List of Nobel laureates who worked on the Manhattan Project

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to a total of 965 individuals and 27 organizations as of 2023^[update].^[1] The following 26 Nobel laureates worked on the Manhattan Project:

Awarded Nobel Prize before working on the Manhattan Project

Year	Image	Laureate	Prize	Motivation	Manhattan Project	References
1922		Niels Bohr	Physics	"for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them"	Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][2]
1925		James Franck	Physics	“for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom”	Metallurgical Laboratory	[1][3]
1927		Arthur Compton	Physics	"for his discovery of the effect named after him"	Metallurgical Laboratory	[1][4]
1932		James Chadwick	Physics	"for the discovery of the neutron"	British contribution to the Manhattan Project	[1][5]
1934		Harold Urey	Chemistry	"for his discovery of heavy hydrogen"	SAM Laboratory	[1][6]
1938		Enrico Fermi	Physics	"for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons"	Metallurgical Laboratory, Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][4][7]
1939		Ernest Lawrence	Physics	"for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements"	Radiation Laboratory	[1][8]

Awarded Nobel Prize during the Manhattan Project

Year	Image	Laureate	Prize	Motivation	Manhattan Project	References
1944		Isidor Isaac Rabi	Physics	"for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei"	Consultant	[1][9]

Awarded Nobel Prize after working on the Manhattan Project

Year	Image	Laureate	Prize	Motivation	Manhattan Project	References
1951		John Cockcroft	Physics	"for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles"	Montreal Laboratory	[1][10]
1951		Edwin M. McMillan	Chemistry	"for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements"	Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][11]
1951		Glenn Theodore Seaborg	Chemistry	"for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements"	Metallurgical Laboratory	[1][12]
1952		Felix Bloch	Physics	"for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith"	Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][13]
1959		Emilio Segrè	Physics	"for their discovery of the antiproton"	Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][14]
1960		Willard F. Libby	Chemistry	"for his method to use carbon-14 for age determination in archaeology, geology, geophysics, and other branches of science"	SAM Laboratories	[1][15]
1963		Maria Goeppert Mayer	Physics	"for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure"	SAM Laboratories, Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][16]
1963		Eugene Wigner	Physics	"for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles"	Metallurgical Laboratory	[1][17]
1965		Richard P. Feynman	Physics	"for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles"	Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][18]
1967		Hans Bethe	Physics	"for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars"	Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][19]
1968		Luis Alvarez	Physics	"for his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis"	Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][20]
1975		Aage Bohr	Physics	"for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection"	Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][21]
1975		James Rainwater	Physics	"for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection"	Metallurgical Laboratory	[1][22]
1977		John van Vleck	Physics	"for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems"	Consultant	[1][23][24]
1980		Val Fitch	Physics	"for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons"	Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][25]
1989		Norman F. Ramsey	Physics	"for the invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks"	Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][26]
1995		Frederick Reines	Physics	"for the detection of the neutrino"	Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][27]
1995		Joseph Rotblat	Peace	"for efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international affairs and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms."	Los Alamos Laboratory	[1][28]

Notes

References

• Compton, Arthur (1956). Atomic Quest. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 173307.
• Hewlett, Richard G.; Anderson, Oscar E. (1962). The New World, 1939–1946 (PDF). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-520-07186-7. OCLC 637004643. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
• Hiltzik, Michael (2015). Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-7575-7. OCLC 900665460.
• Hoddeson, Lillian; Henriksen, Paul W.; Meade, Roger A.; Westfall, Catherine L. (1993). Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos During the Oppenheimer Years, 1943–1945. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-44132-3. OCLC 26764320.
• Howes, Ruth H.; Herzenberg, Caroline L. (1999). Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-0-585-38881-6. OCLC 49569088.
• Pais, Abraham (1991). Niels Bohr's Times, In Physics, Philosophy and Polity. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-852049-8.

This page was last edited on 1 March 2024, at 15:54