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Nobel Prize

Awarded for achievement in chemistry, economics, literature, peace, physics, and physiology or medicine (see the Nobel Foundation web site for details and history about this award). University faculty and graduates have won 20 Nobel Prize awards:

Laureate Discipline Year of Award

Leonid Hurwicz

Faculty, Economics, 1951-

For having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory

Economic Sciences 2007

Edward C. Prescott
Faculty, Economics, 1980-2003

For his contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles

Economic Sciences 2004

Daniel McFadden
B.S. Physics, 1957; Instructor in Physics 1957-58; Ph.D., Economics, 1962

For his development of theory and methods for analyzing discrete choice

Economic Sciences 2000

Louis J. Ignarro
Ph.D., Pharmacology, 1966

For his discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system

Physiology or Medicine 1998

Paul D. Boyer
Faculty, Biochemistry, 1945-1963

For elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)

Chemistry 1997

Edward B. Lewis
B.A., Biostatistics, 1939

For discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development

Physiology or Medicine 1995

George J. Stigler
Faculty, Economics, 1938-46

For his seminal studies of industrial structures, functioning of markets and causes and effects of public regulation

Economic Sciences 1982

John H. van Vleck
Faculty, Physics, 1923-28

For fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems

Physics 1977

Milton Friedman
Faculty, Economics, 1945-1946

For his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy

Economic Sciences 1976

Saul Bellow
Faculty, English, 1946

For the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work

Literature 1976

William Lipscomb
Faculty, Chemistry, 1946-1959

For his studies on the structure of boranes illuminating problems of chemical bonding

Chemistry 1976

John Bardeen
Faculty, Physics, 1938-1941

For the jointly developed theory (with Cooper and Schrieffer) of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory

Physics 1972

Norman Borlaug
B.S, Forestry, 1937; M.S. (1939) and Ph.D. (1942), Plant Pathology

...more than any other single person of this age, he has helped to provide bread for a hungry world

Peace 1970

Melvin Calvin
Ph.D., Chemistry, 1935

For his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants

Chemistry 1961

Walter Brattain
Ph.D., Physics, 1929

For researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect

Physics 1956

John Bardeen
Faculty, Physics, 1938-1941

For researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect

Physics 1956

Edward C. Kendall
Faculty, Biochemistry, Mayo Foundation, 1914-1951

For discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects

Physiology or Medicine 1950

Philip S. Hench
Faculty, Medicine, Mayo Foundation, 1923-1965

For discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects

Physiology or Medicine 1950

Ernest O. Lawrence
M.A., Physics, 1923

For the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements

Physics 1939

Arthur H. Compton
Instructor, Physics, 1917

For his discovery of the effect named after him

Physics 1927

(updated October 15, 2007)

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