Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to a total of 1026 individuals and organizations . In 2025, The United States has the highest number of Nobel laureates in the world, with over 425 Nobel laureates. Around 71% of all Nobel Prizes have been awarded to Americans; around 29% of them are immigrants from other nations.
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was the first American to win a Nobel Prize of any kind, being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his role in negotiating peace for the Russo-Japanese War. Albert Michelson was the first American to win a Nobel Prize in any of the sciences, and Sinclair Lewis was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Chemistry Year Image Laureate Birthplace Motivation1914Theodore W. RichardsPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S."for their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system"1932Irving LangmuirBrooklyn, New York, U.S."for his discoveries and investigations in surface chemistry"1934Harold C. UreyWalkerton, Indiana, U.S."for his discovery of heavy hydrogen"1946Wendell M. StanleyRidgeville, Indiana, U.S."for their preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in a pure form"1946James B. SumnerCanton, Massachusetts, U.S."for his discovery that enzymes can be crystallized"1946John H. NorthropYonkers, New York, U.S."for their preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in a pure form"1949William GiauqueNiagara Falls, Ontario, Canada"for his contributions in the field of chemical thermodynamics, particularly concerning the behaviour of substances at extremely low temperatures"1951Edwin M. McMillanRedondo Beach, California, U.S."for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements"1951Glenn Theodore SeaborgIshpeming, Michigan, U.S."for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements"1954Linus C. PaulingPortland, Oregon, U.S."for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances"1955Vincent du VigneaudChicago, Illinois, U.S."for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone"1960Willard F. LibbyParachute, Colorado, U.S."for his method to use carbon-14 for age determination in archaeology, geology, geophysics, and other branches of science"1961Melvin CalvinSt. Paul, Minnesota, U.S."for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants"1965Robert B. WoodwardBoston, Massachusetts, U.S."for his outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis"1966Robert S. MullikenNewburyport, Massachusetts, U.S."for his fundamental work concerning chemical bonds and the electronic structure of molecules by the molecular orbital method"1968Lars OnsagerKristiania (Oslo), Norway"for the discovery of the reciprocal relations bearing his name, which are fundamental for the thermodynamics of irreversible processes"1972Christian AnfinsenMonessen, Pennsylvania, U.S."for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation"1972Stanford MooreChicago, Illinois, U.S."for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule"1972William H. SteinNew York, New York, U.S."for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule"1974Paul J. FlorySterling, Illinois, U.S."for his fundamental achievements, both theoretical and experimental, in the physical chemistry of the macromolecules"1976William LipscombCleveland, Ohio, U.S."for his studies on the structure of boranes illuminating problems of chemical bonding"1979Herbert C. BrownLondon, England, United Kingdom"for their development of the use of boron- and phosphorus-containing compounds, respectively, into important reagents in organic synthesis"1980Walter GilbertBoston, Massachusetts, U.S."for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids"1980Paul BergNew York, New York, U.S."for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA"1981Roald HoffmannZłoczów, Poland"for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity"1983Henry TaubeNeudorf, Saskatchewan, Canada"for his work on the mechanisms of electron transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes"1984Bruce MerrifieldFort Worth, Texas, U.S."for his development of methodology for chemical synthesis on a solid matrix"1985Jerome KarleNew York, New York, U.S."for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures"1985Herbert A. HauptmanNew York, New York, U.S."for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures"1986Dudley R. HerschbachSan Jose, California, U.S."for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes"1986 Yuan T. LeeShinchiku City, Shinchiku Prefecture, Taiwan under Japanese rule"for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3"1987Charles J. PedersenBusan, South Korea"for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity"1987Donald J. CramChester, Vermont, U.S."for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity"1989Sidney AltmanMontreal, Quebec, Canada"for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA"1989Thomas R. CechChicago, Illinois, U.S."for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA"1990Elias James CoreyMethuen, Massachusetts, U.S."for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis"1992Rudolph A. MarcusMontreal, Quebec, Canada"for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems"1993Kary B. MullisLenoir, North Carolina, U.S."for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method"1994George Andrew OlahBudapest, Hungary"for his contribution to carbocation chemistry"1995Mario J. MolinaMexico City, Mexico"for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone"1995F. Sherwood RowlandDelaware, Ohio, U.S."for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone"1996Richard E. SmalleyAkron, Ohio, U.S."for their discovery of fullerenes"1996Robert F. Curl Jr.Alice, Texas, U.S."for their discovery of fullerenes"1997Paul D. BoyerProvo, Utah, U.S."for their elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)"1998Walter KohnVienna, Austria"for his development of the density-functional theory"1999Ahmed H. ZewailDamanhour, Egypt"for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy"2000Alan HeegerSioux City, Iowa, U.S."for the discovery and development of conductive polymers"2000Alan MacDiarmidMasterton, New Zealand"for the discovery and development of conductive polymers"2001William S. KnowlesTaunton, Massachusetts, U.S."for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions"2001K. Barry SharplessPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S."for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions"2002John Bennett FennNew York, New York, U.S."for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules"2003Peter AgreNorthfield, Minnesota, U.S."for the discovery of water channels"2003Roderick MacKinnonBurlington, Massachusetts, U.S."for structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels"2004Irwin RoseBrooklyn, New York, U.S."for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation"2005Robert H. GrubbsMarshall County, Kentucky, U.S."for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis"2005Richard R. SchrockBerne, Indiana, U.S."for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis"2006Roger D. KornbergSt. Louis, Missouri, U.S."for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid"2008Roger Yonchien TsienNew York, New York, U.S."for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP"2008Martin ChalfieChicago, Illinois, U.S."for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP"2009Venkatraman RamakrishnanChidambaram, Madras State (now Tamil Nadu), India"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome"2009Thomas A. SteitzMilwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S."for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome"2010Richard F. HeckSpringfield, Massachusetts, U.S."for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis"2012Brian K. KobilkaLittle Falls, Minnesota, U.S."for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors"2012Robert J. LefkowitzThe Bronx, New York, U.S."for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors"2013Arieh WarshelKibbutz Sde Nahum, British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel)"for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems"2013Michael LevittPretoria, South Africa"for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems"2013Martin KarplusVienna, Austria"for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems"2014William E. MoernerPleasanton, California, U.S."for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy"2014Eric BetzigAnn Arbor, Michigan, U.S."for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy"2015Paul L. ModrichRaton, New Mexico, U.S."for mechanistic studies of DNA repair"2015Aziz SancarSavur, Mardin, Turkey"for mechanistic studies of DNA repair"2016 Fraser StoddartEdinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom"for the design and synthesis of molecular machines"2017Joachim FrankSiegen, Germany"for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect"2018George P. SmithNorwalk, Connecticut, U.S."for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor"2018Frances Arnold"for the directed evolution of enzymes"2019John B. GoodenoughJena, Germany"for the development of lithium-ion batteries"2019M. Stanley WhittinghamNottingham, England, United Kingdom"for the development of lithium-ion batteries"2020Jennifer DoudnaWashington, D.C., U.S."for the development of a method for genome editing"2021David MacMillanBellshill, Scotland, United Kingdom"for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis"2022Carolyn R. BertozziBoston, Massachusetts, U.S."for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry"2022K. Barry SharplessPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S."for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions"2023Louis E. BrusCleveland, Ohio, U.S."for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots"2023Moungi G. BawendiParis, France"for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots"2024John M. JumperLittle Rock, Arkansas, U.S.“for protein structure prediction”2024David BakerSeattle, Washington, U.S."for computational protein design"2025Omar M. YaghiAmman, Jordan"for the development of metal–organic frameworks"
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