The Nobel Prize in Physics 1932 was awarded to Werner Heisenberg "for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen".

Werner Heisenberg received his Nobel Prize one year later, in 1933. During the selection process in 1932, the Nobel Committee for Physics decided that none of the year’s nominations met the criteria as outlined in the will of Alfred Nobel. According to the Nobel Foundation's statutes, the Nobel Prize can in such a case be reserved until the following year, and this statute was then applied. Werner Heisenberg therefore received his Nobel Prize for 1932 one year later, in 1933.