Talk:List of Nobel laureates in Physics

By Country
Why does Chandra Raman have his nation listed as “India” when India did not yet exist in 1930 when he won his prize? That should be “British Raj” instead. And why are the German winners from between 1920-1933 listed as “Weimar republic” when the nation at that time was still called “the German empire” (even though it was a republic)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.240.115.3 (talk) 20:32, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

Why are there no winners of this prize from Africa? LOL —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.140.121.99 (talk) 16:44, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

The note says that the "by country" information comes from nobelprize.org but I can't find the information there. I was surprised to see that Otto Stern is given as United States when he did the relevant research as a German in Germany. Ledmatt (talk) 16:32, 27 January 2014 (UTC)


 * which poses the question of the German flag. In 1943 it should have been the Svastika, as for the 1943 Chemistry prize. Pkoppenb (talk) 14:51, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

Very distasteful to put the nazi flag next to Otto Stern, who was Jewish. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.199.149.230 (talk) 15:56, 12 September 2020 (UTC)

Why are some countries given their historical names and some are not? For example "Kingdom of Italy" and "German Empire" are given, but then the younger Bragg is shown as Australia and UK. There was no sovereign Australia in those days. Both UK and Australia should be shown under "British Empire" to be consistent. Australians had the same passport as those who lived in the UK, and any Brit from the UK could go and live in Australia without any further formalities (and vice-versa).

Marchino61 (talk) 02:04, 18 March 2023 (UTC)

I'd also like to add that it is simply not true that the country names are taken from nobelprize.org in all cases. The Wikipedia page gives "Weimar Republic" for Einstein, for example. There never was a country by that name, and it is not the name used on the Nobel Prize website (which only gives place born, place died, and "affiliation at the time of work"). So which is it meant to be? Birth, death or affiliation?

Marchino61 (talk) 02:18, 18 March 2023 (UTC)


 * Nobelprize.org only lists countries in the archived version. They probably decided to drop it due to ambiguities. For both Braggs it says UK, and for Einstein Germany and Switzerland. Jähmefyysikko (talk) 05:30, 18 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Then perhaps Wikipedia should drop it too? If it is no longer being updated then we can't use it for new laureates. Just delete the whole column?
 * Marchino61 (talk) 09:33, 18 March 2023 (UTC)
 * I think the country is of some interest, even if it does not do full justice to everyone or every country. The country column could be defined as the nationality of the person at the time when the prize was given. This would mean e.g. that Stern is regarded as only American, since his German citizenship had been already revoked. Of course, in the early 20th century nationality was not as strictly regulated as it is nowadays, but as far I can see, the only ambiguous case here is Einstein, who the German officials made retrospectively German when the prize was awarded. But even this is of some interest, so it can be addressed by a footnote. Of course, the problem with the name of the country and the choice of the flag remains. Perhaps remove the flags and change Weimar to Germany?
 * But I do not object if others also feel that the column should be removed. Jähmefyysikko (talk) 10:57, 18 March 2023 (UTC)

Images
All these images are looks horrible, in my opinion, and I'm close to deleting them, but somehow someone invested a whole lot of work to add them, so I'm checking public opinion here. If anyone is interesed in what the scientist might look like thay could as well click their name? Or should we add other data like birthdates or university to this table as well? I say keep it simple, and this table was way easier to read before these images were added. Axelv (talk) 19:35, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
 * What is so bad about the images? -- Scorpion0422 20:02, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't mind seeing the images. I'm more likely to recognise someone from their image than I am their name. How do they make the table harder to read? Clicking on their name is all well and good except that those people reading this article from a piece of paper can't do that (and I'm sure there'll be a lot of schools printing out pages of this article for the kids). An image isn't the same as unnecessary information such as birthdays or universities. In what way do you find the table harder to read? Matthewedwards (talk • contribs • email) 23:09, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * The images are fantastic and only add to the quality of the article. Leave them be. AndrooMerrill (talk) 23:38, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Some of these images have been lifted from the Nobel website and are actually copyright Nobel Foundation, not public domain: http://nobelprize.org/nobelweb/terms_use.html

