List of Asian Nobel laureates
The Nobel Prize is an annual, international prize first awarded in 1901 for achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. An associated prize in Economics has been awarded since 1969.[1] Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 800 individuals.[2]
Asians have been the recipients of all six award categories: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economics. The first Asian recipient, Rabindranath Tagore, was awarded the Literature Prize in 1913. The most Nobel Prizes awarded to Asians in a single year was in 2014, when five Asians became laureates. The most recent Asian laureates, Japanese scientist Akira Yoshino and Indian economist Abhijit Banerjee were awarded their prizes in 2019.
To date (2019), there have been fifty-seven Asian winners of the Nobel Prize, including twenty-eight Japanese, twelve Israeli, nine Indian (not including non-Indian Laureates born in India) and eight Chinese (not including non-Chinese Laureates born in China). The following are not including Russian.
Physics
As of 2018, there are 20 Asians or Asian Amercans who won Nobel Prize in Physics, with Japanese comprising the most with 11 laureates.
Chemistry
As of 2019, there are 19 Asians or Asian Americans who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with the Japanese comprising the most with 8 laureates.
Physiology or Medicine
As of 2018, there are 7 Asians who won Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with the Japanese comprising the most with 5 laureates.
Year | Image | Laureate | Country at the time of the award | Category | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1968 | Har Gobind Khorana | India and United States | Physiology or Medicine | First Asian born and Indian born Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine | |
1987 | Susumu Tonegawa | Japan | Physiology or Medicine | First Asian and Japanese Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine | |
2012 | Shinya Yamanaka | Japan | Physiology or Medicine | ||
2015 | Satoshi Ōmura | Japan | Physiology or Medicine | ||
2015 | Tu Youyou | China | Physiology or Medicine | First Chinese woman Nobel laureate | |
2016 | Yoshinori Ohsumi | Japan | Physiology or Medicine | ||
2018 | Tasuku Honjo | Japan | Physiology or Medicine |
Literature
As of 2018, there are 8 Asians who won Nobel Prize in Literature, with the Japanese comprising the most with 3 laureates.
Year | Image | Laureate | Country at the time of the award | Category | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1913 | Rabindranath Tagore | India | Literature | First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate | |
1968 | Yasunari Kawabata | Japan | Literature | ||
1994 | Kenzaburō Ōe | Japan | Literature | ||
2000 | Gao Xingjian | France | Literature | Born in China | |
2001 | V. S. Naipaul | United Kingdom | Literature | Indian origin. Born in Trinidad and Tobago. | |
2006 | Orhan Pamuk | Turkey | Literature | First Turkish Nobel laureate | |
2012 | Mo Yan | China | Literature | ||
2017 | Kazuo Ishiguro | United Kingdom | Literature | Born in Japan |
Peace
As of 2018, there are 20 Asians who won Nobel Prize in Peace, with the Israeli and Indian comprising the most with 3 laureates.
Year | Image | Laureate | Country at the time of the award | Category | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1973 | Lê Đức Thọ (declined award) |
North Vietnam | Peace | First Asian and Vietnamese Nobel laureate in Peace | |
1974 | Eisaku Satō | Japan | Peace | ||
1978 | Menachem Begin | Israel | Peace | ||
1979 | Mother Teresa | India | Peace | First Asian woman Nobel laureate | |
1989 | Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama | India | Peace | First Tibetan Nobel laureate | |
1991 | Aung San Suu Kyi | Burma | Peace | First Myanmar Nobel laureate | |
1994 | Yasser Arafat | Palestine | Peace | First Palestinian Arab in Nobel laureate | |
1994 | Shimon Peres | Israel | Peace | ||
1994 | Yitzhak Rabin | Israel | Peace | ||
1996 | Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo | Timor-Leste | Peace | First Timorese Nobel laureate | |
1996 | José Ramos-Horta | Timor-Leste | Peace | First Timorese Nobel laureate | |
2000 | Kim Dae-jung | South Korea | Peace | First Korean Nobel laureate | |
2003 | Shirin Ebadi | Iran | Peace | First Iranian Nobel laureate | |
2006 | Muhammad Yunus | Bangladesh | Peace | First Bangladeshi Nobel laureate in Peace | |
2007 | Jose Ramon Villarin | Philippines | Peace | Jointly won with former US Vice President Al Gore as part of a team of climate scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,[3] "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"[4] | |
2010 | Liu Xiaobo | China | Peace | First Asian Nobel laureate in prison | |
2011 | Tawakkul Karman | Yemen | Peace | First Arab Woman and First Yemeni Nobel laureate | |
2014 | Kailash Satyarthi | India | Peace | First Indian Nobel laureate in Peace | |
2014 | Malala Yousafzai | Pakistan | Peace | First Pakistani Woman Nobel laureate and youngest Nobel laureate | |
2018 | Nadia Murad | Iraq | Peace | First Iraqi Nobel laureate | |
Economics
As of 2019, four Asians have won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Year | Image | Laureate | Country at the time of the award | Category | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1998 | Amartya Sen | India | Economics | First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate in Economics. | |
2002 | Daniel Kahneman | Israel and United States | Economics | ||
2005 | Robert Aumann | Israel and United States | Economics | ||
2019 | Abhijit Banerjee | India and United States | Economics | [5] |
Non-Asian born Laureates of Asian descent
Non-Asian Laureates born in Asia
References
- "Nobel Prize" (2007), in Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed 14 November 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online:
An additional award, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden and was first awarded in 1969
- "All Nobel Laureates". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
- "Aquino to swear in Ateneo's new president". ABS-CBN News. September 7, 2011. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
- "The Nobel Peace Prize for 2007". Oslo: The Norwegian Nobel Committee. 12 October 2007. Archived from the original on 2010-11-28. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- Hannon, Dominic Chopping and Paul. "Nobel Prize in Economics Awarded for Work Alleviating Poverty". WSJ. Retrieved 14 October 2019.