Yuan T. Lee

Taiwanese chemist and Nobel Laureate

Yuan Tseh Lee

李遠哲

Official portrait, 2016

Advisor of the National Climate Change Committee

Incumbent

Assumed office
7 July 2024

Serving with Eugene Chien

President| Lai Ching-te
Senior Advisor to the President
In office
9 November 2016 – 19 May 2020
President| Tsai Ing-wen
In office
20 May 2000 – 20 May 2001
President| Chen Shui-bian
7th President of the Academia Sinica
In office
18 January 1994 – 18 October 2006
President| Lee Teng-hui
Chen Shui-bian
Preceded by| Wu Ta-You
Succeeded by| Chi-Huey Wong
Personal details
Born|  (1936-11-19) 19 November 1936 (age 88)
Shinchiku City, Shinchiku Prefecture, Japanese Taiwan
Citizenship| Empire of Japan (1936–1945)
Republic of China (1945–present)
United States (1974–1994)
Political party| Independent
Education| National Taiwan University (BS)
National Tsing Hua University (MS)
University of California, Berkeley (PhD)
Awards| Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1986)
National Medal of Science (1986)
Peter Debye Award (1986)
Faraday Lectureship Prize (1992)
Othmer Gold Medal (2008)
Scientific career
Fields| Physical chemistry
Institutions| University of California, Berkeley
University of Chicago
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Academia Sinica (Taiwan)
Thesis| Photoionization of alkali-metal vapors (1965)
Doctoral advisor| Bruce H. Mahan
Doctoral students| Laurie Butler

Yuan Tseh Lee (Chinese: 李遠哲; pinyin: Lǐ Yuǎnzhé; Wade–Giles: Li³ Yüan³-che²; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lí Oán-tiat; born 19 November 1936) is a Taiwanese chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986 for his contributions to the development of reaction dynamics.

Lee is a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and honorary director of the Nagoya University Institute for Advanced Study along with Ryoji Noyori.[1][2][3][4] He was awarded the Nobel with John C. Polanyi and Dudley R. Herschbach for "contributions to the dynamics of chemical elementary processes".[3][5] He was the first Taiwanese person be awarded the Nobel Prize. His research in physical chemistry concerned the use of advanced chemical kinetics techniques to investigate and manipulate the behavior of chemical reactions using crossed molecular beams.[3][5] From 1994 to 2006, Lee served as the President of the Academia Sinica.[4] In 2011, he was elected head of the International Council for Science.[4]

## Early life and education

[edit]

Yuan Tseh Lee, Othmer Gold Medal recipient, 2008

Lee was born to a Hoklo Taiwanese family in Shinchiku City (modern-day Hsinchu city) in northern Taiwan, which was then under Japanese rule, to Lee Tze-fan, an artist, and Ts'ai P'ei (蔡配; Cài Péi), an elementary school teacher from Goseikō Town (梧棲港街), Taichū Prefecture (Wuqi, Taichung).[1][3][4] Lee is a Hokkien with ancestry from Nan'an City, China.[6] Lee played on the baseball and ping-pong teams of Hsinchu Elementary School, and later studied at the Hsinchu Senior High School, where he played tennis, trombone, and the flute.

He was exempted from the entrance examination and directly admitted to National Taiwan University. He earned a B.S. in 1959.[1][3] He earned his M.S. from National Tsing Hua University in 1961 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1965 under the supervision of Bruce H. Mahan.[1][3] He was a member of the Chemistry International Board from 1977 to 1984.[4]

## Scientific career

[edit]

### Chemistry

[edit]

In February 1967, he started working with Dudley Herschbach at Harvard University on reactions between hydrogen atoms and diatomic alkali molecules and the construction of a universal crossed molecular beams apparatus. After the postdoctoral year with Herschbach he joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1968. In 1974, he returned to Berkeley as professor of chemistry and principal investigator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, becoming a U.S. citizen the same year. Lee is a University Professor Emeritus of the University of California system.[7]

### Nobel prize

[edit]

One of the major goals of chemistry is the study of material transformations where chemical kinetics plays an important role. Scientists during the 19th century stated macroscopic chemical processes consist of many elementary chemical reactions that are themselves simply a series of encounters between atomic or molecular species. In order to understand the time dependence of chemical reactions, chemical kineticists have traditionally focused on sorting out all of the elementary chemical reactions involved in a macroscopic chemical process and determining their respective rates.

Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius studied this phenomenon during the late 1880s, and stated the relations between reactive molecular encounters and rates of reactions (formulated in terms of activation energies).

Other scientists at the time also stated a chemical reaction is fundamentally a mechanical event, involving the rearrangement of atoms and molecules during a collision. Although these initial theoretical studies were only qualitative, they heralded a new era in the field of chemical kinetics; allowing the prediction of the dynamical course of a chemical reaction.

In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, with the development of many sophisticated experimental techniques, it became possible to study the dynamics of elementary chemical reactions in the laboratory. Such as the analysis of the threshold operating conditions of a chemical laser or the spectra obtained using various linear or non-linear laser spectroscopic techniques.

Professor Lee's research focused on the possibility to control the energies of the reagents, and to understand the dependence of chemical reactivity on molecular orientation, among other studies related to the nature of reaction intermediates, decay dynamics, and identifying complex reaction mechanisms. To do so, Professor Lee used a breakthrough laboratory technique at the time, called the "crossed molecular beams technique", where the information derived from the measurements of angular and velocity distributions allowed him and his team to understand the dynamics of elementary chemical reactions.[8]

In 2021, Lee donated his Nobel Prize medal to the National Museum of Taiwan History for exhibition.[9]

## Later career

[edit]

During his tenure, Lee has worked to create new research institutes, advance scientific research within Taiwan, and to recruit and cultivate top scholars for the Academia Sinica.

In 2010, Lee said that global warming would be much more serious than scientists previously thought, and that Taiwanese people needed to cut their per-capita carbon emissions from the current 12 tons per year to just three. This would take more than a few slogans, turning off the lights for one hour, or cutting meat consumption, noting: "We will have to learn to live the simple lives of our ancestors." Without such efforts, he said, "Taiwanese will be unable to survive long into the future".[10]

Lee was appointed the president of Academia Sinica in 1994 and renounced his U.S. citizenship to take the post.[11] As president of Academia Sinica he presided over the creation of the Taiwanese history textbook Knowing Taiwan.[12]

At the request of president Chen Shui-bian, Lee was Taiwan's representative in the 2002 APEC leaders' summit in Mexico. (Presidents of the Republic of China have been barred from joining the APEC summits because of objections from the People's Republic of China.) Lee represented Chen again in the 2003 and 2004 APEC summits in Thailand and Chile, respectively.[13]

In July 2024, Lee accepted president Lai Ching-te's invitation to serve as a consultant on the newly formed National Climate Change Strategy Committee.[14]

Lee was then elected President of the International Council for Science in 2008 and started his term in 2011.[15] He has been involved with the Malta Conferences, an initiative designed to bring together Middle Eastern scientists. As part of the initiative, he offered six fellowships to work on the synchrotron in Taiwan.[16] He is also a member of International Advisory Council in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman.[17]

## Personal life

[edit]

Lee (upper far left) represented Taiwan at the 2004 APEC leaders' summit.

Lee's father was a painter in Taiwan, and his mother was an elementary school teacher. His elder brother Yuan-Chuan Lee has been a professor at Johns Hopkins University for 40 years and was awarded the honor Special Chair Lectureship in Academia Sinica in Taiwan. His younger brother Yuan-Pern Lee was also awarded this honor. Lee's sister Chi-Mei Lee has served as a professor at National Chung Hsing University.[18]

In 2003, he was one of 22 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto.[19]

### Politics

[edit]

During the 2000 Taiwanese presidential election, Lee supported the pan-green coalition which advocates Taiwan independence. In the last week of the election he announced his support for the candidacy of Chen Shui-bian who subsequently defeated James Soong in the election. Chen intended to nominate Lee to become premier.

