List of Asian Nobel laureates

The Nobel Prize is an annual, international prize first awarded in 1901 for achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. An associated prize in Economics has been awarded since 1969.^[1] Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 800 individuals.^[2]

Asians have been the recipients of all six award categories: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economics. The first Asian recipient, Rabindranath Tagore, was awarded the Literature Prize in 1913. In 1930, C. V. Raman became the first Asian recipient of a Nobel Prize in one of the sciences. The most Nobel Prizes awarded to Asians in a single year was in 2014, when five Asians became laureates. The most recent Asian laureates, South Korean writer Han Kang, Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, and Turkish-American economist Daron Acemoglu were awarded their prizes in 2024.

To date (2024), there have been Sixty-three Asian winners of the Nobel Prize, including thirty Japanese, twelve Israeli, nine Indian (not including non-Indian Laureates born in India) and eight Chinese (not including non-Chinese Laureates born in China). The list does not include Russians.

Physics

As of 2021, there are 21 Asians or Asian Americans who have won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Japanese comprise the majority, with 12 laureates.

Year	Image	Laureate	Country at the time of the award	Category	Comment
1930		Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman	British India	Physics	First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate in Science
1949		Hideki Yukawa	Japan	Physics	First Japanese Nobel laureate
1957		Chen Ning Yang	China	Physics	First Chinese Nobel laureate
1957		Tsung-Dao Lee	China	Physics	First Chinese Nobel laureate
1965		Shin'ichiro Tomonaga	Japan	Physics
1973		Leo Esaki	Japan	Physics
1976		Samuel C. C. Ting	United States	Physics	Dual-citizen of  United States and Republic of China
1979		Abdus Salam	Pakistan	Physics	First Pakistani Nobel laureate
1983		Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar	United States	Physics	Born in  India
1997		Steven Chu	United States	Physics	Born in United States
1998		Daniel C. Tsui	United States	Physics	Born in China
2002		Masatoshi Koshiba	Japan	Physics
2008		Yoichiro Nambu	United States	Physics	Born in  Japan
2008		Makoto Kobayashi	Japan	Physics
2008		Toshihide Maskawa	Japan	Physics
2009		Charles K. Kao	United Kingdom and  United States	Physics	First Hong Kong citizenship Nobel laureate
2014		Isamu Akasaki	Japan	Physics
2014		Hiroshi Amano	Japan	Physics
2014		Shuji Nakamura	United States	Physics	Born in  Japan
2015		Takaaki Kajita	Japan	Physics
2021		Syukuro Manabe	United States	Physics	Born in  Japan

Chemistry

As of 2024, there are 20 Asians or Asian Americans who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with the Japanese comprising the most with 8 laureates.

Year	Image	Laureate	Country at the time of the award	Category	Comment
1981		Kenichi Fukui	Japan	Chemistry	First Asian and Japanese Nobel laureate in Chemistry
1986		Yuan T. Lee	Taiwan and  United States	Chemistry	First Taiwanese Nobel laureate
1987		Charles J. Pedersen	United States	Chemistry	Japanese mother; born in Korea
2000		Hideki Shirakawa	Japan	Chemistry
2001		Ryōji Noyori	Japan	Chemistry
2002		Koichi Tanaka	Japan	Chemistry
2004		Aaron Ciechanover	Israel	Chemistry
2004		Avram Hershko	Israel	Chemistry
2008		Osamu Shimomura	Japan	Chemistry
2008		Roger Y. Tsien	United States	Chemistry	Born in United States
2009		Venki Ramakrishnan	United Kingdom and  United States	Chemistry	Born in India
2009		Ada Yonath	Israel	Chemistry
2010		Ei-ichi Negishi	Japan	Chemistry
2010		Akira Suzuki	Japan	Chemistry
2011		Dan Shechtman	Israel	Chemistry
2013		Arieh Warshel	Israel and  United States	Chemistry
2013		Michael Levitt	Israel,  United Kingdom and  United States	Chemistry
2015		Aziz Sancar	Turkey and  United States	Chemistry	First Turkish Nobel laureate in science
2019		Akira Yoshino	Japan	Chemistry
2024		Demis Hassabis	United Kingdom	Chemistry	Singaporean mother

Physiology or Medicine

As of 2018, there are 7 Asians who won Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with the Japanese comprising the most with 5 laureates.

