List of Australian Nobel laureates

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Since 1915 there have been fifteen Australian winners of the Nobel Prize. The majority of these prizes (eight) have been awarded in the field of Physiology or Medicine, and include the second youngest ever laureate (William Lawrence Bragg, who was awarded the prize at 25 years of age). Bragg and his father (William Henry Bragg) are also the only father-son duo to have won a Nobel Prize in the same year.[1] Most Australians awarded Nobel prizes before the end of the awarding of British/Imperial honours (in 1992) also received (or were offered) knighthoods.

This list includes laureates who were not born in Australia, but who nevertheless spent a significant portion of their training or career there.

Australian Nobel laureates

Year Laureate Field Life Citation
2011 Brian P. Schmidt Physics 1967– "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae" shared with Saul Perlmutter and Adam G. Riess[2]
2009 Elizabeth Blackburn Physiology or Medicine 1948– "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase" shared with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak[3]
2005 Barry J. Marshall Physiology or Medicine 1951– "for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease" shared with J. Robin Warren[4]
2005 J. Robin Warren Physiology or Medicine 1937– "for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease" shared with Barry J. Marshall[5]
2003 J. M. Coetzee Literature 1940– "who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider"[6]
1996 Peter C. Doherty Physiology or Medicine 1940– "for their discoveries concerning the specificity of the cell mediated immune defence" shared with Rolf M. Zinkernagel[7]
1994 John C. Harsanyi Economics 1920–2000 "for their pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games" shared with John F. Nash, Jr. and Reinhard Selten[8]
1975 Sir John Cornforth Chemistry 1917-2013 "for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions" shared with Vladimir Prelog[9]
1973 Patrick White Literature 1912-1990 "for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature"[10]
1970 Sir Bernard Katz Physiology or Medicine 1911-2003 "for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmittors in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation" shared with Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod[11]
1964 Alexander M. Prokhorov Physics 1916-2002 "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle" shared with Charles H. Townes and Nicolay G. Basov[12]
1963 Sir John Carew Eccles Physiology or Medicine 1903-1997 "for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane" shared with Alan L. Hodgkin and Andrew F. Huxley[13]
1960 Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet Physiology or Medicine 1899-1985 "for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance" shared with Peter Medawar[14]
1945 Howard Florey, Baron Florey Physiology or Medicine 1898-1968 "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases" shared with Alexander Fleming and Ernst B. Chain[15]
1915 Sir William Henry Bragg Physics 1862-1942 "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays" shared with William Lawrence Bragg[16]
1915 Sir William Lawrence Bragg Physics 1890-1971 "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays" shared with William Henry Bragg[17]

See also

References