Women who changed the world
Here are the women who have received the Nobel Prize and their remarkable achievements at the time of the award.
67
Nobel Prize-awarded women
See the full list17
years old: youngest awarded woman
Read more about Malala Yousafzai87
years old: oldest awarded woman
Read about Doris LessingNobel Prize in Physics 1903
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911
Paved the way for women in science
Marie Curie is still the only individual to receive the prize in two different science categories. She discovered polonium and radium, championed the use of radiation in medicine and fundamentally changed our understanding of radioactivity. Take a look back on her life in this video.
Can you match the right laureate with the right discovery? Have a try!
“Science is a process of seeking the truth”
In this interview, 2025 medicine laureate Mary Brunkow talks about the joy of science and what she loves about research. Brunkow was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025 together with Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi “for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.”
Montage showing a frog on a bamboo stick, a separate frog skeleton, and a countdown clock.
Credit: Getty Images/BBC
Kailash Satyarthi and the 2014 Nobel Prize laureates.
© Nobel Media, Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
This year’s Nobel Prize announcements will take place on 5–12 October. All of the prize announcements will be broadcast live on the official digital channels of the Nobel Prize. In-depth information about the prizes will be published here at nobelprize.org.
The door to the Swedish Academy.
Photo: K. Svanholm.
The first design of the Nobel Center project is here – a public building in Stockholm, Sweden for science, literature and peace. It will be an international symbol of knowledge, focusing on the Nobel Prize laureates’ stories and groundbreaking achievements. Read more about the project.
Aerial view along the waterfront.
© Onirism/Nobel Prize Outreach
One-minute crash course
How much do you know about the achievements awarded the 2025 Nobel Prizes? Take our one-minute crash course on each of the 2025 Nobel Prizes and laureates.
Hamilton O. Smith died on 25 October 2025, aged 94. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1978 “for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics.”
Louis Brus died on 11 January 2026 in New York, USA, aged 82. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots.”
James Watson died on 6 November 2025 in East Northport, New York, USA, aged 97. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962 “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.”
Chen Ning Yang passed away on 18 October 2025 in Beijing, China, aged 103. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1957 “for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles.”
