Wolf Prize in Physics

The Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six
Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture,
Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine and Arts.
The Wolf Prizes in physics and chemistry are often considered the second most prestigious awards in
those fields, after the Nobel Prize.[1][2][3] The prize in physics has gained a reputation for identifying
future winners of the Nobel Prize – from the 26 prizes awarded between 1978 and 2010, fourteen winners
have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, five of those in the following year.[2]

Laureates

Year Name Nationality Citation

for her explorations of
the weak interaction,
helping establish the
1978 Chien-Shiung Wu United States / Republic of China precise form and the
non-conservation of
parity for this natural
force.

for his discovery,

jointly with the late S.
George Eugene Uhlenbeck Netherlands / United States
A. Goudsmit, of the
electron spin.
1979 for his contributions to
the discoveries of
Giuseppe Occhialini Italy electron pair
production and of the
charged pion.
Michael E. Fisher United Kingdom for pathbreaking
developments
culminating in the
general theory of the
1980 Leo P. Kadanoff critical behavior at
United States transitions between
the different
thermodynamic
Kenneth G. Wilson phases of matter.

for their outstanding

Freeman Dyson United Kingdom / United States
contributions to
theoretical physics,
Netherlands especially in the
1981 Gerard 't Hooft
development and
application of the
Victor F. Weisskopf Austria / United States quantum theory of
fields.
for their experimental
Leon M. Lederman discovery of
unexpected new
1982 United States
particles establishing
Martin Lewis Perl a third generation of
quarks and leptons.

1983/84 for his discovery of

nuclear spin echoes
Erwin Hahn United States and for the
phenomenon of self-
induced transparency.

Peter B. Hirsch United Kingdom for his development of

the utilization of the
transmission electron
 microscope as a
universal instrument
to study the structure
of crystalline matter.

for his realization of

the first operating
Theodore H. Maiman United States
laser, the pulsed three
level ruby laser.
for their major
Conyers Herring United States contributions to the
fundamental theory of
1985
solids, especially of
Philippe Nozieres France the behaviour of
electrons in metals.

for his pioneering

theoretical studies
demonstrating the
universal character of
Mitchell J. Feigenbaum United States non-linear systems,
which has made
possible the
1986 systematic study of
chaos.

for his brilliant

experimental
demonstration of the
Albert J. Libchaber France / United States
transition to
turbulence and chaos
in dynamic systems.
for pioneering
Herbert Friedman United States investigations in solar
X-rays.

1987 for the discovery of

Bruno B. Rossi
extra-solar X-ray
Italy / United States sources and the
elucidation of their
Riccardo Giacconi
physical processes.

for their brilliant

development of the
theory of general
Roger Penrose relativity, in which
they have shown the
necessity for
cosmological
1988 United Kingdom singularities and have
elucidated the physics
of black holes. In this
work they have
Stephen W. Hawking greatly enlarged our
understanding of the
origin and possible
fate of the Universe.
1989 No award

1990 Pierre-Gilles de Gennes France; for a wide variety of

pioneering
contributions to our
understanding of the
organization of
complex condensed
 matter systems, de
Gennes especially for
his work on
macromolecular
David J. Thouless United Kingdom / United States matter and liquid
crystals and Thouless
for his on disordered
and low-dimensional
systems.
for their separate
Maurice Goldhaber United States seminal contributions
to nuclear and particle
1991 physics, particularly
Hungary / Switzerland / those concerning the
Valentine L. Telegdi
United States weak interactions
involving leptons.
for his discovery of an
orbiting radio pulsar
and its exploitation to
1992 Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. United States
verify the general
theory of relativity to
high precision.

by recognizing the
widespread
occurrence of fractals
and developing
1993 Benoît Mandelbrot France / United States
mathematical tools for
describing them, he
has changed our view
of nature.

for his contributions to

the theory of
superconductivity and
Vitaly L. Ginzburg Russia
to the theory of high-
energy processes in
astrophysics.
for his contribution to
elementary particle
theory, including
1994/95 recognition of the role
played by
spontaneous
Yoichiro Nambu Japan / United States symmetry breaking in
analogy with
superconductivity
theory, and the
discovery of the color
symmetry of the
strong interactions.

1995/96 No award

for his seminal

contributions to black
holes physics, to
1996/97 John Archibald Wheeler United States quantum gravity, and
to the theories of
nuclear scattering and
nuclear fission.
1998 Yakir Aharonov Israel for the discovery of
quantum topological
and geometrical
phases. specifically
 the Aharonov–Bohm
effect, the Berry
phase, and their
Michael V. Berry United Kingdom incorporation into
many fields of
physics.
for the experimental
discovery of quasi-
crystals, non-periodic
solids having long-
1999 Dan Shechtman Israel range order, which
inspired the
exploration of a new
fundamental state of
matter.
for their pioneering
Raymond Davis, Jr. United States observations of
astronomical
phenomena by
2000
detection of neutrinos,
thus creating the
Masatoshi Koshiba Japan emerging field of
neutrino astronomy.

2001 No award

for key insights into

the broad range of
condensed matter
Bertrand I. Halperin United States
physics: Leggett on
superfluidity of the
light helium isotope
2002/03 and macroscopic
quantum phenomena;
and Halperin on two-
Anthony J. Leggett United Kingdom / United States dimensional melting,
disordered systems
and strongly
interacting electrons.
for pioneering work
Robert Brout that has led to the
Belgium insight of mass
generation whenever
2004 François Englert a local gauge
symmetry is realized
asymmetrically in the
Peter W. Higgs United Kingdom world of sub-atomic
particles.

for groundbreaking
work in atomic
physics of hydrogenic
systems, including
2005 Daniel Kleppner United States research on the
hydrogen maser,
Rydberg atoms and
Bose–Einstein
condensation.

