Nobel Prize in Physics
Jewish recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics documented in the ThankJews directory. Jews are about 25% of all recipients — while making up roughly 0.2% of the world's population.
61 documented recipients
Albert Michelson1907
Optical precision instruments and interferometry; the Michelson–Morley experiment and decades of measurements of the speed of light; Nobel Prize in Physics 1907
Source: Wikipedia — Albert Michelson
Gabriel Lippmann1908
Invented interference method of color photography; Nobel Physics 1908
Source: Nobelprize.org
Albert Einstein1905
Physicist who founded special and general relativity and explained the photoelectric effect; Nobel Prize in Physics 1921
Source: Wikipedia — Albert Einstein
Niels Bohr1913
Physicist who gave the quantum model of the atom in 1913 and led Copenhagen's Institute for Theoretical Physics; Nobel Prize in Physics 1922
Source: Wikipedia — Niels Bohr
James Franck1882
Franck–Hertz experiment confirming the quantized energy levels of atoms; Nobel Prize in Physics 1925; later research on photosynthesis
Source: Wikipedia — James Franck
Gustav Ludwig Hertz1925
Nobel laureate in physics for the Franck–Hertz experiment that proved the quantum energy levels of atoms, forced out of his chair in 1935 for his Jewish grandfather
Source: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1925/hertz/biographical/
Otto Stern1888
Molecular beam method, the Stern–Gerlach experiment and the discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton; Nobel Prize in Physics 1943
Source: Wikipedia — Otto Stern
Isidor Rabi1944
Resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei, the basis of NMR and later MRI; Nobel Prize in Physics 1944
Source: Wikipedia — Isidor Rabi
Wolfgang Pauli1945
Theoretical physicist who formulated the exclusion principle and proposed the neutrino; Nobel Prize in Physics 1945
Source: Wikipedia — Wolfgang Pauli
Felix Bloch1905
Quantum theory of electrons in crystals and nuclear magnetic induction (NMR); Nobel Prize in Physics 1952; first Director-General of CERN
Source: Wikipedia — Felix Bloch
Max Born1954
Co-founder of quantum mechanics who gave the statistical interpretation of the wave function; Nobel Prize in Physics 1954
Source: Wikipedia — Max Born
Ilya Frank1908
Physicist; with Igor Tamm explained Cherenkov radiation (1937); Nobel Prize in Physics 1958, shared with Cherenkov and Tamm
Source: Wikipedia — Ilya Frank
Emilio Segrè1905
Physicist; discovered the antiproton, Nobel Prize 1959
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Donald Glaser1926
Physicist; invented the bubble chamber (1952), Nobel Prize in Physics 1960; later a pioneer of biotechnology (Cetus) and of vision neuroscience
Source: Wikipedia — Donald Glaser
Robert Hofstadter1915
Physicist; electron scattering revealing the size and structure of nuclei and nucleons, Nobel Prize in Physics 1961; thallium-activated sodium iodide gamma-ray detector
Source: Wikipedia — Robert Hofstadter
Lev Landau1908
Theoretical physicist; theory of superfluidity of liquid helium and of condensed matter, Nobel Prize in Physics 1962; co-author of the Course of Theoretical Physics
Source: Wikipedia — Lev Landau
Eugene Wigner1902
Mathematical physicist; brought group theory and symmetry principles into quantum mechanics, theory of the nuclear force; Nobel Prize in Physics 1963
Source: Wikipedia — Eugene Wigner
Maria Goeppert Mayer1963
Theoretical physicist who explained the magic numbers with the nuclear shell model; Nobel Prize in Physics 1963
Source: Wikipedia — Maria Goeppert Mayer
Richard Feynman1948
Physicist who helped rebuild quantum electrodynamics and introduced Feynman diagrams; Nobel Prize in Physics 1965
Source: Wikipedia — Richard Feynman
Julian Schwinger1918
Physicist; co-founder of quantum electrodynamics (QED), Nobel Prize 1965
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Hans Bethe1945
Manhattan Project Theoretical Division Head
Source: Nobel Prize Physics 1967
Murray Gell-Mann1969
Classification of elementary particles and their interactions (quark theory)
Source: Jinfo.org / Nobel Prize Physics 1969
Dennis Gabor1947
Holography
Source: Nobel Prize Physics 1971
Leon Cooper1930
Physicist who proposed the electron pairs now called Cooper pairs and co-authored the BCS theory of superconductivity, then modelled learning in the brain; Nobel Prize in Physics 1972
Source: Wikipedia — Leon Cooper
Brian Josephson1940
Physicist who, as a 22-year-old research student in Cambridge, predicted the Josephson effect, the tunnelling of a supercurrent between two superconductors; Nobel Prize in Physics 1973
Source: Wikipedia — Brian Josephson
Aage Bohr1975
Nuclear physicist who showed with Ben Mottelson that atomic nuclei can deform and rotate; Nobel Prize in Physics 1975
Source: Wikipedia — Aage Bohr
Ben Mottelson1975
Nobel laureate in physics (1975) for nuclear structure; Atoms for Peace Award (1969)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish Nobel Prize winners in Physics
Burton Richter1931
Physicist; discovered the J/psi particle (charm quark), Nobel Prize 1976
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Arno Penzias1933
Radio astronomer, a child refugee of the Kindertransport, who with Robert Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the Big Bang; Nobel Prize in Physics 1978
Source: Wikipedia — Arno Penzias