In January 2004, he and industrial tycoon Wang Yung-ching and theatre director Lin Hwai-min issued a joint statement to both Chen Shui-bian and Lien Chan. He backed Chen again in the 2004 elections, issuing a statement of support for the DPP on 17 March, three days before polls opened.

During the 2012 presidential election, Lee expressed his support for DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen. In early 2016, he appeared and addressed a rally by New Power Party, a party formed by student activists involved in the Sunflower Movement.[20]

### Climate change

[edit]

Yuan Lee has signed the 2015 Mainau Declaration expressing concern about anthropogenic climate change.

### Wu Chien-Shiung Foundation

[edit]

Lee was one of the four Nobelists who established the Wu Chien-Shiung Foundation.

## Recognition

[edit]

In addition to the Nobel Prize, his awards and distinctions include Sloan Fellow (1969); Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1975); Fellow Am. Phys. Soc. (1976); Guggenheim Fellow (1977); Member National Academy of Sciences (1979); Member International Academy of Science, Munich, Member Academia Sinica (1980); E.O. Lawrence Award (1981); Miller Professor, Berkeley (1981); Fairchild Distinguished Scholar (1983); Harrison Howe Award (1983); Peter Debye Award (1986); National Medal of Science (1986); Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (1987) and Faraday Lectureship Prize (1992).[21] Yuan Tseh Lee was awarded the Othmer Gold Medal in 2008 in recognition of his outstanding contributions to progress in chemistry and science.[22][23][24] His post-doctoral supervisor and fellow Nobel Laureate Dudley Herschbach congratulated Lee.[25] In 2019 Yuan T. Lee was also awarded the Fray International Sustainability Award by FLOGEN Star Outreach at SIPS 2019.[26]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d "Yuan T. Lee | College of Chemistry". chemistry.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
2. ^ "Nobel Laureate Yuan T. Lee to speak on campus at international symposium exploring Nobel-caliber research | College of Chemistry". chemistry.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
3. ^ a b c d e f "Yuan T. Lee Biographical (The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1986)". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
4. ^ a b c d e "Lee, Yuan Tseh, 1936–". history.aip.org. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
5. ^ a b "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1986". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
6. ^ "李远哲".
7. ^ "Yuan T. Lee Professor Emeritus". Berkeley College of Chemistry. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
8. ^ "Yuan T. Lee – Biographical". Nobel Prize.org. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
9. ^ "Dare to be Different: The Humanism of a Taiwanese Scientist". National Museum of Taiwan History. 14 April 2023.
10. ^ "Yuan Lee, Taiwan". Global Ideas. 7 September 2010.
11. ^ "诺贝尔奖得主卸任 "李远哲时代" 黯然落幕". News.cn. 24 October 2006. Archived from the original on 23 March 2013.
12. ^ Corcuff, Stephane (28 February 2002). Memories of the Future: National Identity Issues and the Search for a New Taiwan (1 ed.). Routledge. p. 86\. ISBN 978-0765607911. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
13. ^ Ko, Shu-ling (14 November 2004). "The struggle for an international voice". Taipei Times. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
14. ^ Shan, Shelley (10 July 2024). "Lee Yuan-tseh joins Lai's climate change committee". Taipei Times. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
15. ^ "Nobel Prize winning scientist elected as future President of the International Council for Science" (PDF). Archived from the original on 25 March 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2017.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). International Council for Science. 7 November 2008
16. ^ Lerman, Zafra (10 February 2015). "From Fighting for Human Rights to Building a Bridge to Peace". Science & Diplomacy. 4 (1). Archived from the original on 24 November 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
17. ^ "UTAR International Advisory Council". Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahamn (UTAR). 20 December 2020.
18. ^ "Yuan T. Lee – Biographical". Nobel Prize.org. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
19. ^ "Notable Signers". Humanism and Its Aspirations. American Humanist Association. Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
20. ^ Abraham, Gerber. "NPP focuses on family in night rally". Taipei Times. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
21. ^ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
22. ^ "Chemical Heritage Foundation to Present 2008 Othmer Gold Medal to Yuan Tseh Lee". College of Chemistry. 26 February 2008. Archived from the original on 30 April 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
23. ^ "Academician Yuan Tseh Lee Awarded 2008 Othmer Gold Medal by Chemical Heritage Foundation". Academica Sinica E-News. Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. 2008. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
24. ^ "Othmer Gold Medal". Science History Institute. 31 May 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
25. ^ "'MAGNIFICENT TRIO' WHO SHED NEW LIGHT ON CHEMICAL REACTIONS". The New York Times. 16 October 1986. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
26. ^ "Yuan T. Lee winner of the Fray Award".

