The 2026 Nobel Prizes have been announced. Meet all ten laureates, follow Nobel Week, learn how the prizes work, explore the records and test your knowledge.
Laureates receive their medals and diplomas on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. Counting to 00:00 Stockholm time.
Prize motivations are quoted from the official announcements. Tap a category to filter.
Hegemann and Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, a light-sensitive protein in a single-celled alga. Deisseroth turned it into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells, so scientists can switch neurons on or off in the living brain.
Optogenetics is now used in labs worldwide to study how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviour, and researchers are testing it in attempts to restore sight.
Halzen first presented his vision for catching neutrinos at the South Pole in 1988, then led the international team that built IceCube, an observatory that uses a cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice as its detector.
Neutrinos are nearly massless particles that pass through almost everything. High-energy ones arriving from space let astronomers look at cosmic accelerators that light alone cannot reveal.
Many molecules, such as amino acids, exist in two mirror-image forms, yet life uses only one "hand" of them (homochirality). The committee describes their work as a solution to a mystery more than a century old: how homochirality can emerge spontaneously.
Kagan found non-linear effects in asymmetric synthesis, where a small excess of one hand can be amplified. Soai took the next step with autocatalytic reactions in which a chiral product helps make more of itself.
Carson has combined poetry, translation and teaching throughout her career. The Academy notes that nearly all of her work sits where a philologist's obsession with words meets a poet's desire for new meaning, and she has named the etymology of words as the starting point for all of it.
She first met ancient Greek through her Latin teacher at secondary school. Among her best-known books are Autobiography of Red and Nox, a book made in memory of her brother.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee drew a common thread from her early work defending Nelson Mandela and others who stood up against apartheid to her service as a judge in some of the key international court cases of our time. It credited her with holding states and leaders accountable and a firm moral compass.
Pillay later served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She learned of the prize while at a gathering on international law in Nuremberg.
Officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, this year's prize recognises work that grounds the study of business cycles and stabilisation policy in the decisions of households and firms.
The models developed by the two American economists help policymakers think through how to respond to inflation, recessions and economic shocks.
| Prize | Laureate(s) | Share | Announced | Awarded by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physiology or Medicine | Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel | 1/3 each | Mon, Oct 5 | Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet |
| Physics | Francis Halzen | 1/1 | Tue, Oct 6 | Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences |
| Chemistry | Henri B. Kagan, Kenso Soai | 1/2 each | Wed, Oct 7 | Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences |
| Literature | Anne Carson | 1/1 | Thu, Oct 8 | Swedish Academy |
| Peace | Navanethem "Navi" Pillay | 1/1 | Fri, Oct 9 | Norwegian Nobel Committee |
| Economic Sciences | Robert E. Hall, Michael Woodford | 1/2 each | Mon, Oct 12 | Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences |
The season opens at Karolinska Institutet with optogenetics.
Francis Halzen and the IceCube neutrino observatory.
Kagan and Soai on how mirror-image molecules amplify.
Anne Carson, announced by the Swedish Academy.
Announced in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Hall and Woodford close the announcement season.
Medals and diplomas are presented on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. The Peace Prize is presented in Oslo; the other prizes are presented in Stockholm.
Each prize follows its own institution's procedure, but the pattern is similar.
Qualified nominators are invited to submit candidates. You cannot nominate yourself.
A Nobel committee screens the nominations and may call on outside experts.
The prize-awarding institution makes the final decision, and a single prize can be shared by at most three laureates.
Winners are revealed over a week in early October. Nominee names stay secret for 50 years.
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, founded in 1977, awards the prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Awards three prizes. The economics prize was created in 1968 by Sweden's central bank, Sveriges Riksbank, and first awarded in 1969.
Stockholm-based academy whose permanent secretary announces the Literature laureate.
Chosen in Oslo, the only prize decided and presented in Norway rather than Sweden.
Alfred Nobel signed his will in 1895 and died on December 10, 1896. The first prizes were awarded in 1901.
Physics in 1903 and Chemistry in 1911. She remains the only person to win in two different scientific fields.
Chemistry in 1954 and Peace in 1962, the only person to receive two unshared Nobel Prizes.
Frederick Sanger (Chemistry 1958, 1980), John Bardeen (Physics 1956, 1972) and K. Barry Sharpless (Chemistry 2001, 2022) each won twice in the same field.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has won the Peace Prize three times: 1917, 1944 and 1963.
Malala Yousafzai was 17 when she shared the 2014 Peace Prize. John B. Goodenough was 97 when he shared the 2019 Chemistry Prize.
Jean-Paul Sartre declined the Literature Prize in 1964, and Le Duc Tho declined the 1973 Peace Prize.
Niels Bohr won the Physics prize in 1922 and his son Aage Bohr won it in 1975.
Seven questions drawn from this page.
December 10 is the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death in 1896. Medals and diplomas are presented that day: the Peace Prize in Oslo, and the other prizes in Stockholm.
Strictly, it is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It was not in Nobel's will; Sweden's central bank established it in 1968 and it was first awarded in 1969. It is announced during Nobel Week and paid out by the Riksbank, with the same prize amount as the Nobel Prizes.
12 million Swedish kronor per prize category, up from 11 million in 2025. When a prize is shared, the amount is divided among the laureates.
Only people invited by the Nobel committees (qualified nominators) can submit nominations, and self-nominations are not accepted. Nominee names are kept secret for 50 years.
Nobel's will gave the task of awarding the Peace Prize to a committee chosen by the Norwegian parliament, which is why the Norwegian Nobel Committee announces it and presents it in Oslo.
No. AIfrednobel.com is an independent fan site and is not affiliated with the Nobel Foundation. For official information, visit nobelprize.org.
Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford claimed the final prize for their research on macroeconomic stabilisation. Read the Academy's scientific background.
Official scientific background →The Norwegian Nobel Committee honoured her efforts to promote peace and international law, 125 years after the first Peace Prize.
Official Peace Prize page →The Medicine prize honours a method that uses light to switch individual nerve cells on or off. See the Nobel Assembly's announcement.
Prize announcement →