Nobel Prize · Curated list
Alexander Fleming, Robert Koch, Ivan Pavlov and 27 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.
Most written-about first. Each description summarises the laureate's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.
1
Scottish physician and microbiologist (1881–1955)
Sir Alexander Fleming, a Scottish microbiologist and physician. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1945 went jointly to him, Ernst Chain and Howard Florey "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases".
Wikidata · Photo: Official photographer, Public domain
2
German physician and bacteriologist (1843–1910)
Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch, a German microbiologist and physician. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1905 "for his investigations and discoveries in relation to tuberculosis".
Wikidata · Photo: Wilhelm Fechner, Public domain
3
Russian physiologist (1849–1936)
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, a Russian and Soviet physiologist and experimental neurologist, known for discovering classical conditioning in experiments with dogs. He also did important research on how digestion works, which won him the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
4
American biologist (1928–2025)
James Dewey Watson, an American zoologist, geneticist and molecular biologist. In 1953 he and Francis Crick wrote together an academic paper on DNA titled "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid".
Wikidata · Photo: Newspaper Enterprise Association, Public domain
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5
Italian neurologist (1909–2012)
An Italian neurobiologist. With her colleague Stanley Cohen she received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1986 for discovering nerve growth factor (NGF).
Wikidata · Photo: Kurt Hagblom , Firma Hagblom-Foto, restored by Adam Cuerden, Public domain
6
English physicist and biologist (1916–2004)
Francis Harry Compton Crick, an English neuroscientist, biophysicist and molecular biologist. He, Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin and James Watson were key to working out the helical structure of the DNA molecule.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0
7
Austrian zoologist (1903–1989)
Konrad Zacharias Lorenz, an Austrian ornithologist, ethologist and zoologist. With Karl von Frisch and Nikolaas Tinbergen he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1973.
Wikidata · Photo: Max Planck Gesellschaft ( Eurobas ), CC BY-SA 3.0
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8
American scientist and cytogeneticist (1902–1992)
An American cytogeneticist and scientist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1983. She earned her PhD in botany at Cornell University in 1927.
Wikidata · Photo: Smithsonian Institution /Science Service; Restored by Adam Cuerden, Public domain
9
British Indian medical doctor and Nobel laureate (1857–1932)
A physician from Britain whose Nobel Prize, in Physiology or Medicine for 1902, was given "for his work on malaria, by which he has shown how it enters the organism and thereby has laid the foundation for successful research on this disease and methods of combating it".
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
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10
Spanish neuroscientist (1852–1934)
A Spanish histologist, pathologist and neuroscientist who specialised in the central nervous system and neuroanatomy. He and Camillo Golgi shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1906.
Wikidata · Photo: Original photo is anonymous although published by Clark University in 1899. Restoration by Garrondo, Public domain
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11
Chinese pharmaceutical chemist (born 1930)
A Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and Nobel Prize winner. She discovered artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin, drugs for malaria; the discoveries were a breakthrough in the tropical medicine of the twentieth century, saving millions of lives in South America, Africa, Southeast Asia and South China.
Wikidata · Photo: Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden, CC BY 2.0
12
Russian immunologist (1845–1916)
Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, known in Western sources by the French form of his name, Élie Metchnikoff: a zoologist of the Russian Empire, of noble Moldavian descent, best known for research in thanatology and immunology. With Paul Ehrlich he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1908 "in recognition of their work on immunity".
13
Czech-American biochemist (1896–1957)
Gerty Theresa Cori, a Czech and American biochemist. In 1947 she won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first woman to receive it and only the third to win any science Nobel, for her part in the "discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen".
Wikidata · Photo: National Library of Medicine, Images from the History of Medicine, B05353, Public domain
14
German physiologist (1854–1917)
A physiologist from Germany, winner in 1901 of the very first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, given "for his work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths".
