Nobel Prizes 2026: The Complete List of Winners So Far
From optogenetics and the IceCube neutrino telescope to Navi Pillay and Anne Carson: who won each prize this year, and when the economics prize is announced.
The 2026 Nobel season is almost over. Five of the six prizes have been announced since October 5, and the last, the prize in economic sciences, is due on Monday, October 12. Here is every laureate so far.
Physiology or Medicine (announced October 5)
- Karl Deisseroth (Stanford University), Peter Hegemann (Humboldt University, Berlin) and Georg Nagel (University of Würzburg)
- For: discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, a technique that lets scientists switch specific brain cells on and off with light.
Physics (announced October 6)
- Francis Halzen, the sole laureate
- For: decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from outside our galaxy.
Chemistry (announced October 7)
- Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai
- For: discovering non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric synthesis, which explain how the "handedness" of molecules can be steered and amplified.
Read our explainer on all three: Light switches for the brain, ghost particles and mirror-image molecules.
Literature (announced October 8)
- Anne Carson, Canadian poet, essayist and translator
- For: writing that has created new forms for contemporary literature through a playful engagement with the classical tradition.
Read more: Who Anne Carson is and where to start reading.
Peace (announced October 9)
- Navi Pillay, the South African jurist and former UN human rights chief, of Indian Tamil heritage
- Read our profile: Navi Pillay, the Durban lawyer who took on apartheid.
Economic Sciences (due October 12)
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on October 12, at 11:45 CEST (3:15 pm IST) at the earliest. We will add the laureates here once they are announced.
When the prizes are presented
All the laureates except the peace laureate receive their prizes in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. The Peace Prize is presented in Oslo on the same day.
Sources
This article draws on the following reporting. Dates are when each source was originally published.
- The Nobel Prize: Nobel Prize announcements 2026
- The Nobel Prize: Nobel Prize in Literature 2026
- NPR / The Associated Press (via WUNC): Nobel medicine prize goes to 3 scientists for research into brain activity ·
- ThePrint / Reuters: Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to scientists Henri Kagan, Kenso Soai ·
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