Nobel

Polish-origin
Nobel Prize
Laureates

Born on former and present-day Polish land
YearPersonDiscipline
1903Maria SKLODOWSKA-CURIEPhysics
1905Henryk SIENKIEWICZLiterature
1907Albert Abraham MICHELSONPhysics
1911Maria SKLODOWSKA-CURIEChemistry
1920Walther Hermann NERNSTChemistry
1924Wladyslaw Stanislaw REYMONTLiterature
1944Isidor Isaac RABIPhysics
1950Tadeus REICHSTEINPhysiology or Medicine
1963Maria GOEPPERT-MAYERPhysics
1966Shmuel Yosef AGNONLiterature
1977Andrew V. SCHALLYPhysiology or Medicine
1978Isaac Bashevis SINGERLiterature
1978Menachem BEGINPeace
1980Czeslaw MILOSZLiterature
1981Roald HOFFMANNChemistry
1983Lech WALESAPeace
1985Klaus von KLITZINGPhysics
1992Georges CHARPAKPhysics
1994Shimon PERESPeace
1995Józef ROTBLATPeace
1996Wislawa SZYMBORSKALiterature
1999Günter GRASSLiterature
1999Günter BLOBELPhysiology or Medicine
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Physics 1903

The prize was divided, one half being awarded to:
BECQUEREL, ANTOINE HENRI, France, École Polytechnique, Paris, * 1852, + 1908:
"in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity"
the other half jointly to:
CURIE, PIERRE, France, École municipale de physique et de chimie industrielles, (Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry), Paris, * 1859, + 1906:
and his wife
CURIE, MARIE, née SKLODOWSKA, France, * 1867 (in Warsaw, Poland), + 1934:
"in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel".

Physics 1907

MICHELSON, ALBERT ABRAHAM, U.S.A., Chicago University, * 1852 (in Strzelno, Poland, then Germany), + 1931:
"for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid".

Physics 1944

RABI, ISIDOR ISAAC, U.S.A., Columbia University, NY, * 1898 (in Rymanow, then Austria-Hungary [now Poland]), + 1988:
"for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei".

Physics 1963

The prize was divided, one half being awarded to:
WIGNER, EUGENE P., U.S.A., Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, * 1902 (in Budapest, Hungary), U 1995:
"for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles"
and the other half jointly to:
GOEPPERT-MAYER, MARIA, U.S.A., University of California, La Jolla, CA, * 1906 (in Kattowitz [now Katowice, Poland], then Germany), + 1972:
and
JENSEN, J. HANS D., Germany, University of Heidelberg, * 1907, + 1973:
"for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure".

Physics 1985

VON KLITZING, KLAUS, Federal Republic of Germany, Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, * 1943: (Schroda [now Sroda] in Poland)
"for the discovery of the quantized Hall effect".

Physics 1992

CHARPAK, GEORGES, France, École Supérieure de Physique et Chimie, Paris and CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, * 1924 ( in Poland)
"for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber".

Chemistry 1911

CURIE, MARIE, née SKLODOWSKA, France, Sorbonne University, Paris, * 1867 (in Warsaw, Poland), + 1934:
"in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element".

Chemistry 1920

NERNST, WALTHER HERMANN, Germany, Berlin University, * 1864 (in Briesen [now Wabrzezno] in West Prussia [now Poland]), + 1941:
"in recognition of his work in thermochemistry".

Chemistry 1981

The prize was awarded jointly to:
FUKUI, KENICHI, Japan, Kyoto University, Kyoto, * 1918
and
HOFFMANN, ROALD, U.S.A., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, * 1937 (in Zloczow, Poland)
"for their theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions".

Physiology or Medicine 1950

The prize was awarded jointly to:
KENDALL, EDWARD CALVIN, U.S.A., Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, * 1886, + 1972:
REICHSTEIN, TADEUS, Switzerland, Basel University, * 1897 (in Wloclawek, Poland), + 1996 (in Basel, Switzerland)
and
HENCH, PHILIP SHOWALTER, U.S.A., Mayo Clinic, Rochester , MN, * 1896, + 1965:
"for their discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects".

Physiology or Medicine 1977

The prize was divided, one half being awarded jointly to:
GUILLEMIN, ROGER, U.S.A., The Salk Institute, San Diego, CA, * 1924 (in Dijon, France)
and
SCHALLY, ANDREW V., U.S.A., Veterans Administration Hospital, New Orleans, LA, * 1926 ( in Wilno, Poland)
"for their discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain";
and the other half being awarded to:
YALOW, ROSALYN, U.S.A., Veterans Administration Hospital, Bronx, NY, * 1921:
"for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones".

Physiology or Medicine 1999

BLOBEL, GÜNTER, (External link), The Rockefeller University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, NY, U.S.A., * 1936
"proteins have intrinsic signals that govern their transport and localization in the cell".

Literature 1905

SIENKIEWICZ, HENRYK, (External link) Poland, * 1846, + 1916:
"because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer".

Literature 1924

REYMONT, (pen-name of REYMENT), WLADYSLAW STANISLAW, (External link) Poland, * 1867, + 1925:
"for his great national epic, The Peasants".

Literature 1966

AGNON, SHMUEL YOSEF (Samuel Józef Czaczkes), (External link) Israel, * 1888 (in Buczacz, Galicia, than Poland [now Ukraine]), + 1970:
"for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people".

Literature 1978

SINGER, ISAAC BASHEVIS, (External link) U.S.A., * 1904 (in Radzymin, Poland), + 1991:
"for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life".

Literature 1980

MILOSZ, CZESLAW, (External link) U.S.A., and Poland, University of California, Berkeley, * 1911 (in Seteiniai, Lithuania), + 2004:
"who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts".

Literature 1996

SZYMBORSKA, WISLAWA, Poland, * 2 July 1923 (Bnin /Poznan)
"for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality".

Literature 1999

GRASS, GÜNTER, (External link), Germany, * 1927:
"Whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history".

Peace 1978

The prize for 1978 was divided equally between:
EL SADAT, MOHAMED ANWAR, Egypt, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, * 1918, + 1981:
and
BEGIN, MENACHEM, (External link) Israel, Prime Minister of Israel, * 1913 (in Brest Litovsk, then Poland), + 1993:

Peace 1983

WALESA, LECH, (External link) Poland, trade union leader (Solidaritet), * 1943.

Peace 1994

The prize was awarded joinly to:
ARAFAT, YASSER, Palestine, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO, President of the Palestinian National Authority, * 1929; and
PERES, SHIMON, (External link) Israel, Foreign Minister of Israel, * 1922, Poland; and
RABIN, YITZAHK, Israel, Prime Minister of Israel, * 1923, + 1995.
"for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and in the longer run to eliminate such arms".

Peace 1995

The Prize was awarded in two equal parts to:
ROTBLAT, JÓZEF, (External link) Great Britain, * 1908 (in Poland), London, Great Britain, + 31.08.2005
and to the
PUGWASH CONFERENCES ON SCIENCE AND WORLD AFFAIRES, founded 1957 in Pugwash, Canada:
"for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and in the longer run to eliminate such arms".

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Last Updated: January 4, 2008