## Publications

[edit]

* Lee, Y. T. "Crossed Molecular Beam Studies and Dynamics of Decomposition of Chemically Activated Radicals", University of Chicago, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (September 1973).
* Lee, Y. T. & S. J. Sibener. "Internal Energy Dependence of Molecular Condensation Coefficients Determined from Molecular Beam Surface Scattering Experiments", Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, United States Department of Energy, (May 1978).
* Lee, Y. T., Sibener, S. J. & R. J. Buss. "Development of a Supersonic Atomic Oxygen Nozzle Beam Source for Crossed Beam Scattering Experiments", Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, United States Department of Energy, (May 1978).
* Lee, Y. T., Baseman, R. J., Guozhong, H. & R. J. Buss. "Reaction Mechanism of Oxygen Atoms with Unsaturated Hydrocarbons by the Crossed-Molecular-Beams Method", Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, United States Department of Energy-Office of Basic Energy Science, (April 1982).
* Lee, Y. T. "Molecular-beam Studies of Primary Photochemical Processes", Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, United States Department of Energy, (December 1982).
* Lee, Y. T., Continetti, R. E. & B. A. Balko. "Molecular Beam Studies of Hot Atom Chemical Reactions: Reactive Scattering of Energetic Deuterium Atoms", Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, United States Department of Energy, (February 1989).
* Lee, Y.T., "Energy, Environment, and the Responsibility of Scientists", (2007).

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Yuan T. Lee at Wikimedia Commons
* Yuan T. Lee on Nobelprize.org
* “Yuan T Lee – Science Video Interview”, Vega Science Trust (Archive)
* “Yuan Lee, Taiwan”, Global Ideas
* “Sustainability of the human society (part1)“, Akademi Sains Malaysia ASM
* “Sustainability of the human society (part2)“, ASM
* “Sustainability of the human society (part3)“, ASM
* “Dynamics of Chemical Reactions and Photochemical Processes (Lecture + Discussion)”, Yuan T. Lee (2010), Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings

* v
* t
* e

Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

1901–1925|

* 1901: Jacobus van 't Hoff
* 1902: Emil Fischer
* 1903: Svante Arrhenius
* 1904: William Ramsay
* 1905: Adolf von Baeyer
* 1906: Henri Moissan
* 1907: Eduard Buchner
* 1908: Ernest Rutherford
* 1909: Wilhelm Ostwald
* 1910: Otto Wallach
* 1911: Marie Curie
* 1912: Victor Grignard / Paul Sabatier
* 1913: Alfred Werner
* 1914: Theodore Richards
* 1915: Richard Willstätter
* 1916
* 1917
* 1918: Fritz Haber
* 1919
* 1920: Walther Nernst
* 1921: Frederick Soddy
* 1922: Francis Aston
* 1923: Fritz Pregl
* 1924
* 1925: Richard Zsigmondy

