Theme

Nobel Laureates (1901 - )

Australia

From
1901
Australia
Functions
Award
Website
https://www.nobelprize.org/

Summary

The Nobel Prizes were first awarded in 1901 and the first Australians to be awarded a prize were William Henry Bragg and his son William Lawrence Bragg in 1915 for their work on X-Ray crystallography. Australians have won Nobel Prizes in Physics; Physiology or Medicine; Chemistry; Literature (Patrick White 1973); and Peace (International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) 2007; International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) 2017).

Other Nobel laureates are also included within this Encyclopdia, as some of their related archival records are in Australia.

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Details

From the Nobel Prize website:

"When the inventor, entrepreneur and businessman Alfred Nobel died, his will stated that his fortune was to be used to reward "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Nobel's prize would reward outstanding efforts in the fields that he was most involved in during his lifetime: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.

After his death, a long process began to realise his vision and the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. In 1969, a new prize was established - the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Its addition was an exception, to celebrate the tercentenary of Sweden's central bank.

In October every year the new Nobel Prizes and laureates are announced."

Chronology

1915
Award - Nobel Prize in Physics - William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg (jointly) - for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays
1945
Award - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Howard Florey (jointly with Alexander Fleming and Ernst Boris Chain) - for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases
1947
Award - Nobel Prize in Chemistry - Robert Robinson - for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids
1960
Award - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Frank Macfarlane Burnet (jointly with Peter Brian Medawar) - for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance
1963
Award - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - John Eccles (jointly with Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley) - for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane
1964
Award - Nobel Prize in Physics - Aleksandr Prokhorov (jointly with Charles Hard Townes and Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov) - 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
1970
Award - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Bernad Katz (jointly with Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod) - for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation
1975
Award - Nobel Prize in Chemistry - John Cornforth (shared with Vladimir Prelog) - for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions
1996
Award - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Peter Doherty (jointly with Rolf M Zinkernagel) - for their discoveries concerning the specificity of the cell mediated immune defence
2005
Award - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Barry Marshall and Robin Warren (jointly) - for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease
2007
Award - Nobel Peace Prize - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change [Barrie Pittock, Graham Farquhar, Brian Walker and John Church were IPCC members]
2009
Award - Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine - Elizabeth Blackburn (jointly with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak) - for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase
2011
Award - Nobel Prize in Physics - Brian Schmidt (jointly with Saul Perlmutter and Adam G. Riess) - for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae
2017
Award - Nobel Peace Prize - International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) [founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2007] - for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons
2025
Award - Nobel Prize in Chemistry - Richard Robson (jointly with Susumu Kitagawa, and Omar M. Yaghi) - for the development of metal-organic frameworks

See also

Published resources

Books

  • Beale, R, Australia's Nobel Laureates - adventures in innovation (Sydney: ABIE Australian Business and Investment Explorer, 2004), 310 pp. Details
  • Brescia, Paul [Managing Editor], Australia's Nobel Laureates. vol III : state of our innovation nation : 2021 and beyond (Roseville, New South Wales: One Mandate Group, 2021), 704 pages : colour illustrations, colour portraits pp, https://publications.innovatia.au/view/404883545/. Details
  • Keeney, John [editor in chief]; Cribb, Julian, Australia's Nobel Laureates : adventures in innovation 1915-1996 (Roseville, NSW: ETN Communications Pty Ltd, 2004), 117 pp. Details
  • Webling, A. D'a.; and Webling, D. D'a., Nobel Prize Laureates and Australia to 2000 (Canberra: A. and D. Webling, 2000), 67 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • Anon, 'Banning the bomb: ICAN - International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (2006-); Nobel Peace Prize 2017' in Australia's Nobel Laureates. vol III : state of our innovation nation : 2021 and beyond (Roseville, New South Wales: One Mandate Group, 2021), pp. 164-174 : colour illustrations, colour portraits, https://publications.innovatia.au/view/404883545/168/. Details

Resources

Resource Sections

Gavan McCarthy

Created: 24 October 2025, Last modified: 12 November 2025

EOAS ID: biogs/P007888b.htm

This Edition: 2026 February - 1926 Centenaries
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