Nobel Prize Winners in Science – Complete List

The Nobel Prize was established by Swedish chemist, inventor, and industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833–1896), who made his fortune inventing dynamite in 1867. In his will of 1895, he directed that his estate be used to award annual prizes to those who conferred the greatest benefit to humankind in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901 — the 125th anniversary falls in 2026. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics was added later in 1968. Prizes are awarded on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.

C.V. Raman (Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman) is the only Indian citizen to win a Nobel Prize in a natural science. He won the Physics Nobel in 1930 for the discovery of the Raman Effect — the inelastic scattering of photons by molecules. His discovery was made on February 28, 1928, which is now celebrated as National Science Day in India. Several other scientists of Indian origin have won Nobel Prizes in science, but they were foreign citizens at the time — including Har Gobind Khorana (Medicine 1968, US citizen), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (Physics 1983, US citizen), Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (Chemistry 2009, British citizen), and Abhijit Banerjee (Economics 2019, US citizen).

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton for their foundational discoveries enabling machine learning using artificial neural networks — the first time AI and machine learning research has been recognised with a Nobel in Physics. Geoffrey Hinton, often called the "Godfather of AI," had resigned from Google in May 2023 to speak freely about AI safety risks. John Hopfield developed the Hopfield Network (1982), a recurrent neural network. Hinton pioneered deep learning methods. Their work laid the mathematical foundations for modern AI systems.

Nobel Prize winners appear in UPSC Prelims (Science and Technology), SSC CGL, Bank PO, and Railway exams through multiple patterns: the current year's winners (Physics, Chemistry, Medicine), landmark past winners (Einstein, Curie, Fleming, Watson-Crick), Indian Nobel laureates (C.V. Raman for science), notable firsts (first Nobel 1901, first woman Marie Curie, first Asian Tagore 1913), and classic exam traps (Einstein for photoelectric effect not relativity). The most recent Nobels (2023 mRNA vaccines, 2024 AI/neural networks and AlphaFold) are particularly high-frequency in Banking, SSC, and UPSC current affairs for 2025–26 exams.

The Nobel Prize was established by Swedish chemist, inventor, and industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833–1896), who made his fortune inventing dynamite in 1867. In his will of 1895, he directed that his estate be used to award annual prizes to those who conferred the greatest benefit to humankind in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901 — the 125th anniversary falls in 2026. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics was added later in 1968. Prizes are awarded on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.

C.V. Raman (Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman) is the only Indian citizen to win a Nobel Prize in a natural science. He won the Physics Nobel in 1930 for the discovery of the Raman Effect — the inelastic scattering of photons by molecules. His discovery was made on February 28, 1928, which is now celebrated as National Science Day in India. Several other scientists of Indian origin have won Nobel Prizes in science, but they were foreign citizens at the time — including Har Gobind Khorana (Medicine 1968, US citizen), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (Physics 1983, US citizen), Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (Chemistry 2009, British citizen), and Abhijit Banerjee (Economics 2019, US citizen).

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton for their foundational discoveries enabling machine learning using artificial neural networks — the first time AI and machine learning research has been recognised with a Nobel in Physics. Geoffrey Hinton, often called the "Godfather of AI," had resigned from Google in May 2023 to speak freely about AI safety risks. John Hopfield developed the Hopfield Network (1982), a recurrent neural network. Hinton pioneered deep learning methods. Their work laid the mathematical foundations for modern AI systems.

Nobel Prize winners appear in UPSC Prelims (Science and Technology), SSC CGL, Bank PO, and Railway exams through multiple patterns: the current year's winners (Physics, Chemistry, Medicine), landmark past winners (Einstein, Curie, Fleming, Watson-Crick), Indian Nobel laureates (C.V. Raman for science), notable firsts (first Nobel 1901, first woman Marie Curie, first Asian Tagore 1913), and classic exam traps (Einstein for photoelectric effect not relativity). The most recent Nobels (2023 mRNA vaccines, 2024 AI/neural networks and AlphaFold) are particularly high-frequency in Banking, SSC, and UPSC current affairs for 2025–26 exams.