviour in the absence of complete information
1995
-
Edward Lewis (Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, 1947-1948)
Awarded jointly the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric Wieschaus for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development.
1993
- Robert Fogel (Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions)
- Nobel Prize in Economics for having renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and quantitative methods in order to explain economic and institutional change
1990
- Octavio Paz (Simón Bolívar Professor) (Churchill College)
- Nobel Prize in Literature for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity
1989
- Norman Ramsey (Clare College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the separated field method
1987
- Jean-Marie Lehn (Alexander Todd Visiting Professor of Chemistry)
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity
- Joseph Brodsky (Clare Hall)
- Nobel Prize in Literature for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity
1986
- Wole Soyinka (Churchill College, Overseas Fellow in 1973)
Nobel Prize in Literature for 'in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashion[ing] the drama of existence'
1984
- Richard Stone (Gonville and Caius College and Fellow of King's College)
Nobel Prize in Economics for developing a national income accounting system - Georges Kohler and Cesar Milstein (Fellow of Darwin and Fitzwilliam Colleges)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for developing a technique for the production of monoclonal antibodies
1983
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (Trinity College) and William Fowler (Pembroke College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for the evolution and devolution of stars - Gerard Debreu (Churchill College, Overseas Fellow 1972)
Nobel Prize in Economics for reforming the theory of general equilibrium
1982
- Aaron Klug (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the structure of biologically active substances
1980
- Walter Gilbert (Trinity College) and Frederick Sanger (St John's College and fellow of King's College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the theory of nucleotide links in nucleic acids
1979
- Abdus Salam (St John's College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for electromagnetic and weak particle interactions - Allan Cormack (St John's College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for developing CAT scans
1978
- Pyotr Kapitsa (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the helium liquefier - Peter Mitchell (Jesus College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the energy transfer processes in biological systems
1977
- Philip Anderson (Churchill College) and Nevill Mott (Gonville and Caius and St John's Colleges)
Nobel Prize in Physics, for the behaviour of electrons in magnetic solids - James Meade (Christ's and Trinity Colleges)
Nobel Prize in Economics for contributions to the theory of international trade
1976
- Milton Friedman (Gonville and Caius College)
- Nobel Prize in Economics for consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy.
1974
- Antony Hewish (Gonville and Caius and Churchill Colleges)
Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of pulsars - Martin Ryle (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of aperture synthesis
1973
- Brian Josephson (Trinity College)
- Nobel Prize in Physics for the tunnelling in superconductors and semiconductors
- Ivar Giaever (Clare Hall)
- Nobel Prize in Physics for the tunnelling in superconductors and semiconductors
- Patrick White (King's College)
- Nobel Prize in Literature for an epic and psychological narrative art
1972
- Kenneth J Arrow (Churchill College) and John Hicks (Gonville and Caius College)
Nobel Prize in Economics for the equilibrium theory - Rodney Porter (Pembroke College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for the chemical structure of antibodies - Stanford Moore
Awarded one half jointly of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with William Stein for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule. The other half of the Prize was awarded to Christian Anfinsen for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation.
1970
- Luis Leloir (Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Biochemistry, 1936-1937)
- Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates.
1969
- Murray Gell-Mann (Churchill College)
- Nobel Prize in Physics for the classification of elementary particles and their interactions
1968
- Lars Onsager (Fulbright Scholar with David Schoenberg at the Mond Laboratory)
- Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of the reciprocal relations bearing his name, which are fundamental for the thermodynamics of irreversible processes.
- Har Gobind Khorana
- Awarded jointly the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Robert Holley and Marshall Nirenberg for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.
1967
- Ronald Norrish (Emmanuel College) and George Porter (Emmanuel College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the study of fast Chemical reactions - George Wald (Guggenheim Fellow, 1963-1964)
Awarded jointly the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ragnar Granit and Haldan Keffer Hartline for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye.
1965
- André Lwoff
- Awarded jointly the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with François Jacob and Jacques Monod for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis.
1964
- Dorothy Hodgkin (Newnham and Girton Colleges)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the structure of compounds used to fight anaemia
1963
- Alan Hodgkin (Trinity College) and Andrew Huxley (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for the transmission of impulses along a nerve fibre
1962
- John Kendrew (Trinity College) and Max Perutz (Peterhouse)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for determining the structure of haemoproteins - Maurice Wilkins (St John's College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for determining the structure of DNA - Francis Crick (Gonville and Caius and Churchill Colleges) and James Watson (Clare College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for determining the structure of DNA
1959
- Philip Noel-Baker (King's College)
Nobel Prize in Peace for work towards global disarmament
1958
- Frederick Sanger (St John's College and fellow of King's College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the structure of the insulin molecule
1957
- Alexander Todd (Christ's College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on nucleotides
1954
- Max Born (Gonville and Caius College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for fundamental research into quantum mechanics
1953
- Hans Krebs
Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering the citric acid cycle
1952
- Richard Synge (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing partition chromatography
1952
- Archer Martin (Peterhouse)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing partition chromatography
1951
- John Cockcroft (St John's and Churchill Colleges) and Ernest Walton (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for using accelerated particles to study atomic nuclei
1950
- Cecil Powell (Sidney Sussex College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for photography of nuclear processes - Bertrand Russell (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Literature for A History of Western Philosophy (1946)
1948
- Patrick Blackett (Magdalene and King's Colleges)
Nobel Prize in Physics for nuclear physics and cosmic radiation
1947
- Edward Appleton (St John's College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the Appleton Layer
1945
- Ernst Chain (Fitzwilliam College) and Howard Florey (Gonville and Caius College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine (with Alexander Fleming) for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases
1937
- George Thomson (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for interference in crystals irradiated by electrons - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (Fitzwilliam College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for combustion in biology
1936
- Henry Dale (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for the chemical transmission of nerve impulses
1935
- James Chadwick (Gonville and Caius College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the neutron
1933
- Paul Dirac (St John's College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for quantum mechanics
1932
- Lord Edgar Adrian (Trinity College) and Charles Sherrington (Gonville and Caius College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for work on the function of neurons
1929
- Frederick Hopkins (Trinity and Emmanuel Colleges)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering growth stimulating vitamins
1928
- Owen Richardson (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for creating Richardson's Law
1927
- Charles Wilson (Sidney Sussex College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the cloud chamber - Arthur Holly Compton
Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering wavelength change in diffused X-rays
1925
- Austen Chamberlain (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Peace for work on the Locarno Pact (1925)
1922
- Niels Bohr (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for investigating atomic structure and radiation - Francis Aston (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on mass spectroscopy - Archibald Hill (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for work on heat production in the muscles
1918
- Fritz Haber
- Awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements.
1917
- Charles Barkla (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Physics, for discovering the characteristics of X-radiation
1915
- Lawrence Bragg (Trinity College) and William Bragg (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for analysing crystal structure using X-rays
1908
- Ernest Rutherford (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for atomic structure and radioactivity
1906
- JJ Thomson (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for investigating the electrical conductivity of gases
1904
- Lord Rayleigh – John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (Trinity College)
Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering Argon