List of Asian Nobel laureates

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Nobel Prize is an annual, international prize first awarded in 1901 for achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. An associated prize in Economics has been awarded since 1969.[1] Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 800 individuals.[2]

Asians have been the recipients of all six award categories: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economics. The first Asian recipient, Rabindranath Tagore, was awarded the Literature Prize in 1913. In 1930, C. V. Raman became the first Asian recipient of a Nobel Prize in one of the sciences. The most Nobel Prizes awarded to Asians in a single year was in 2014, when five Asians became laureates. The most recent Asian laureates, Japanese scientist Syukuro Manabe and the Filipino journalist Maria Ressa was awarded their prizes in 2021.

To date (2023), there have been sixty Asian winners of the Nobel Prize, including twenty-nine Japanese, twelve Israeli, nine Indian (not including non-Indian Laureates born in India) and eight Chinese (not including non-Chinese Laureates born in China). The list does not include Russians.

Physics[edit]

As of 2021, there are 21 Asians or Asian Americans who have won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Japanese comprise the majority, with 12 laureates.

Year Image Laureate Country at the time of the award Category Comment
1930 Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman  British India Physics First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate in Science
1949 Hideki Yukawa  Japan Physics First Japanese Nobel laureate
1957 Chen Ning Yang  China Physics First Chinese Nobel laureate
1957 Tsung-Dao Lee  China Physics First Chinese Nobel laureate
1965 Shin'ichiro Tomonaga  Japan Physics
1973 Leo Esaki  Japan Physics
1976 Samuel C. C. Ting  United States Physics Dual-citizen of  United States and Taiwan Republic of China
1979 Abdus Salam  Pakistan Physics First Pakistani Nobel laureate
1983 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar  United States Physics Born in  India
1997 Steven Chu  United States Physics Born in United States
1998 Daniel C. Tsui  United States Physics Born in China
2002 Masatoshi Koshiba  Japan Physics
2008 Yoichiro Nambu  United States Physics Born in  Japan
2008 Makoto Kobayashi  Japan Physics
2008 Toshihide Maskawa  Japan Physics
2009 Charles K. Kao  United Kingdom and  United States, Physics First Hong Kong citizenship Nobel laureate
2014 Isamu Akasaki  Japan Physics
2014 Hiroshi Amano  Japan Physics
2014 Shuji Nakamura  United States Physics Born in  Japan
2015 Takaaki Kajita  Japan Physics
2021 Syukuro Manabe  United States Physics Born in  Japan

Chemistry[edit]

As of 2019, there are 19 Asians or Asian Americans who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with the Japanese comprising the most with 8 laureates.

Year Image Laureate Country at the time of the award Category Comment
1981 Kenichi Fukui  Japan Chemistry First Asian and Japanese Nobel laureate in Chemistry
1986 Yuan T. Lee  Taiwan and  United States Chemistry First Taiwanese Nobel laureate
1987 Charles J. Pedersen  United States Chemistry Japanese mother; born in Korea
2000 Hideki Shirakawa  Japan Chemistry
2001 Ryōji Noyori  Japan Chemistry
2002 Koichi Tanaka  Japan Chemistry
2004 Aaron Ciechanover  Israel Chemistry
2004 Avram Hershko  Israel Chemistry
2008 Osamu Shimomura  Japan Chemistry
2008 Roger Y. Tsien  United States Chemistry Born in United States
2009 Venki Ramakrishnan  United Kingdom and  United States Chemistry Born in India
2009 Ada Yonath  Israel Chemistry
2010 Ei-ichi Negishi  Japan Chemistry
2010 Akira Suzuki  Japan Chemistry
2011 Dan Shechtman  Israel Chemistry
2013 Arieh Warshel  Israel and  United States Chemistry
2013 Michael Levitt  Israel,  United Kingdom and  United States Chemistry
2015 Aziz Sancar  Turkey and  United States Chemistry First Turkish Nobel laureate in science
2019 Akira Yoshino  Japan Chemistry

Physiology or Medicine[edit]

As of 2018, there are 7 Asians who won Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with the Japanese comprising the most with 5 laureates.

