Nobel Prize Winners

Washington University in St. Louis has been affiliated with 26 Nobel Laureates, many of whom did a significant portion of their award-winning work at the university.


Physics

  • 1927: Arthur H. Compton, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1920-23 and 1945-62, Chancellor 1945-53

Chemistry

  • 1970: Luis F. Leloir, Faculty of Medicine 1944
  • 1980: Paul Berg, Faculty of Medicine 1954-59
  • 2004: Aaron Ciechanover, MD, DSc, Visiting Professor of Pediatrics 1987-
  • 2012: Brian K. Kobilka, MD, Medical Resident 1981-84
  • 2014: W.E. Moerner, PhD, Alexander S. Langsdorf Engineering Fellow and AB 1975

Economic Science

  • 1993: *Douglass C. North, Faculty of Arts & Sciences 1983-2012

Physiology or Medicine

  • 1943: Edward A. Doisy, Faculty of Medicine 1919-23
  • 1944: *Joseph Erlanger, Chairman, Department of Physiology 1910-46
  • 1944: *Herbert Gasser, Faculty of Medicine 1916-31
  • 1947: *Carl F. Cori, Faculty of Medicine 1931-84
  • 1947: *Gerty T. Cori, Faculty of Medicine 1931-57
  • 1959: *Arthur Kornberg, Chairman, Department of Microbiology 1952-59
  • 1959: Severo Ochoa, Faculty of Medicine 1940-42
  • 1969: Alfred Hershey, Faculty of Medicine 1934-50
  • 1971: Earl Sutherland, MD 1942, Resident in Internal Medicine 1943-45, Faculty of Medicine, 1945-53
  • 1974: Christian de Duve, Faculty of Medicine 1946-47
  • 1978: Daniel Nathans, MD 1954
  • 1978: Hamilton O. Smith, Washington University Medical Service 1956-57
  • 1980: George D. Snell, Faculty of Arts & Sciences 1933-34
  • 1986: *Stanley Cohen, Faculty of Arts & Sciences 1953-59
  • 1986: *Rita Levi-Montalcini, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, 1948-2012
  • 1992: Edwin G. Krebs, MD 1943, Resident in Internal Medicine and then a Research Fellow in Biological Chemistry 1945-48
  • 1998: Robert F. Furchgott, PhD, Faculty of Medicine, 1949-56
  • 2020: *Charles M. Rice, PhD, Faculty of Medicine, 1986-2001

Another Nobel Prize winner connected with Washington University is T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot, winner of the prize for Literature in 1948. A native of St. Louis and grandson of the co-founder of Washington University, Eliot earned a diploma in 1905 from Smith Academy, the boys college preparatory division of Washington University. Eliot earned a bachelors degree from Harvard University in 1909 and a masters degree from Harvard in 1910.

More information on the Nobel Prize and past winners can be found at the website of the Nobel Foundation.

*Did significant portion of award-winning work at Washington University