List of Chinese Nobel laureates

The Nobel Prize

Since 1957, there have been eight Chinese (including Chinese born) winners of the Nobel Prize (Swedish: Nobelpriset). The Nobel Prize is a Sweden-based international monetary prize. The award was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901. An associated prize, The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was instituted by Sweden's central bank in 1968 and first awarded in 1969.

This is a list of Nobel laureates who are either of Chinese descent or were born in China.[1]

Laureates

Chinese citizens

The following are the Nobel laureates who were Chinese citizens at the time they were awarded the Nobel Prize.[2]

Year Laureate Category Life Rationale Place of Birth
1957 Chen-Ning Yang Physics 1922– "for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles" – shared with Tsung-Dao Lee.[3] Hofei, Anhwei, China†
Tsung-Dao Lee Physics 1926– "for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles" – shared with Chen-Ning Yang.[3] Shanghai, China
2010 Liu Xiaobo Peace 1955– "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China".[4] Changchun, Jilin, China
2012 Mo Yan Literature 1955– "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary".[5] Gaomi, Shandong, China
2015 Tu Youyou Physiology or Medicine 1930– "for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria".[6] Ningbo, Zhejiang, China
Laureates of Chinese birth and origin who were erstwhile Chinese citizens

The following are Nobel laureates of Chinese birth and origin but subsequently acquired foreign citizenship; however, they are still often included in lists of Chinese Nobel laureates.

Year Laureate Category Life Rationale Place of Birth
1998 Daniel C. Tsui Physics 1939– "for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations" – shared with Robert B. Laughlin and Horst L. Störmer.[7] Pingdingshan, Henan, China
2000 Gao Xingjian Literature 1940– "for an æuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama".[8] Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China
2009 Charles K. Kao Physics 1933– "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication" – shared with Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith.[9] Shanghai, China

Laureates of Han Chinese linkage

The Nobel Prize committee does not specify the ethnicity of laureates. This section lists laureates who are of Han Chinese ethnicity. A separate section below lists the one laureate who is known to be of a non-Han Chinese ethnicity.

Laureates of Taiwanese birth

The following is Nobel laureate of Taiwanese birth, with Taiwanese and American citizen.[10]

Year Laureate Category Life Rationale Place of Birth
1986 Yuan T. Lee Chemistry 1936– "for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processesa"– shared with Dudley R. Herschbach and John C. Polanyi.[11] Shinchiku City, Taiwan
Laureates of American birth with American citizen

The following are Nobel laureates those of Han Chinese descent American citizen, born in the U.S.[12]

Year Laureate Category Life Rationale Place of Birth
1976 Samuel C. C. Ting Physics 1936– "for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind" – shared with Burton Richter.[13] Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
1997 Steven Chu Physics 1948– "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light" – shared with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips.[14] St. Louis, Missouri, United States
2008 Roger Y. Tsien Chemistry 1952– "for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP" – shared with Osamu Shimomura and Martin Chalfie.[15] New York City, New York, United States

Non-Han minority ethnic group Laureates born in China

The following laureate was born in the Republic of China and is Tibetan, a non-Han ethnicity that predominantly resides within Tibet.

Year Laureate Field Year of Birth Place of Birth Residence at the time of the award[16]
1989[17]14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso)Peace1935Taktser, Qinghai, China. †† India†† (see note below)

Non-Chinese Laureates born in China

The laureates below were born in China but are not Han Chinese nor a member of a recognized minority nationality of China.

YearNameFieldYear of birthPlace of birthAffiliation at the time of the award[16]
1956Walter Houser BrattainPhysics 1902Amoy, China†††[18]Semiconductor Laboratory of Beckman Instruments, Inc.,  United States
1992Edmond H. FischerMedicine/Physiology 1920Shanghai, China[19]University of Washington,  United States
2010Ei-ichi NegishiChemistry1935Changchun, Jilin, China††††[20]Purdue University,  United States

Notes

† Now spelled "Hefei, Anhui" using Hanyu Pinyin transliteration.

†† Taktser is a village located in Qinghai (spelled Tsinghai at the time), which was under the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China. Although Tibet itself was not directly controlled by the Republic of China government, Tsinghai (Qinghai) province was under the authority of the government of the Republic of China.[21] The Nobel Prize website indicates residence at the time of the award was Tibet.[22] At the time of the award, the 14th Dalai Lama was holding a special travel document issued by the Government of India for Tibetan refugees. Before he left Tibet, he was a national of the People's Republic of China. He has never claimed to renounce this nationality, and the Government of the People's Republic of China has never announced his loss of nationality.

††† Amoy, now known as Xiamen, is a city in Fujian Province.

†††† Changchun was named Hsinking in 1935 under the Japanese-controlled state Manchukuo. At the time, most countries did not recognise the separation of Manchuria, which includes Jilin, from the Republic of China.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Chronological list of All Nobel Laureates on the official website of the Nobel Prize committee.
  2. ↑ Country: China. Physics 1957 (by Internet Archive)
  3. 1 2 "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1957". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  4. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Peace 2010". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  5. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2012". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  6. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  7. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1998". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  8. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2000". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  9. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2009". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  10. ↑ Country: USA. Chemistry 1986 (by Internet Archive)
  11. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1986". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  12. ↑ Country: USA. Physics 1976 (by Internet Archive)
  13. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1976". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  14. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1997". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  15. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  16. 1 2 The Nobel website lists the country of Residence at the time of the award for both the Literature and Peace (if goes to a person) prizes; see "Facts" information of the individuals at and . While the prizes for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economic Sciences are listed by Affiliation at the time of the award; see "Facts" information of the individuals at , , , and . The official Nobel website only lists the country of the person's affiliated insititions for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economic Sciences prizes, and not the citizenship of the person itself.
  17. ↑ The Nobel Peace Prize 1989 indicates Dalai Lama was born in Tibet in 1935.
  18. ↑ Walter H. Brattain (The Nobel Prize in Physics 1956) Biography indicates Brattain was born in Amoy, China in 1902,.
  19. ↑ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1992 indicates Fischer was born in Shanghai, China in 1920.
  20. ↑ Ei-ichi Negishi (The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010) Biography shows Negishi was born in Changchun, China in 1935,.
  21. ↑ The Tsinghai Province was established as early as 1928, and Taktser since then has been a city within its region; see also the 1930 national map of the Republic of China (ROC), and the 1936 political regional map of the ROC in Wikimedia Commons.
  22. ↑ http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1989/lama.html
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