Year Image Laureate Country at the time of the award Category Comment
1968 Har Gobind Khorana  United States Physiology or Medicine First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. Born in India
1987 Susumu Tonegawa  Japan Physiology or Medicine First Japanese Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine
2012 Shinya Yamanaka  Japan Physiology or Medicine First Nobel Medicine Laureate to achieve rewarded results in Asia
2015 Satoshi Ōmura  Japan Physiology or Medicine
2015 Tu Youyou  China Physiology or Medicine First Chinese woman Nobel laureate
2016 Yoshinori Ohsumi  Japan Physiology or Medicine
2018 Tasuku Honjo  Japan Physiology or Medicine

Literature[edit]

As of 2018, there are 8 Asians who won Nobel Prize in Literature, with the Japanese comprising the most with 3 laureates.

Year Image Laureate Country at the time of the award Category Comment
1913 Rabindranath Tagore  British India Literature First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate
1968 Yasunari Kawabata  Japan Literature
1994 Kenzaburō Ōe  Japan Literature
2000 Gao Xingjian  France Literature Born in China
2001 V. S. Naipaul  United Kingdom Literature Indian origin. Born in Trinidad and Tobago.
2006 Orhan Pamuk  Turkey Literature First Turkish Nobel laureate
2012 Mo Yan  China Literature
2017 Kazuo Ishiguro  United Kingdom Literature Born in  Japan

Peace[edit]

As of 2023, there are 22 Asians who won Nobel Prize in Peace, with the Israeli and Indian comprising the most with 3 laureates.

Year Image Laureate Country at the time of the award Category Comment
1973 Lê Đức Thọ
(declined award)
 North Vietnam Peace First Asian and Vietnamese Nobel laureate in Peace
1974 Eisaku Satō  Japan Peace
1978 Menachem Begin  Israel Peace
1979 Mother Teresa  India Peace First Asian woman Nobel laureate
1989 Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama  India, China, and  Tibet Peace First Tibetan Nobel laureate
1991 Aung San Suu Kyi Burma Peace First Myanmar Nobel laureate
1994 Yasser Arafat  Palestine Peace First Palestinian Arab in Nobel laureate
1994 Shimon Peres  Israel Peace
1994 Yitzhak Rabin  Israel Peace
1996 Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo  Timor-Leste Peace First Timorese Nobel laureate
1996 José Ramos-Horta  Timor-Leste Peace First Timorese Nobel laureate
2000 Kim Dae-jung  South Korea Peace First Korean Nobel laureate
2003 Shirin Ebadi  Iran Peace First Iranian Nobel laureate
2006 Muhammad Yunus  Bangladesh Peace First Bangladeshi Nobel laureate in Peace
2010 Liu Xiaobo  China Peace First Asian Nobel laureate in prison
2011 Tawakkul Karman  Yemen Peace First Arab Woman and First Yemeni Nobel laureate
2014 Kailash Satyarthi  India Peace
2014 Malala Yousafzai  Pakistan Peace First Pakistani Woman Nobel laureate and youngest Nobel laureate
2018 Nadia Murad  Iraq Peace First Iraqi Nobel laureate
2021 Maria Ressa  Philippines Peace First Filipino Nobel laureate
2023 Narges Mohammadi  Iran Peace Second Iranian Nobel laureate and awarded while in prison

Economics[edit]

As of 2019, four Asians have won the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Year Image Laureate Country at the time of the award Category Comment
1998 Amartya Sen  India Economics First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate in Economics.
2002 Daniel Kahneman  Israel and  United States Economics
2005 Robert Aumann  Israel and  United States Economics
2019 Abhijit Banerjee  United States Economics Born in India; [3]

Non-Asian born Laureates of Asian descent[edit]

Non-Asian Laureates born in Asia[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Nobel Prize" (2007), in Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed 14 November 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online:

    An additional award, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden and was first awarded in 1969

  2. ^ "All Nobel Laureates". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  3. ^ Hannon, Dominic Chopping and Paul. "Nobel Prize in Economics Awarded for Work Alleviating Poverty". WSJ. Retrieved 14 October 2019.