Nobelists - Berkeley Inspire

photograph of a Nobel prize

Berkeley’s Nobel laureates

UC Berkeley’s Nobel prize-winning legacy began in the 1930s and continues to the modern day, with faculty and alumni laureates in almost every field. By our count, there are 63 Berkeley Nobelists.

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Prize

Chemistry Economics Literature Physics Physiology or Medicine

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1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s

photo of John Clarke

John Clarke

Physics, 2025 | Faculty

An emeritus professor of physics at Berkeley, Clarke’s award recognizes his work on quantum tunneling, one of many strange aspects of quantum mechanics. Clarke shared the prize with Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis, who at the time of their prize-winning research were at UC Berkeley.

photo of Omar Yaghi

Omar Yaghi

Chemistry, 2025 | Faculty

Yaghi was cited — alongside Richard Robson and Susumu Kitagawa — for creating “molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow. These constructions, metal-organic frameworks, can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyze chemical reactions.”

photo of David Card

David Card

Economics, 2021 | Faculty

Card shared his prize for work that challenged orthodoxy and dramatically shifted understanding of inequality and the social and economic forces that impact low-wage workers.

photo of Jennifer Doudna

Jennifer Doudna

Chemistry, 2020 | Faculty

Doudna shares her Nobel with colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier for the co-development of the genome editing breakthrough CRISPR-Cas9.

photo of Reinhard Genzel

Reinhard Genzel

Physics, 2020 | Faculty

Genzel won the physics prize for the discovery of, at the center of our galaxy, a black hole four million times the mass of our sun.

photo of Eric Betzig

Eric Betzig

Chemistry, 2014 | Faculty

Betzig’s development of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy allows scientists to look inside cells and visualize the pathways of individual molecules.

photo of Randy Schekman

Randy Schekman

Physiology or Medicine, 2013 | Faculty

Schekman discovered how cells export proteins, allowing the production and secretion of drugs by yeast cells and sparking a biotech revolution.

photo of Saul Perlmutter

Saul Perlmutter Ph.D. ’86

Physics, 2011 | Faculty

Perlmutter led a team that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe; the prize was awarded jointly to Adam Riess — a fellow Cal alum — and Brian Schmidt.

photo of Oliver Williamson

Oliver Williamson

Economics, 2009 | Faculty

Williamson’s research on economic governance opened an analytic window into the “make or buy” decisions that all businesses face.

photo of George Smoot

George Smoot

Physics, 2006 | Faculty

Astrophysicist Smoot shared this prize with Cal alum John Mather for imaging the infant universe.

photo of George Akerlof

George Akerlof

Economics, 2001 | Faculty

Macroeconomist Akerlof broke with established economic theory in illustrating how markets malfunction when buyers and sellers have access to different information.

photo of Daniel McFadden

Daniel McFadden

Economics, 2000 | Faculty

McFadden’s econometric methods for studying behavioral patterns in individual decision-making earned him the Nobel Prize.

photo of John Harsanyi

John Harsanyi

Economics, 1994 | Faculty

Harsanyi expanded the application of game theory, eventually addressing the prediction of outcomes in games or circumstances in which players lack complete information.

photo of Yuan T. Lee

Yuan T. Lee Ph.D. ’65

Chemistry, 1986 | Faculty

Lee designed experiments that sent streams of intensely packed molecules into each other at supersonic speeds, contributing to today’s powerful lasers.

photo of Gerard Debreu

Gerard Debreu

Economics, 1983 | Faculty

Economist Debreu’s mathematical models provided the theoretical structure to explain the law of supply and demand.

photo of Czeslow Milosz

Czeslow Milosz

Literature, 1980 | Faculty

Milosz’s poetry was prohibited by the Communist government of his native Poland; this ban ended when he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

photo of Luis Alvarez

Luis Alvarez

Physics, 1968 | Faculty

Substituting hydrogen for ether in Donald Glaser’s bubble chamber, Alvarez produced a clearer track of speeding particles.

photo of Charles Townes

Charles Townes

Physics, 1964 | Faculty

Townes’s research into the properties of light while designing radar systems during World War II led to the development of the laser.

photo of Melvin Calvin

Melvin Calvin

Chemistry, 1961 | Faculty

Calvin revealed the complete path of carbon in photosynthesis to explain how plants convert sunlight to food.

photo of Donald Glaser

Donald Glaser

Physics, 1960 | Faculty

Glaser’s invention of the bubble chamber allowed scientists to track the movement of atomic particles.

photo of Owen Chamberlain

Owen Chamberlain

Physics, 1959 | Faculty

Chamberlain and Emilio Segrè discovered the anti-proton, signaling a major leap in the study of matter and antimatter.

photo of Emilio Segrè

Emilio Segrè

Physics, 1959 | Faculty

Segrè and Owen Chamberlain discovered the anti-proton, signaling a major leap in the study of matter and antimatter.

photo of Edwin McMillan

Edwin McMillan

Chemistry, 1951 | Faculty

McMillan discovered the element neptunium in 1940; he shared his Nobel with Glenn Seaborg.

photo of Glenn Seaborg

Glenn Seaborg Ph.D. ’37

Chemistry, 1951 | Faculty

Seaborg continued Edwin McMillan’s studies on the transuranium elements, and in 1942, he discovered plutonium.

photo of William Giauque

William Giauque B.S. 1920, Ph.D. 1922

Chemistry, 1949 | Faculty

By reaching below Absolute Zero for the first time in history, Giauque’s work proved one of the most basic laws of nature.

photo of John Howard Northrop

John Howard Northrop

Chemistry, 1946 | Faculty

Northrop and Wendell Stanley share a chemistry prize; one for isolating a pure enzyme for the first time and the other for isolating a virus, respectively.

photo of Wendell Stanley

Wendell Stanley

Chemistry, 1946 | Faculty

Stanley and John Howard Northrop share a chemistry prize; one for isolating a pure enzyme for the first time and the other for isolating a virus, respectively.

photo of Ernest Lawrence

Ernest Lawrence

Physics, 1939 | Faculty

Lawrence, awarded for his work on the cyclotron, was the first Nobelist at a public university.