Nobel Laureates in physics: Down memory lane

2001 WOLFGANG KETTERLE, ERIC CORNELL AND CARL WEIMANN for their achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates. 2000-1991

2000 ZHORES I. ALFEROV, and HERBERT KROEMER for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto- electronics and JACK ST. CLAIR KILBY for his part in invention of the integrated circuit.

1999 GERARDUS 'T HOOFT, and MARTINUS J.G. VELTMAN for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics.

1998 ROBERT B. LAUGHLIN, HORST L. STORMER and DANIEL C. TSUI for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations.

1997 STEVEN CHU, CLAUDE COHEN-TANNOUDJI and WILLIAM D. PHILLIPS for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.

1996 DAVID M. LEE, DOUGLAS D. OSHEROFF and ROBERT C. RICHARDSON for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3.

1995 MARTIN L. PERL for the discovery of the tau lepton and FREDERICK REINES for detection of the neutrino.

1994 BERTRAM N. BROCKHOUSE for the development of neutron spectroscopy and CLIFFORD G. SHULL for the development of the neutron diffraction technique.

1993 RUSSELL A. HULSE and JOSEPH H. TAYLOR JR. for their discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation.

1992 GEORGES CHARPAK for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber.

1991 PIERRE-GILLES DE GENNES for discovering that methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalized to more complex forms of matter, in particular to liquid crystals and polymers.

1990-1981

1990 JEROME I. FRIEDMAN, HENRY W. KENDALL and RICHARD E. TAYLOR for their investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics.

1989 NORMAN F. RAMSEY for the invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks, and HANS G. DEHMELT and WOLFGANG PAUL for their development of the ion trap technique.

1988 LEON M. LEDERMAN, MELVIN SCHWARTZ and JACK STEINBERGER for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino.

1987 J. GEORG BEDNORZ and K. ALEXANDER M\LLER for their discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials.

1986 ERNST RUSKA for his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope, and GERD BINNIG and HEINRICH ROHRER for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope.

1985 KLAUS VON KLITZING for the discovery of the quantized Hall effect.

1984 CARLO RUBBIA and SIMON VAN DER MEER for their discovery of the field particles W and Z, communicators of weak interaction.

1983 SUBRAMANYAN CHANDRASEKHAR for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars and WILLIAM A. FOWLER for his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe.

1982 KENNETH G. WILSON for his theory for critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions.

1981 NICOLAAS BLOEMBERGEN and ARTHUR L. SCHAWLOW for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy, and KAI M. SIEGBAHN for his contribution to the development of high- resolution electron spectroscopy.

1980 JAMES W. CRONIN and VAL L. FITCH for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons.

1980-1971

1979 SHELDON L. GLASHOW, ABDUS SALAM and STEVEN WEINBERG for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including inter alia the prediction of the weak neutral current.

1978 PYOTR LEONIDOVICH KAPITSA for his basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics, and ARNO A. PENZIAS and ROBERT W. WILSON for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation.

1977 PHILIP W. ANDERSON, SIR NEVILL F. MOTT and JOHN H. VAN VLECK for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems.

1976 BURTON RICHTER and SAMUEL C. C. TING for their discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind.

1975 AAGE BOHR, BEN MOTTELSON and JAMES RAINWATER for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection.

1974 SIR MARTIN RYLE and ANTONY HEWISH for their research in radio astrophysics. Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars.

1973 LEO ESAKI and IVAR GIAEVER , for their experimental discoveries regarding tunnelling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, and BRIAN D. JOSEPHSON for his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects.

1972 JOHN BARDEEN, LEON N. COOPER and J. ROBERT SCHRIEFFER for their developed theory of superconductivity, usually called BCS- theory.

1971 DENNIS GABOR for his invention and development of the holographic method.

1970-1961

1970 HANNES ALFVIN for fundamental work and discoveries in magneto-hydrodynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics and LOUIS NIEL for fundamental work and discoveries concerning antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism which have led to important applications in solid state physics.

1969 MURRAY GELL-MANN for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions.

1968 LUIS W. ALVAREZ for his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis.

1967 HANS ALBRECHT BETHE for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars.

1966 ALFRED KASTLER for the discovery and development of optical methods for studying hertzian resonances in atoms.

1965 SIN-ITIRO TOMONAGA, JULIAN SCHWINGER and RICHARD P. FEYNMAN for their work in quantum electrodynamics, with consequences for the physics of elementary particles.

1964 CHARLES H. TOWNES, and NICOLAY GENNADIYEVICH BASOV and ALEKSANDR MIKHAILOVICH PROKHOROV for work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle.

1963 EUGENE P. WIGNER 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 MARIA GOEPPERT-MAYER and J. HANS D. JENSEN for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure.

1962 LEV DAVIDOVICH LANDAU for his theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium.

1961ROBERT HOFSTADTER for his studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons and RUDOLF LUDWIG MVSSBAUER for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name.

