- See also Wikipedia's article about "Nobel Prize".
The Nobel Prize is a highly prestigious academic award. It was founded by Alfred Nobel who decided to give back to the world after his dynamite creations were used to kill lots of people.
Today, many Nobel Prizes are claimed by the faculty and alumni of Columbia.
Universities count their Nobel Prizes in various ways, normally whatever gives them the most or the highest ranking among universities. By most accounts, Columbia has the third most number of Nobel Prizes (74), after the University of Cambridge (80+) and the University of Chicago (79).
Columbia-affiliated Nobel Prizes
Alumni
| 1932 |
Irving Langmuir |
(B.S., 1903; M.A., 1906) |
| 1946 |
John H. Northrop |
(B.S., 1912; M.A., 1913; Ph.D., 1915) |
| 1972 |
William H. Stein |
(Ph.D., 1938) |
| 1981 |
Roald Hoffmann |
(B.A., 1958) |
| 1985 |
Herbert A. Hauptman |
(M.A., 1939) |
| 1989 |
Sidney Altman |
(graduate student, teaching assistant, 1960 to 1962) |
| 2001 |
William S. Knowles |
(Ph.D., 1942) |
| 2005 |
Robert H. Grubbs |
(Ph.D., 1968) |
| 1971 |
Simon S. Kuznets |
(B.S., 1923; M.A., 1924; Ph.D., 1926) |
| 1972 |
Kenneth J. Arrow |
(M.A., 1941; Ph.D., 1951) |
| 1976 |
Milton Friedman |
(Researcher, 1943 to 1945; Ph.D., 1946; faculty member, 1937 to 1940 and 1964 to 1965) |
| 1993 |
Robert W. Fogel |
(M.A., 1960) |
| 1996 |
William S. Vickrey |
(M.A., 1937; Ph.D., 1948; faculty member, 1946 to 1996) |
| 1997 |
Robert C. Merton |
(B.S., 1966) |
| 1923 |
Robert A. Millikan |
(Ph.D., 1895) |
| 1944 |
I.I. Rabi |
(Ph.D., 1927; faculty member, 1929 to 1988) |
| 1965 |
Julian S. Schwinger |
(B.A., 1936; Ph.D., 1939) |
| 1972 |
Leon N. Cooper |
(B.A., 1951; M.A., 1953; Ph.D., 1954) |
| 1975 |
James Rainwater |
(M.A., 1941; Ph.D., 1946; faculty member, 1939 to 1986) |
| 1978 |
Arno A. Penzias |
(M.A., 1958; Ph.D., 1962) |
| 1980 |
Val L. Fitch |
(Ph.D., 1954; faculty member, 1953 to 1954) |
| 1988 |
Leon M. Lederman |
(M.A., 1948; Ph.D., 1951; faculty member, 1951 to 1989) |
| 1988 |
Melvin Schwartz |
(B.A., 1953; Ph.D., 1958; faculty member, 1958 to 1966, 1991 to 2006)
|
| 1989 |
Norman F. Ramsey |
(B.A., 1935; Ph.D., 1940; faculty member, 1941 to 1947) |
| 1995 |
Martin L. Perl |
(Ph.D., 1955) |
| 1946 |
Hermann J. Muller |
(B.A., 1910; M.A., 1911; Ph.D., 1916; faculty member, 1918 to 1920)
|
| 1950 |
Edward C. Kendall |
(B.S., 1908; M.A., 1909; Ph.D., 1910) |
| 1956 |
Dickinson W. Richards |
(M.A., 1922; M.D., 1923; faculty member, 1925 to 1973) |
| 1958 |
Joshua Lederberg |
(B.A., 1944; medical student, 1944-1946; faculty member, 1990 to 1999) |
| 1964 |
Konrad E. Bloch |
(Ph.D., 1938; faculty member, 1938 to 1946, 1966) |
| 1967 |
George Wald |
(M.A., 1928) |
| 1973 |
Konrad Lorenz |
(Columbia College, 1922 to 1923) |
| 1976 |
Baruch S. Blumberg |
(Grad student in Mathematics, 1946 to 1947; M.D., 1951; resident, 1951-1953; fellow 1953-1955) |
| 1980 |
Baruj Benacerraf |
(B.S., 1942; research scientist, 1948 to 1950) |
| 1989 |
Harold E. Varmus |
(M.D., 1966; Presbyterian Hospital staff, 1966 to 1968, University Trustee, 2002 to 2005) |
| 1998 |
Louis J. Ignarro |
(B.S., 1962) |
| 2004 |
Richard Axel |
(A.B., 1967; resident, fellow and research scientist, 1971 to 1978; faculty member, 1978 to present) |
Faculty, research fellows and others
| 1938 |
Enrico Fermi |
(faculty member, 1939 to 1945) |
| 1949 |
Hideki Yukawa |
(faculty member, 1949 to 1954) |
| 1955 |
Polykarp Kusch |
(faculty member, 1937 to 1972) |
| 1955 |
Willis E. Lamb |
(faculty member, 1938 to 1952, 1960 to 1961) |
| 1957 |
Tsung Dao Lee |
(faculty member, 1953 to present) |
| 1963 |
Maria Goeppert Mayer |
(faculty member, 1940 to 1946) |
| 1964 |
Charles H. Townes |
(faculty member, 1948 to 1961) |
| 1975 |
Aage Bohr |
(faculty member, 1949 to 1950) |
| 1976 |
Samuel C.C. Ting |
(faculty member, 1964 to 1967) |
| 1979 |
Steven Weinberg |
(faculty member, 1957 to 1959) |
| 1981 |
Arthur L. Schawlow |
(faculty member, 1949 to 1951, 1960) |
| 1984 |
Carlo Rubbia |
(postdoc at Nevis Laboratories, 1958 to 1960) |
| 1988 |
Jack Steinberger |
(faculty member, 1950 to 1970, 1985 to 1986, 1988 to 1998) |
| 1998 |
Horst L. Stormer |
(faculty member, 1998 to present) |
| 2006 |
John C. Mather |
(postdoc in Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 1974 to 1976) |
| 1933 |
Thomas Hunt Morgan |
(faculty member, 1904 to 1928) |
| 1956 |
Andre F. Cournand |
(faculty member, 1935 to 1988) |
| 1969 |
Salvador E. Luria |
(faculty member, 1940 to 1942) |
| 1976 |
D. Carleton Gajdusek |
(postgraduate training, 1946 to 1947) |
| 1978 |
Daniel Nathans |
(intern and medical resident, 1954 to 1959) |
| 1982 |
Sune Bergström |
(research fellowship, 1940 to 1941) |
| 1990 |
E. Donnall Thomas |
(faculty member, 1955 to 1963) |
| 2000 |
Eric Kandel |
(faculty member, 1972 to present) |
| 2004 |
Linda Buck |
(postdoctoral fellow, 1980 to 1984; research scientist, 1984 to 1991) |
