The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien) is responsible for deciding about the anual award of the Nobel price. The first Nobel prize in physics was awarded to Wilhelm Röntgen in 1901.

Physics 1950

"for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with this method".

Physics 1951

COCKCROFT, Sir JOHN DOUGLAS, Great Britain, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Didcot, Berks., * 1897, + 1967; and

WALTON, ERNEST THOMAS SINTON, Ireland, Dublin University, * 1903, + 1995:

"for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially acce lerated atomic particles".

Physics 1952

BLOCH, FELIX, U.S.A., Stanford University, Stanford, CA, * 1905 (in Zürich, Switzerland), + 1983; and

PURCELL, EDWARD MILLS, U.S.A., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, * 1912:

"for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith".

Physics 1953

"for his demonstration of the phase contrast method, especially for his invention of the phase contrast microscope".

Physics 1954

BORN, MAX, Great Britain, Edinburgh University, * 1882 (in Breslau, then Germany), + 1970:

"for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction";

and

BOTHE, WALTHER, Germany, Heidelberg University, Max-Planck Institut (former Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut) für medizinische Forschung, Heidelberg, * 1891, + 1957:

"for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith".

Physics 1955

LAMB, WILLIS, EUGENE, U.S.A., Stanford University, Stanford, CA, * 1913:

"for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum";

and

KUSCH, POLYKARP, U.S.A., Columbia University, New York, NY, * 1911 (in Blankenburg, then Germany), + 1993:

"for his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron".

Physics 1956

SHOCKLEY, WILLIAM, U.S.A., Semiconductor Laboratory of Beckman Instruments, Inc., Mountain View, CA, * 1910 (in London, Great Britain), + 1989;

BARDEEN, JOHN, U.S.A., University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, * 1908, + 1991; and

BRATTAIN, WALTER HOUSER, U.S.A., Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, * 1902, + 1987:

"for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect".

Physics 1957

LEE, TSUNG-DAO, China, Columbia University, New York, NY, U.S.A., *1926: and

YANG, CHEN NING, China, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, U.S.A., * 1922;

"for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles".

Physics 1958

CHERENKOV, PAVEL ALEKSEYEVICH, USSR, Physics Institute of USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, *1904, + 1990;

FRANK, IL'JA MIKHAILOVICH, USSR, University of Moscow and Physics Institute of USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, * 1908, + 1990; and

TAMM, IGOR YEVGENYEVICH, USSR, University of Moscow and Physics Institute of USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, * 1885, + 1971:

"for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect".

Physics 1959

SEGRÈ, EMILIO GINO, U.S.A., University of California, Berkeley, CA, * 1905 (in Tivoli, Italy), + 1989; and

CHAMBERLAIN, OWEN, U.S.A., University of California, Berkeley, CA, * 1920:

"for their discovery of the antiproton".

Physics 1960

"for the invention of the bubble chamber".

Physics 1961

HOFSTADTER, ROBERT, U.S.A., Stanford University, Stanford, CA, * 1915, + 1990:

"for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the stucture of the nucleons";
and

MÖSSBAUER, RUDOLF LUDWIG, Germany, Technische Hochschule, München, and California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A., * 1929:

"for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name".

Physics 1962

"for his pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium".

Physics 1963

WIGNER, EUGENE P., U.S.A., Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, * 1902 (in Budapest, Hungary), + 1995:

"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 the other half jointly to:

GOEPPERT-MAYER, MARIA, U.S.A. , University of California, La Jolla, CA, * 1906 (in Kattowitz, then Germany), + 1972; (biography) and

JENSEN, J. HANS D., Germany, University of Heidelberg, * 1907, + 1973:

"for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure".

Physics 1964

TOWNES, CHARLES H., U.S.A., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ,Cambridge, MA, * 1915; and the other half jointly to:

BASOV, NICOLAY GENNADIYEVICH, USSR, Lebedev Institute for Physics, Akademija Nauk, Moscow, * 1922; and

PROKHOROV, ALEKSANDR MIKHAILOVICH, USSR, Lebedev Institute for Physics, Akademija Nauk, Moscow, * 1916:

"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".

Physics 1965

TOMONAGA, SIN-ITIRO, Japan, Tokyo, University of Education, Tokyo, * 1906, + 1979;

SCHWINGER, JULIAN, U.S.A., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, * 1918, + 1994; and

FEYNMAN, RICHARD P., U.S.A., California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, * 1918, + 1988:

"for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles".

Physics 1966

"for the discovery and development of optical methods for studying hertzian resonances in atoms".

Physics 1967

"for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars".

Physics 1968

"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".

Physics 1969

"for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions".

Physics 1970

ALFVÉN, HANNES, Sweden, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, * 1908, + 1995:

"for fundamental work and discoveries in magneto-hydrodynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics";

and

NÉEL, LOUIS, France, University of Grenoble, Grenoble, * 1904:

"for fundamental work and discoveries concerning antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism which have led to important applications in solid state physics".

Physics 1971

"for his invention and development of the holographic method".

Physics 1972

BARDEEN, JOHN, U.S.A., University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, * 1908, + 1991;

COOPER, LEON N., U.S.A., Brown University, Providence, RI, * 1930; and

SCHRIEFFER, J. ROBERT, U.S.A., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, * 1931:

"for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory".

Physics 1973

ESAKI, LEO, Japan, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, U.S.A., * 1925; and

GIAEVER, IVAR, U.S.A., General Electric Company,Schenectady, NY, * 1929 (in Bergen, Norway),

"for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively",

and the other half to:

JOSEPHSON, BRIAN D., Great Britain, Cambridge University, Cambridge, * 1940:

"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".

Physics 1974

RYLE, Sir MARTIN, Great Britain, Cambridge University, Cambridge, * 1918, + 1984; and

HEWISH, ANTONY, Great Britain, Cambridge University, Cambridge, * 1924:

"for their pioneering 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".