List of Swiss Nobel laureates

Front side of a Nobel Prize medal which was awarded in 1950.
The Nobel Prize
Laureates by field
Field Number of recipients
Physics
7
Chemistry
8
Physiology or Medicine
8
Literature
2
Peace
3
Economic Sciences
0

The Nobel Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed on "those who conferred the greatest benefit on humankind" in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences,[nb 1][1] instituted by Alfred Nobel's last will, which specified that a part of his fortune be used to create the prizes. Each laureate (recipient) receives a gold medal, a diploma and a sum of money, which is decided annually by the Nobel Foundation.[2] They are widely recognized as one of the most prestigious honours awarded in the aforementioned fields.[3]

First instituted in 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to a total of 965 individuals and 27 organizations as of 2023.[4] Among them, 28 Swiss nationals have been honored with the Nobel Prize.[nb 2] Additionally, two laureates acquired Swiss citizenship through naturalization after the award: Wolfgang Pauli and Jack Steinberger.[nb 3]

Nine organizations headquartered in Switzerland have received the Nobel Prize for Peace.[nb 4] The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been awarded twice, and the International Committee of the Red Cross three times.[13] Five of these organizations were also founded in Switzerland, and eight of them had their headquarters in Geneva, a city hosting more than 40 international organizations and 750 non-governmental organizations.[14]

The first Nobel Prize for Peace, awarded in 1901, went to the Swiss humanitarian Henry Dunant. The latest Swiss laureates are Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2019. The 28 prizes are distributed as follows: eight for medicine, eight for chemistry, seven for physics, three for peace, and two for literature. No Swiss national has yet received a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Switzerland is among the countries with the highest number of Nobel laureates, both in total and per capita.[8][15] Several factors have been suggested as possible explanation, including large public funding for research,[16] the presence of highly ranked universities such as ETH Zürich and EPFL,[16] and the neutrality of Switzerland in the two World Wars, which attracted scientists from abroad.[8] The Nobel Prize has also been often recognized as being biased towards Western countries.[17][18][19] According to Nobel laureate Werner Arber, the large number of awards to Swiss nationals is "likely a statistical anomaly", while Richard R. Ernst believes the number of Swiss laureates will keep increasing as the country still attracts talent.[8]

  1. ^ a b "Nobel Prizes–Britannica". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 29 April 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  2. ^ "The Nobel Prize". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  3. ^ "A short guide to the Nobel Prize". Swedish Institute. 7 December 2018. Archived from the original on 24 January 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  4. ^ "Nobel Prize facts". NobelPrize.org. Archived from the original on 15 August 2018. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  5. ^ Bauer, David (11 October 2019). "Das sind alle Schweizer Nobelpreisträger" [These are all the Swiss Nobel laureates]. Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 27 June 2024. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  6. ^ "Staudinger, Hermann". Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (in German). 7 November 2012. Archived from the original on 28 January 2023. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  7. ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 2001". NobelPrize.org. 8 April 1938. Archived from the original on 18 March 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d SWI swissinfo.ch (23 July 2009). "Die Schweiz im Nobel-Boom". SWI swissinfo.ch (in German). Archived from the original on 27 June 2024. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  9. ^ "Bundesgesetz über das Schweizer Bürgerrecht" [Federal Law on Swiss Citizenship] (PDF). Fedlex (in German). p. 5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 April 2024. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
  10. ^ "Nobel Prize awarded organisations". NobelPrize.org. 14 August 2024. Archived from the original on 22 June 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  11. ^ "28 Nobelpreise für Schweizer". Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (in German). 4 October 2017. Archived from the original on 3 July 2024. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  12. ^ "Nobel prizes and International Geneva". Genève internationale. Archived from the original on 15 April 2024. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  13. ^ "Nobel Prize facts". NobelPrize.org. 10 December 2010. Archived from the original on 15 August 2018. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  14. ^ "Facts and figures about International Geneva". Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 30 October 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  15. ^ Smith, Oliver (10 December 2018). "The beautiful little islands that have produced the most Nobel prize winners per capita". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  16. ^ a b "Wie viel Geld steckt die Schweiz in die Forschung und Entwicklung?". Swiss National Science Foundation (in German). 23 September 2021. Archived from the original on 5 December 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  17. ^ Duggan, Oliver; Spence, Peter (8 October 2014). "How the Nobel Prize has favoured white western men for more than 100 years". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 27 March 2024. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  18. ^ Sample, Ian; Devlin, Hannah (7 October 2019). "What's the point of Nobel prizes?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 July 2024. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  19. ^ "Is the Nobel Prize on Its Way to Being Outdated?". The Swaddle. 9 October 2019. Archived from the original on 23 March 2024. Retrieved 1 July 2024.


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