Wikidata · Photo: L. Lamarra, Neapel, Public domain
15
American medical physicist (1921–2011)
An American medical physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1977 for developing the radioimmunoassay technique. Only one woman had received that prize before her, and she was the first American-born woman to do so.
Wikidata · Photo: US Information Agency (see image credits at the end), Public domain
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16
American biochemist and pharmacologist (1918–1999)
Gertrude "Trudy" Belle Elion, an American pharmacologist and biochemist. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1988 went jointly to her, Sir James Black and George H. Hitchings for developing new drugs through innovative methods of rational drug design, an approach built on understanding what the drug targets instead of relying on trial and error.
Wikidata · Photo: GlaxoSmithKline plc, CC BY 4.0
17
Austrian immunologist (1868–1943)
An Austrian-American immunologist, physician and biologist. In 1923, aged 55, he moved with his family to New York for professional opportunities, and worked for the Rockefeller Institute.
Wikidata · Photo: Bachrach Studios, Public domain
18
German physician and scientist (1854–1915)
A German scientist and physician who worked in antimicrobial chemotherapy, immunology and hematology. With Élie Metchnikoff he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1908 "in recognition of their work on immunity".
Wikidata · Photo: Eduard Blum, CC BY 4.0
19
French surgeon and biologist (1873–1944)
A French biologist and surgeon, most of whose scientific career was spent in the United States. For pioneering techniques of suturing blood vessels, he received the 1912 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
20
French virologist and Nobel laureate (born 1947)
A French virologist, professor at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and director of its Regulation of Retroviral Infections Division. Born in Paris, she did some of the fundamental work that showed AIDS to be caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Wikidata · Photo: Prolineserver ( talk ), GFDL 1.2
21
Hungarian biochemist (1893–1986), Nobel Prize winner
Albert Imre Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt, a Hungarian biochemist and winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He is credited with isolating vitamin C for the first time, and with discovering the molecular basis of muscle contraction and many of the parts and reactions of the citric acid cycle.
Wikidata · Photo: J.W. McGuire, Public domain
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22
American biologist
Linda Brown Buck, an American biologist known above all for her work on the sense of smell, the olfactory system. With Richard Axel she received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2004, for their work on olfactory receptors.
Wikidata · Photo: Royal Society uploader, CC BY-SA 4.0
23
Australian-born American biological researcher
Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, an Australian–American Nobel laureate who once led the Salk Institute for Biological Studies as its president. In 1984 she and Carol W. Greider discovered telomerase, the enzyme that restores the telomere.
Wikidata · Photo: Conrad Erb, CC BY-SA 3.0
24
Italian biologist and pathologist (1843–1926)
An Italian pathologist and biologist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1906 for his work on the central nervous system. From 1860 to 1868 he was a medical student at the University of Pavia, taught by Cesare Lombroso.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
25
American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate
Carolyn Widney Greider, an American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate, who holds a Distinguished Professorship at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology.
Wikidata · Photo: Keith Weller, CC BY-SA 4.0
26
American biologist (1866–1945)
An American embryologist, geneticist and evolutionary biologist, awarded the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the part chromosomes play in heredity.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
27
Canadian medical scientist and doctor (1891–1941)
Sir Frederick Grant Banting, a Canadian field surgeon, orthopedist and pharmacologist. For co-discovering insulin and its therapeutic potential, he and John Macleod received a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Wikidata · Photo: Arthur Goss, Public domain
28
Indian-American molecular biologist (1922–2011)
An Indian-American biochemist. While teaching at the University of Wisconsin–Madison he shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for 1968 with Robert W. Holley and Marshall W. Nirenberg, for research revealing how nucleotides are ordered in the nucleic acids, which carry the cell's genetic code and govern how it makes proteins.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
29
Dutch physiologist (1860–1927)
A Dutch physiologist and medical doctor. In 1895 he invented the first practical electrocardiograph, and for it was awarded the 1924 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Every Wikidata item that has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 30 are shown.
Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-25. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.
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