The Nobel Prize for Physics is awarded every year to up to three scientists who have made significant contributions to the field. Selected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, laureates have included some of the biggest names in the physics – from Marie Curie to Albert Einstein. Here, we highlight the work of recent winners, examine what happens behind the scenes, and pick out some who were overlooked for the prize.
As it happened
The Nobel prize uncovered
Migration and the Nobel prize: more than one quarter of physics laureates are immigrants
Updated infographics chart the global flow of elite physicists since 1901
Particle and atomic physics more likely to win Nobels
Study finds that five fields have accounted for more than half of Nobel prizes
Read article: How are winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics selected?
How are winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics selected?
A brief introduction to the process and the different people involved
Read article: Inside the Nobels: Lars Brink reveals how the world’s top physics prize is awarded
Inside the Nobels: Lars Brink reveals how the world’s top physics prize is awarded
All of us dream of receiving a Nobel Prize for Physics. We explain how the winners are chosen
In conversation
Read article: Donna Strickland gives inside story of her Nobel-prize-winning research
Donna Strickland gives inside story of her Nobel-prize-winning research
University of Waterloo physicist speaks at special lecture at the Institute of Physics headquarters in London
Read article: Roger Penrose discusses his career in mathematical physics
Roger Penrose discusses his career in mathematical physics
The future Nobel laureate spoke with Physics World at the 100 Years of General Relativity event in 2015
Read article: Celebrating the complexity Nobel prize with perspectives on the future of the field
Celebrating the complexity Nobel prize with perspectives on the future of the field
Collection includes an exclusive interview with Nobel laureate Giorgio Parisi
Read article: Rainer Weiss: 50 years of LIGO and gravitational waves
Rainer Weiss: 50 years of LIGO and gravitational waves
Nobel-prize-winning physicist Rainer Weiss talks with Sidney Perkowitz about his life and work, including his role in the advent of gravitational-wave astronomy
Read article: James Peebles: a life in cosmology
James Peebles: a life in cosmology
Nobel laureate and cosmologist James Peebles from Princeton University on winning the prize, cosmological models and his new book
Read article: Didier Queloz: the Nobel laureate searching for new worlds
Didier Queloz: the Nobel laureate searching for new worlds
Nobel laureate Didier Queloz on winning the award and the next step for exoplanet research
Nobel quirks and oddities
German hyperinflation, and what it has to do with a Nobel prize
Runaway prices almost prevented Otto Stern from doing a seminal quantum experiment
Nobel’s three-winner limit does not reflect modern science
The 2013 physics prize for the Higgs boson illustrates a big challenge facing the Nobel committee
Who will win the Nobel Prize for Physics? Our predictions for 2023
We are keen on condensed matter and optical physics this year, or perhaps quantum
What the winners did next
Beyond physics
Read article: Physicist Narges Mohammadi awarded Nobel Peace Prize for human-rights work
Physicist Narges Mohammadi awarded Nobel Peace Prize for human-rights work
Mohammadi bagged the award “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all"
Read article: Breaking boundaries: how erstwhile physics teacher Alexandr Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for Literature
Breaking boundaries: how erstwhile physics teacher Alexandr Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for Literature
Hamish Johnston looks at the small but important role physics played in the life of the Russian author and dissident
Read article: Breaking boundaries: how physicists won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
Breaking boundaries: how physicists won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
Tami Freeman examines two medical imaging breakthroughs that led to physicists winning the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
Read article: Breaking boundaries: how the nuclear physicist Joseph Rotblat won the Nobel Peace Prize
Breaking boundaries: how the nuclear physicist Joseph Rotblat won the Nobel Peace Prize
Michael Banks examines the life of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Joseph Rotblat
Read article: Breaking boundaries: how the physicist Ernest Rutherford won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Breaking boundaries: how the physicist Ernest Rutherford won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Matin Durrani explores why the great New Zealand physicist was made a chemistry Nobel laureate
Read article: Breaking boundaries: physicist bags 2022 economics Nobel
Breaking boundaries: physicist bags 2022 economics Nobel
Philip Dybvig dabbled in physics as an undergraduate
Physicists who were overlooked
Overlooked for the Nobel: the CERN physicists who discovered the Higgs boson
Should ATLAS, CMS and LHC physicists have shared some of the 2013 prize?
Overlooked for the Nobel: Lise Meitner
Disciplinary bias and a stew of other prejudices helped deny the physicist Lise Meitner a share of the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Read article: Overlooked for the Nobel: Chien-Shiung Wu
Overlooked for the Nobel: Chien-Shiung Wu
Should Chien-Shiung Wu have shared the 1957 Nobel prize for her measurement of parity violation?
Read article: Overlooked for the Nobel: Nicola Cabibbo
Overlooked for the Nobel: Nicola Cabibbo
Could the Nobel committee have included Nicola Cabibbo for the 2008 prize?
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