I came to this page because I have just tagged John Bardeen's image for speedy deletion on Wikimedia Commons. Now, coming here, I can see there are other copyright Nobel images pulled straight off the Nobel website (or off other websites that pulled them off Nobel), e.g. Nevill Mott, Leon Cooper, Sin-Itiro Tomonaga. The newer ones look to be from different sources so may be OK. It's the posed black and white ones that are dubious. 82.71.0.229 (talk) 09:14, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Okay, more on the above. I have now checked and marked for "speedy deletion" at Wikimedia Commons: John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, William Shockley, Nevill Mott, Leon Cooper, and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga. I believe these are all copyright images "stolen" from the Nobel Foundation website. These, at least, will need replacements on this page. Not sure if there are any more. 82.71.0.229 (talk) 14:29, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

I added some images from Commons. If there is a question about the licence then it should be delt with over there. BaomoVW (talk) 18:02, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The problem is that this is a Featured List, and thus by adding unsourced images the article which are not necessary for the article makes it worse. Please read the FLC page. --Odie5533 (talk) 19:27, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Nicolaas Bloembergen
The original writer of this article only wrote under "country" USA. From an objective point of view this is incorrect, he is both Dutch and American and both countries contributed equally as much to his nobel prize. He had his complete education in the Netherlands at an gymnasium (high school with all subjects on AP-level) and the University of Utrecht. Only after that, at the age of 25, he emigrated to the USA where he did research for Harvard University. Three years later he got his PhD from the University of Leiden. He has both nationalities, the Dutch and the American nationality. Because of these two reasons I have changed "United States" in "Netherlands/USA". 193.190.253.147 (talk) 14:38, 30 May 2009 (UTC)
 * We're going by what is listed at the Nobel website. -- Scorpion 0422  15:17, 30 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Then it should at least be noted that he is both Dutch and American and that he has had his entire education in the Netherlands. With an asterix by "country" we can point that out to the reader. The only acomplishment of the USA with regard to this specific nobel-award is that they gave him the means for his research, the Netherlands educated him and nurtured his talent. It would be different when he would have left the Netherlands at the age of 11. I dare to state that the Nobel website has made a serious mistake but I guess that that is how it goes when one country has 18-19 times as many inhabitants than the other. In Dutch we have the proverb "Ere wie ere toekomt.". Loosely translated it means honor to whom it deserves. 193.190.253.147 (talk) 22:11, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
 * And that's why there is already a note that says "The information in the country column is according to nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Foundation. This information may not necessarily reflect the recipient's birthplace or citizenship." -- Scorpion 0422  01:15, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
 * It's better than nothing but I would prefer it if that note would also be put by each winners 'country' whenever it's ambiguous. In that way people can see directly that for a specific winner the country is ambiguous. 193.190.253.147 (talk) 21:15, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Given the fact that noone objects I'll assume that it's okay when I implement this change of putting a B next to each counry when a laureate's country is ambiguous. 193.190.253.147 (talk) 01:49, 7 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I dislike that idea, as it would make the page a huge mess. There are quite a few cases of the Nobel Foundation listing a laureate from a country that might not necessarily be their home nation. If you are going to add a note for one, you would have to add them for all. -- Scorpion 0422  01:51, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

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Incomplete
Two tags added: "This article relies on references to primary sources" and "This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source." We trust the Nobel Prize will provide accurate information who won for Verification purposes. However, missing is what the rest of the world thinks about who won, a significant but missing aspect. This is featured content so it's a question of completeness; links to notable book/newspaper/magazine/opinion articles that discuss about the award. Ideally there would be a 5th column called "Ref(s)" with at least one secondary ref per year (Britannica is a Tertiary source) though it may be difficult for some of the earlier years. -- Green Cardamom (talk) 08:39, 6 June 2013 (UTC)
 * The references are there to prove the bare facts, i.e. who won the prize and for what reason. They are not there to provide some kind of commentary.  That's not the purpose of a reference which is being used to reference a winner of an award.  Other methods should be applied for critical discussion.  I'll remove these pointy tags until a real rationale is provided, and until a real understanding of WP:PRIMARY is demonstrated by the above editor.  The Rambling Man (talk) 18:13, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Could be sortable
Is there any reason the wikitable is not sortable? Finnusertop (talk &#124; guestbook &#124; contribs) 19:02, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