Sheldon Glashow1932
Physicist; electroweak unification theory, Nobel Prize 1979
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Steven Weinberg1979
Unified theory of the electromagnetic and weak forces (electroweak unification)
Source: Jinfo.org / Nobel Prize Physics 1979
Arthur Schawlow1921
Physicist who with Charles Townes laid the theoretical foundations of the laser and then developed high-precision laser spectroscopy; Nobel Prize in Physics 1981
Source: Wikipedia — Arthur Schawlow
K. Alexander Müller1927
Physicist at IBM Zurich who with Georg Bednorz discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramic copper oxides in 1986; Nobel Prize in Physics 1987
Source: Wikipedia — K. Alex Müller
Leon Lederman1922
Experimental physicist who discovered the muon neutrino and the bottom quark, directed Fermilab and championed science teaching; Nobel Prize in Physics 1988
Source: Wikipedia — Leon Lederman
Melvin Schwartz1932
Physicist; discovered the muon neutrino, Nobel Prize 1988
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Jack Steinberger1921
Physicist; discovered the muon neutrino, Nobel Prize 1988
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Jerome Friedman1930
Physicist; deep inelastic scattering revealing quarks, Nobel Prize 1990
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Georges Charpak1924
Physicist; invented the multiwire proportional chamber particle detector, Nobel Prize 1992
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Martin Perl1927
Physicist; discovered the tau lepton, Nobel Prize 1995
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Frederick Reines1918
Physicist; first experimental detection of the neutrino, Nobel Prize 1995
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
David Lee1931
Physicist; with Douglas Osheroff and Robert Richardson discovered superfluidity in helium-3 at Cornell in 1972, Nobel Prize in Physics 1996
Source: Wikipedia — David Lee
Douglas Osheroff1945
Physicist; as a Cornell graduate student co-discovered superfluidity in helium-3 in 1972, Nobel Prize in Physics 1996
Source: Wikipedia — Douglas Osheroff
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji1997
Physicist; methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light, Nobel Prize in Physics 1997; co-author of the textbook Quantum Mechanics
Source: Wikipedia — Claude Cohen-Tannoudji
Zhores Alferov1930
Physicist; semiconductor heterostructures for optoelectronics, Nobel Prize 2000
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Vitaly Ginzburg1916
Physicist; Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity (1950), Nobel Prize in Physics 2003
Source: Wikipedia — Vitaly Ginzburg
Alexei Abrikosov1928
Physicist; theory of the vortex lattice in type-II superconductors (1957), Nobel Prize in Physics 2003
Source: Wikipedia — Alexei Abrikosov
David Gross1941
Physicist; discovered asymptotic freedom in QCD, Nobel Prize 2004
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
H. David Politzer1949
Physicist; discovered asymptotic freedom in QCD, Nobel Prize 2004
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Frank Wilczek2004
Theoretical physicist who discovered asymptotic freedom with David Gross and named the axion and anyons; Nobel Prize in Physics 2004
Source: Wikipedia — Frank Wilczek
Roy Glauber1925
Theoretical physicist whose quantum theory of optical coherence founded quantum optics; Nobel Prize in Physics 2005
Source: Wikipedia — Roy Glauber
Saul Perlmutter2011
Astrophysicist who led the Supernova Cosmology Project and co-discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe; Nobel Prize in Physics 2011
Source: Wikipedia — Saul Perlmutter
Adam Riess1969
Astrophysicist; discovered the accelerating universe, Nobel Prize 2011
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Serge Haroche1944
Physicist; measuring and manipulating individual quantum systems, Nobel Prize 2012
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
François Englert2013
Theory of the mechanism giving elementary particles mass (Higgs mechanism)
Source: Jinfo.org / Nobel Prize Physics 2013
J. Michael Kosterlitz2016
Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter
Source: Wikipedia — J. Michael Kosterlitz
Barry Barish1936
Physicist; leadership of LIGO detection of gravitational waves, Nobel Prize 2017
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Physics
Rainer Weiss2017
Physicist who conceived the laser-interferometer design of LIGO and co-founded it; first observation of gravitational waves; Nobel Prize in Physics 2017
Source: Wikipedia — Rainer Weiss
Arthur Ashkin1922
Physicist at Bell Labs who invented optical tweezers and applied them to living cells; Nobel Prize in Physics 2018
Source: Wikipedia — Arthur Ashkin
Andrea Ghez1965
Astronomer whose measurements of stellar orbits revealed the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way; Nobel Prize in Physics 2020
Source: Wikipedia — Andrea Ghez
Roger Penrose1931
Mathematical physicist who proved that black holes are an inevitable outcome of general relativity; twistor theory and Penrose tilings; Nobel Prize in Physics 2020
Source: Wikipedia — Roger Penrose
Michel Devoret1953
Physicist who showed quantum tunnelling and energy quantisation in a macroscopic superconducting circuit, groundwork for superconducting qubits; Nobel Prize in Physics 2025
Source: Wikipedia — Michel Devoret