University of Cambridge-Korean Society

University and Colleges

The Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize was established in accordance with the will of Swede, Alfred Nobel - 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. Nobel prizes have been awarded to members of Cambridge University 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.

The University of Cambridge has more Nobel Prize winners than any other institution.

  • 83 affiliates of the University of Cambridge have won the Nobel Prize since 1904.
  • Affiliates have won in every category, with 29 Nobel prizes in Physics, 23 in Medicine, 19 in Chemistry, seven in Economics, two in Literature and two in Peace.
  • Trinity College has 31 Nobel Prize winners, the most of any college at Cambridge.
  • Dorothy Hodgkin is the first (and only) woman from Cambridge to win 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 win 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 win a Nobel Prize twice. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1958 and 1980.
  • In 1991, Harvard University created its own spoof of the Nobel Prize, called the 'Ig Nobel Prize'. Ten prizes are awarded each year for 'for achievements that make people laugh, and then make them think'. The University of Cambridge has had no winners.

Cambridge's Nobel Prize winners

  • 1904 Lord Rayleigh, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for discovering Argon
  • 1906 J. J. Thomson, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for investigating the electrical conductivity of gases
  • 1908 Ernest Rutherford, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for atomic structure and radioactivity
  • 1915 William Bragg, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Physics for analysing crystal structure using X-rays
  • 1915 Lawrence Bragg, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for analysing crystal structure using X-rays
  • 1917 Charles Barkla, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for discovering the characteristics of X-radiation
  • 1922 Niels Bohr, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for investigating atomic structure and radiation
  • 1922 Francis Aston, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for work on mass spectroscopy
  • 1922 Archibald Hill, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for work on heat production in the muscles
  • 1925 Austen Chamberlain, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Peace, for work on the Locarno Pact, 1925
  • 1927 Charles Wilson, Sidney Sussex College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for inventing the cloud chamber
  • 1927 Arthur Holly Compton
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for discovering wavelength change in diffused X-rays
  • 1928 Owen Richardson, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for creating Richardson's Law
  • 1929 Frederick Hopkins, Trinity / Emmanuel Colleges
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for discovering growth stimulating vitamins
  • 1932 Lord Adrian, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for work on the function of neurons
  • 1932 Charles Sherrington, Caius College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for work on the function of neurons
  • 1933 Paul Dirac, St John's College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for quantum mechanics
  • 1935 James Chadwick, Caius College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for discovering the neutron
  • 1936 Henry Dale, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for the chemical transmission of nerve impulses
  • 1937 George Thomson, Trinity College,
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for interference in crystals irradiated by electrons
  • 1937 Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Fitzwilliam College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for combustion in biology
  • 1945 Ernst Chain, Fitzwilliam College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for the discovery of penicillin
  • 1945 Howard Florey, Caius College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for the discovery of penicillin
  • 1947 Edward Appleton, St John's College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for discovering the Appleton Layer
  • 1948 Patrick Blackett, Magdalene / Kings Colleges
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for nuclear physics and cosmic radiation
  • 1950 Bertrand Russell, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Literature, for A History of Western Philosophy, 1946
  • 1950 Cecil Powell, Sidney Sussex College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for photography of nuclear processes
  • 1951 John Cockcroft, St John's / Churchill Colleges
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for using accelerated particles to study atomic nuclei
  • 1951 Ernest Walton, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for using accelerated particles to study atomic nuclei
  • 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
  • 1953 Hans Krebs
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for discovering the citric acid cycle
  • 1954 Max Born
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for fundamental research into quantum mechanics
  • 1957 Alexander Todd, Christ's College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for work on nucleotides
  • 1958 Frederick Sanger, St John's College and fellow of King's College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the structure of the insulin molecule
  • 1959 Philip Noel-Baker, King's College
    Nobel Prize in Peace, for work towards global disarmament
  • 1962 John Kendrew, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for determining the structure of haemoproteins