2006/07 for their independent

discovery of the giant
Albert Fert France magnetoresistance
phenomenon (GMR),
thereby launching a
new field of research
and applications
 known as spintronics,
which utilizes the spin
of the electron to
Peter Grünberg Germany store and transport
information.

2008 No award
2009 No award

for their fundamental

conceptual and
John F. Clauser United States
experimental
contributions to the
foundations of
quantum physics,
Alain Aspect France specifically an
2010
increasingly
sophisticated series
of tests of Bell's
inequalities, or
Anton Zeilinger Austria extensions thereof,
using entangled
quantum states.

Maximilian Haider Austria for their development

of aberration-
corrected electron
microscopy, allowing
2011 Harald Rose the observation of
Germany individual atoms with
picometer precision,
thus revolutionizing
Knut Urban materials science.
for his work on black
2012 Jacob D. Bekenstein Israel
holes.[4]

for groundbreaking
Peter Zoller Austria theoretical
contributions to
2013 quantum information
processing, quantum
Ignacio Cirac Spain optics and the physics
of quantum gases.
2014 No award

2015 for predicting scaling

in deep inelastic
scattering, leading to
identification of
nucleon's pointlike
James D. Bjorken United States
constituents. He
made a crucial
contribution for
elucidating the nature
of the strong force.
Robert P. Kirshner United States for creating the group,
environment and
directions that
allowed his graduate
students and
postdoctoral fellows
to uncover the
acceleration in the
 expansion of the
universe.

for his work in

mesoscopic physics –
a branch of physics
that studies objects
2016 Yoseph Imry Israel that are smaller than
macroscopic (visible
to the naked eye)
objects but bigger
than atoms.

Michel Mayor for the discovery of an

extrasolar planet
2017 Switzerland
orbiting around a star
Didier Queloz similar to the sun.

for their collaborative

Charles H. Bennett United States
work in the rapidly
2018 expanding field of
quantum information
Gilles Brassard Canada
science.

2019 No award

Rafi Bistritzer Israel for pioneering

theoretical and
2020 Pablo Jarillo-Herrero Spain experimental work on
twisted bilayer
Allan H. MacDonald Canada graphene.[5]
for ground-breaking
discoveries in
2021 Giorgio Parisi Italy disordered systems,
particle physics and
statistical physics.[6]

Anne L'Huillier France / Sweden for pioneering

contributions to
2022 Paul Corkum Canada ultrafast laser science
and attosecond
Ferenc Krausz Hungary / Austria physics.[7]

2023 No award
for fundamental
contributions to high-
energy astrophysics,
2024 Martin Rees United Kingdom galaxies and structure
formation, and
cosmology.[8]

Laureates per country

Below is a chart of all laureates per country (updated to 2024 laureates). Some laureates are counted more
than once if they have multiple citizenships.
 Country Number of laureates

United States 31

United Kingdom 10
France 7

Israel 5

Austria 5

Italy 4

Germany 3

Canada 3

Switzerland 3

Japan 2

Hungary 2

Spain 2

Netherlands 2

Belgium 2

Republic of China 1

Russia 1

Sweden 1

See also
List of physics awards

References
1. "Wolf prize goes to particle theorists" (http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/18884)
Physicsworld.com January 20, 2004
2. Harris, Margaret (November 2010). "Gongs away". Physics World. 23 (11). Bristol: 46–47.
Bibcode:2010PhyW...23k..46H (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010PhyW...23k..46H).
doi:10.1088/2058-7058/23/11/46 (https://doi.org/10.1088%2F2058-7058%2F23%2F11%2F4
6).
3. Basolo, F: From Coello to Inorganic Chemistry: A Lifetime of Reactions, page 65, Springer,
2002
4. Institute for Advanced Study - Wolf Prize 2012 (http://www.ias.edu/2012WolfPrizes) Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20120122043735/http://www.ias.edu/2012WolfPrizes) 2012-
01-22 at the Wayback Machine
5. Laureates 2020 (https://wolffund.org.il/the-wolf-prize/#Laureates)
6. Laureate 2021 (https://wolffund.org.il/2021/02/09/giorgio-parisi/)
7. Laureates 2022 (https://wolffund.org.il/the-wolf-prize/#Laureates)
8. Laureates 2024 (https://wolffund.org.il/the-wolf-prize/#Laureates)
External links
List of Wolf Prize laureates (https://wolffund.org.il/home-page/), Wolf Foundation
"Placido Domingo Wins Israel Wolf Prize" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/placid
o-domingo-israel-wolf-prize_n_1196509.html). Huffington Post. 2012-01-10.
"Eight foreign standouts to receive Wolf Prize" (http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=
298237). Jerusalem Post. 2013-01-03.
Wolf Prizes 2015 (http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Health/Wolf-Prizes-in-the-sciences-and-
arts-presented-to-nine-North-Americans-389466)
Jerusalempost - Wolf Prizes 2016 (http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Weizmann-professor-a
mong-7-Wolf-Prize-laureates-441464)
Jerusalempost - Wolf Prizes 2017 (http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Wolf-Prize-to-b
e-awarded-to-eight-laureates-from-US-UK-and-Switzerland-477364)
Jerusalempost - Wolf Prizes 2018 (http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Paul-McCartne
y-among-9-Wolf-Prize-recipients-542404)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wolf_Prize_in_Physics&oldid=1232549643"