The Nobel Prize in Physics 1925

James Franck

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Prize share: 1/2

Gustav Ludwig Hertz

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Prize share: 1/2

The Nobel Prize in Physics 1925 was awarded jointly to James Franck and Gustav Ludwig Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom"
James Franck and Gustav Hertz received their Nobel Prize one year later, in 1926. During the selection process in 1925, 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. James Franck and Gustav Hertz therefore received their Nobel Prize for 1925 one year later, in 1926.

To cite this section
MLA style: The Nobel Prize in Physics 1925. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Fri. 13 Dec 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1925/summary/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Nobel Prizes and laureates

Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.

See them all presented here.

Illustration

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.