  • 1962 Max Perutz, Peterhouse
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for determing the structure of haemoproteins
  • 1962 Francis Crick, Caius / Churchill Colleges
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for determining the structure of DNA
  • 1962 James Watson, Clare College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for determining the structure of DNA
  • 1962 Maurice Wilkins, St John's College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for determining the structure of DNA
  • 1963 Alan Hodgkin, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for the transmission of impulses along a nerve fibre
  • 1963 Andrew Huxley, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for the transmission of impulses along a nerve fibre
  • 1964 Dorothy Hodgkin, Newnham / Girton Colleges
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the structure of compounds used to fight anaemia
  • 1967 Ronald Norrish, Emmanuel College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the study of fast Chemical reactions
  • 1967 George Porter, Emmanuel College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the study of fast chemical reactions
  • 1972 Rodney Porter, Pembroke College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for the chemical structure of antibodies
  • 1972 John Hicks, Caius College
    Nobel Prize in Economics, for the equilibrium theory
  • 1973 Brian Josephson, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for the tunneling in superconductors and semiconductors
  • 1974 Patrick White, King's College
    Nobel Prize in Literature, for an epic and psychological narrative art
  • 1974 Martin Ryle, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for the invention of aperture synthesis
  • 1974 Antony Hewish, Caius / Churchill Colleges
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for the discovery of pulsars
  • 1977 Nevill Mott, Caius / St John's Colleges
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for the behaviour of electrons in magnetic solids
  • 1977 Philip Anderson, Churchill College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for the behaviour of electrons in magnetic solids
  • 1977 James Meade, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Economics, for contributions to the theory of international trade
  • 1978 Pyotr Kapitsa, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for inventing the helium liquefier
  • 1978 Peter Mitchell, Jesus College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the energy transfer processes in biological systems
  • 1979 Abdus Salam, St John's College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for electromagnetic and weak particle interactions
  • 1979 Steven Weinberg
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for electromagnetic and weak particle interactions
  • 1979 Allan Cormack, St John's College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for developing CAT scans
  • 1980 Walter Gilbert, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the theory of nucleotide links in nucleic acids
  • 1980 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
  • 1982 Aaron Klug, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the structure of biologically active substances
  • 1983 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for the evolution and devolution of stars
  • 1983 William Fowler, Pembroke College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for the evolution and devolution of stars
  • 1983 Gerard Debreu, Churchill College
    Nobel Prize in Economics, for reforming the theory of general equilibrium
  • 1984 Richard Stone, Caius College and fellow of King's College
    Nobel Prize in Economics, for developing a national income accounting system
  • 1984 Cesar Milstein, Fellow of Darwin and Fitzwilliam Colleges
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for developing a technique for the production of monoclonal antibodies
  • 1984 Georges Kohler
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for developing a technique for the production of monoclonal antibodies
  • 1989 Norman Ramsey, Clare College
    Nobel Prize in Physics, for developing the separated field method
  • 1996 James Mirrlees, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Economics, for studying behaviour in the absence of complete information
  • 1997 John Walker, Sidney Sussex College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for studying how a spinning enzyme creates the molecule that powers cells in muscles
  • 1998 Amartya Sen, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Economics, for his contributions to welfare economics
  • 1998 John Pople, Trinity College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the development of computational methods in quantum chemistry
  • 2000 Alan McDiarmid, Sidney Sussex College
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the discovery and development of conductive polymers
  • 2000 Paul Greengard
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system
  • 2001 Tim Hunt, Clare College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle
  • 2001 Joseph Stiglitz, Caius College
    Nobel Prize in Economics, for analyses of markets with asymmetric information
  • 2002 John Sulston, Pembroke College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death
  • 2002 Sydney Brenner, King's College
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death
  • 2005 Richard R. Schrock
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis
  • 2007 Martin Evans
    Nobel Prize in Medicine, for discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells
  • 2008 Roger Y. Tsien
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP