Nobel Laureates

Scroll the timeline below to see photos and brief descriptions of Caltech's Nobel laureates, with links to more information. A list of laureates organized by prize is below the timeline.

Chemistry

† Edwin M. McMillan (BS '28, MS '29), 1951
† Linus Pauling (PhD '25), 1954
† William N. Lipscomb (PhD '46), 1976
* Rudolph A. Marcus, 1992
† Ahmed H. Zewail, 1999
† Robert H. Grubbs, 2005
† Martin Karplus (PhD '54), 2013
Eric Betzig (BS '83), 2014
* Frances Arnold, 2018
Richard Robson (Postdoc '62-'64), 2025

Economics

Robert C. Merton (MS '67), 1997
Vernon L. Smith (BS '49), 2002

Physics

† Robert A. Millikan, 1923
† Carl D. Anderson (BS '27, PhD '30), 1936
† William Shockley (BS '32), 1956
† Donald A. Glaser (PhD '50), 1960
† Rudolf Mössbauer, 1961
† Charles H. Townes (PhD '39), 1964
† Richard Feynman, 1965
† Murray Gell-Mann, 1969
† Leo James Rainwater (BS '39), 1975
Robert W. Wilson (PhD '62), 1978
† Kenneth G. Wilson (PhD '61), 1982
† William A. Fowler (PhD '36), 1983
Douglas D. Osheroff (BS '67), 1996
* Hugh David Politzer, 2004
Arthur B. McDonald (PhD '70), 2015
* Barry C. Barish, 2017
* Kip S. Thorne (BS '62), 2017
Andrea Ghez (MS '89, PhD '93), 2020
John F. Clauser (BS '64), 2022
John Hopfield, 2024

Physiology/Medicine

† Thomas Hunt Morgan, 1933
† George W. Beadle, 1958
† Max Delbrück, 1969
† David Baltimore, 1975
† Renato Dulbecco, 1975
† Howard M. Temin (PhD '60), 1975
† Roger W. Sperry, 1981
Phillip A. Sharp (Postdoc '69-'71), 1993
† Edward B. Lewis (PhD '42), 1995
Leland H. Hartwell (BS '61), 2001
† Robert G. Edwards (Postdoc '57-'58), 2010
† Sir John B. Gurdon (Postdoc '60), 2012
Jeffrey C. Hall (Postdoc '72), 2017
Michael Rosbash (BS '65), 2017
Charles M. Rice (PhD '81), 2020
Ardem Patapoutian (PhD '96), 2021

Peace

† Linus Pauling (PhD '25), 1962

Related Links:
The Nobel Prize
Other Caltech Awards & Honors

This award list is inclusive of Caltech faculty, alumni, trustees, and current and former postdocs.

* in residence
† deceased