Year	Image	Laureate	Country at the time of the award	Category	Comment
1968		Har Gobind Khorana	United States	Physiology or Medicine	First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. Born in India
1987		Susumu Tonegawa	Japan	Physiology or Medicine	First Japanese Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine
2012		Shinya Yamanaka	Japan	Physiology or Medicine	First Nobel Medicine Laureate to achieve rewarded results in Asia
2015		Satoshi Ōmura	Japan	Physiology or Medicine
2015		Tu Youyou	China	Physiology or Medicine	First Chinese woman Nobel laureate
2016		Yoshinori Ohsumi	Japan	Physiology or Medicine
2018		Tasuku Honjo	Japan	Physiology or Medicine

Literature

As of 2024, there are 9 Asians who won Nobel Prize in Literature, with the Japanese comprising the most with 3 laureates.

Year	Image	Laureate	Country at the time of the award	Category	Comment
1913		Rabindranath Tagore	British India	Literature	First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate
1968		Yasunari Kawabata	Japan	Literature
1994		Kenzaburō Ōe	Japan	Literature
2000		Gao Xingjian	France	Literature	Born in China
2001		V. S. Naipaul	United Kingdom	Literature	Indian origin. Born in Trinidad and Tobago.
2006		Orhan Pamuk	Turkey	Literature	First Turkish Nobel laureate
2012		Mo Yan	China	Literature
2017		Kazuo Ishiguro	United Kingdom	Literature	Born in Japan
2024		Han Kang	South Korea	Literature	First Asian female Nobel laureate in Literature

Peace

As of 2024, there are 23 Asians who won Nobel Peace Prize, with the Israeli and Indian comprising the most with 3 laureates.

Year	Image	Laureate	Country at the time of the award	Category	Comment
1973		Lê Đức Thọ (declined award)	North Vietnam	Peace	First Asian and Vietnamese Nobel laureate in Peace
1974		Eisaku Satō	Japan	Peace
1978		Menachem Begin	Israel	Peace
1979		Mother Teresa	India	Peace	First Asian woman Nobel laureate
1989		Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama	India,  China and  Tibet	Peace	First Tibetan Nobel laureate
1991		Aung San Suu Kyi	Burma	Peace	First Myanmar Nobel laureate
1994		Yasser Arafat	Palestine	Peace	First Palestinian Arab in Nobel laureate
1994		Shimon Peres	Israel	Peace
1994		Yitzhak Rabin	Israel	Peace
1996		Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo	Timor-Leste	Peace	First Timorese Nobel laureate
1996		José Ramos-Horta	Timor-Leste	Peace	First Timorese Nobel laureate
2000		Kim Dae-jung	South Korea	Peace	First Korean Nobel laureate
2003		Shirin Ebadi	Iran	Peace	First Iranian Nobel laureate
2006		Muhammad Yunus	Bangladesh	Peace	First Bangladeshi Nobel laureate in Peace
2006		Grameen Bank	Bangladesh	Peace	First Bangladeshi Nobel laureate in Peace and First Asian organization to receive the award
2010		Liu Xiaobo	China	Peace	First Asian Nobel laureate in prison
2011		Tawakkul Karman	Yemen	Peace	First Arab Woman and First Yemeni Nobel laureate
2014		Kailash Satyarthi	India	Peace
2014		Malala Yousafzai	Pakistan	Peace	First Pakistani Woman Nobel laureate and youngest Nobel laureate
2018		Nadia Murad	Iraq	Peace	First Iraqi Nobel laureate
2021		Maria Ressa	Philippines	Peace	First Filipino Nobel laureate
2023		Narges Mohammadi	Iran	Peace	Second Iranian Nobel laureate and awarded while in prison
2024		Nihon Hidankyo	Japan	Peace

Economics

As of 2024, five Asians have won the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Year	Image	Laureate	Country at the time of the award	Category	Comment
1998		Amartya Sen	India	Economics	First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate in Economics.
2002		Daniel Kahneman	Israel and  United States	Economics
2005		Robert Aumann	Israel and  United States	Economics
2019		Abhijit Banerjee	United States	Economics	Born in India[3]
2024		Daron Acemoglu	Turkey and  United States	Economics

Non-Asian born Laureates of Asian descent

Main article: List of Chinese Nobel laureates § Laureates of Han Chinese linkage

Non-Asian Laureates born in Asia

Main article: List of Chinese Nobel laureates § Non-Chinese Laureates born in China

Main article: List of Japanese Nobel laureates § Laureates with Japanese linkage

Main article: List of Indian Nobel laureates § Others

See also

• List of Filipino Nobel laureates and nominees
• List of Nobel laureates by South Asian country