1960-1951

1960 DONALD A. GLASER for the invention of the bubble chamber.

1959 EMILIO GINO SEGRH and OWEN CHAMBERLAIN for their discovery of the antiproton.

1958 PAVEL ALEKSEYEVICH CHERENKOV , IL'JA MIKHAILOVICH FRANK and IGOR YEVGENYEVICH TAMM for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect.

1957CHEN NING YANG and TSUNG-DAO LEE for their investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles.

1956 WILLIAM SHOCKLEY, JOHN BARDEEN and WALTER HOUSER BRATTAIN for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect.

1955 WILLIS EUGENE LAMB for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum and POLYKARP KUSCH for his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron.

1954 MAX BORN for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wave function and WALTHER BOTHE for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith.

1953 FRITS (FREDERIK) ZERNIKE for his demonstration of the phase contrast method, especially for his invention of the phase contrast microscope.

1952 FELIX BLOCH and EDWARD MILLS PURCELL for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith.

1951 SIR JOHN DOUGLAS COCKCROFT and ERNEST THOMAS SINTON WALTON for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles.

1950-1941

1950 CECIL FRANK POWELL for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with this method.

1949 HIDEKI YUKAWA for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces.

1948 LORD PATRICK MAYNARD STUART BLACKETT for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation.

1947 SIR EDWARD VICTOR APPLETON for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer.

1946 PERCY WILLIAMS BRIDGMAN for the invention of an apparatus to produce extremely high pressures, and for the discoveries he made therewith in the field of high pressure physics.

1945 WOLFGANG PAULI for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli Principle.

1944 ISIDOR ISAAC RABI for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei.

1943 OTTO STERN for the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton.

1940-1931

1939 ERNEST ORLANDO LAWRENCE for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements.

1938 ENRICO FERMI for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons.

1937 CLINTON JOSEPH DAVISSON and SIR GEORGE PAGET THOMSON for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals.

1936 VICTOR FRANZ HESS for his discovery of cosmic radiation and CARL DAVID ANDERSON for his discovery of the positron.

1935 SIR JAMES CHADWICK for the discovery of the neutron.

1934 ERWIN SCHRVDINGER and PAUL ADRIEN MAURICE DIRAC for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory.

1932 WERNER HEISENBERG for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen.

1930-1921

1930 SIR CHANDRASEKHARA VENKATA RAMAN for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him.

1929 PRINCE LOUIS-VICTOR DE BROGLIE for his discovery of the wave nature of electrons.

1928 SIR OWEN WILLANS RICHARDSON for his work on the thermionic phenomenon and especially for the discovery of the law named after him.

1927 ARTHUR HOLLY COMPTON for his discovery of the effect named after him and CHARLES THOMSON REES WILSON for his method of making the paths of electrically charged particles visible by condensation of vapour.

1926 JEAN BAPTISTE PERRIN for his work on the discontinuous structure of matter, and especially for his discovery of sedimentation equilibrium.

1925 JAMES FRANCK and GUSTAV HERTZ for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom.

1924 KARL MANNE GEORG SIEGBAHN for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy.

1923 ROBERT ANDREWS MILLIKAN for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect.

1922 NIELS BOHR for his investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them.

1921 ALBERT EINSTEIN for his services to Theoretical Physics, and for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.

1920-1911

1920 CHARLES EDOUARD GUILLAUME for the precision measurements in Physics by his discovery of anomalies in nickel steel alloys.

1919 JOHANNES STARK for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields.

1918 MAX KARL ERNST LUDWIG PLANCK for his discovery of energy quanta. 1917 CHARLES GLOVER BARKLA for his discovery of the characteristic Rvntgen radiation of the elements.

1915 SIR WILLIAM HENRY BRAGG and SIR WILLIAM LAWRENCE BRAGG for their analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays.

1914 MAX VON LAUE for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals.

1913 HEIKE KAMERLINGH-ONNES for his investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures which led, inter alia to the production of liquid helium.

1912 NILS GUSTAF DALIN for his invention of automatic regulators for use in conjunction with gas accumulators for illuminating lighthouses and buoys.

1911 WILHELM WIEN for his discoveries regarding the laws governing the radiation of heat.

1910-1901

1910 JOHANNES DIDERIK VAN DER WAALS for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids.

1909 GUGLIELMO MARCONI and CARL FERDINAND BRAUN in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy.

1908 GABRIEL LIPPMANN for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference.

1907 ALBERT ABRAHAM MICHELSON for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid.

1906 SIR JOSEPH JOHN THOMSON for his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases.

1905 PHILIPP EDUARD ANTON LENARD for his work on cathode rays.

1904 LORD JOHN WILLIAM STRUTT RAYLEIGH for his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of argon in connection with these studies.

1903 ANTOINE HENRI BECQUEREL for his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity, and PIERRE CURIE and MARIE CURIE, nie SKLODOWSKA for their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel. 1902 HENDRIK ANTOON LORENTZ and PIETER ZEEMAN in recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomena.

1901 WILHELM CONRAD RVNTGEN for his discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him.

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