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Photos
There are at least seven laureates that have photos in their respective articles, which could be included in the table. I'm not familiar with wiki table editing, so I'll leve it to other editors. --Janke | Talk 11:09, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

Sheldon Cooper
I removed Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler from the list. These are fictional characters from the Big Bang Theory. Paige Matheson (talk) 01:42, 18 May 2019 (UTC)

Commented out the section about fictional characters getting Nobel Prizes
I commented out the section about fictional characters getting Nobel Prizes (it was listing fictional characters from the TV series The Big Bang Theory...). As a (non-fictional) scientist, I consider this not relevant to the article, and highly inappropriate. If ones want this "information" documented on the encyclopedia, just create another page.

West Germany
There was never such a state, it was always the Federal Republic of Germany or Germany. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arndt1969 (talk • contribs) 16:48, 7 October 2020 (UTC)


 * To quote the first sentence of the article West Germany, West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany, retrospectively designated the Bonn Republic, in the period between its formation on 23 May 1949 and German reunification on 3 October 1990. Dirac66 (talk) 19:05, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

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Max von Laue's Nobel was delayed
The list of "delayed" Nobel prizes in physics is incomplete. Max von Laue's 1914 prize was awarded in 1915. From https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1914/press-release/ "* The Nobel Prize in Physics 1914 was announced on November 11, 1915." --Jähmefyysikko (talk) 19:07, 12 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Yes, you are correct so I have fixed this now. This was apparently missed because the 1914 award date of November 1915 is only mentioned at the bottom of the cited document. The delays in later years are mentioned at the top of the press releases. Thank you for noticing the omission. Dirac66 (talk) 02:56, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

The country section
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-prizes-in-physics/ has information on institutional affiliation at the time of the prize and place of birth and death. I think we should take the country directly from the institutional affiliation at the time of the prize. There never was an official "Weimar Republic," just the "German Reich." As to the flag, I suggest we drop it everywhere; what purpose does it serve? 99.13.228.225 (talk) 00:47, 15 May 2022 (UTC)

Disruptive changes by 62.121.132.130
- «Undid revision 1165336261 by 62.121.132.130 talk) Please! This item refers to Max Planck ... »
 * Thank you for your revert. I think we are dealing with WP:BKFIP who is restoring WP:EASTEREGG link, which is wrong. Please, refer to this ANI page request: Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents. Thanks.

AXO NOV (talk) ⚑ 16:23, 15 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Please, refer to this discussion over here: Talk:Max_Planck; Despite the latest revert, I suggest we put the link to Planck constant back per argumentation given in the linked discussion.
 * AXO NOV (talk) ⚑ 19:39, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

By country
The artilce does not mention the place of birth, nor the country of the alumnus of the parent university, but the country where the scientist was working at the time of the award. This is not fair.

I can see the reason why this could be a huge loss of prestige for the UK, Germany and the US, because a lot of migrant scientists have won Nobel Prizes in these countries, who neither went to university in those countries, nor were born, raised and educated in those countries.--Pharaph (talk) 15:50, 13 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Which Nobelist do you refer to? Some of them at least are categorized by their nationality. Abdus Salam has "Pakistan" next to him, even though his affiliations were ICTP and Imperial College at the time. Jähmefyysikko (talk) 18:56, 13 October 2023 (UTC)Th


 * At the top of the list of laureates, the column Country has a footnote [B] which reads "The information in the country column is according to nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Foundation. This information may not necessarily reflect the recipient's birthplace or citizenship, and instead reflect their academic or scientific affiliation at the time of receiving the award." Dirac66 (talk) 20:43, 13 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Nobelprize.org doesn't actually publish such information anymore. There's only the birthplace and affiliation. For older Nobelists, the archived version of the site is used, but for never ones we seem to use nationality. Jähmefyysikko (talk) 02:27, 14 October 2023 (UTC)