1926–1950|

* 1926: Theodor Svedberg
* 1927: Heinrich Wieland
* 1928: Adolf Windaus
* 1929: Arthur Harden / Hans von Euler-Chelpin
* 1930: Hans Fischer
* 1931: Carl Bosch / Friedrich Bergius
* 1932: Irving Langmuir
* 1933
* 1934: Harold Urey
* 1935: Frédéric Joliot-Curie / Irène Joliot-Curie
* 1936: Peter Debye
* 1937: Norman Haworth / Paul Karrer
* 1938: Richard Kuhn
* 1939: Adolf Butenandt / Leopold Ružička
* 1940
* 1941
* 1942
* 1943: George de Hevesy
* 1944: Otto Hahn
* 1945: Artturi Virtanen
* 1946: James B. Sumner / John Northrop / Wendell Meredith Stanley
* 1947: Robert Robinson
* 1948: Arne Tiselius
* 1949: William Giauque
* 1950: Otto Diels / Kurt Alder

1951–1975|

* 1951: Edwin McMillan / Glenn T. Seaborg
* 1952: Archer Martin / Richard Synge
* 1953: Hermann Staudinger
* 1954: Linus Pauling
* 1955: Vincent du Vigneaud
* 1956: Cyril Hinshelwood / Nikolay Semyonov
* 1957: Alexander Todd
* 1958: Frederick Sanger
* 1959: Jaroslav Heyrovský
* 1960: Willard Libby
* 1961: Melvin Calvin
* 1962: Max Perutz / John Kendrew
* 1963: Karl Ziegler / Giulio Natta
* 1964: Dorothy Hodgkin
* 1965: Robert Woodward
* 1966: Robert S. Mulliken
* 1967: Manfred Eigen / Ronald Norrish / George Porter
* 1968: Lars Onsager
* 1969: Derek Barton / Odd Hassel
* 1970: Luis Federico Leloir
* 1971: Gerhard Herzberg
* 1972: Christian B. Anfinsen / Stanford Moore / William Stein
* 1973: Ernst Otto Fischer / Geoffrey Wilkinson
* 1974: Paul Flory
* 1975: John Cornforth / Vladimir Prelog

1976–2000|

* 1976: William Lipscomb
* 1977: Ilya Prigogine
* 1978: Peter D. Mitchell
* 1979: Herbert C. Brown / Georg Wittig
* 1980: Paul Berg / Walter Gilbert / Frederick Sanger
* 1981: Kenichi Fukui / Roald Hoffmann
* 1982: Aaron Klug
* 1983: Henry Taube
* 1984: Robert Merrifield
* 1985: Herbert A. Hauptman / Jerome Karle
* 1986: Dudley R. Herschbach / Yuan T. Lee / John Polanyi
* 1987: Donald J. Cram / Jean-Marie Lehn / Charles J. Pedersen
* 1988: Johann Deisenhofer / Robert Huber / Hartmut Michel
* 1989: Sidney Altman / Thomas Cech
* 1990: Elias Corey
* 1991: Richard R. Ernst
* 1992: Rudolph A. Marcus
* 1993: Kary Mullis / Michael Smith
* 1994: George Olah
* 1995: Paul J. Crutzen / Mario Molina / F. Sherwood Rowland
* 1996: Robert Curl / Harold Kroto / Richard Smalley
* 1997: Paul D. Boyer / John E. Walker / Jens Christian Skou
* 1998: Walter Kohn / John Pople
* 1999: Ahmed Zewail
* 2000: Alan J. Heeger / Alan MacDiarmid / Hideki Shirakawa

2001–present|

* 2001: William Knowles / Ryoji Noyori / K. Barry Sharpless
* 2002: John B. Fenn / Koichi Tanaka / Kurt Wüthrich
* 2003: Peter Agre / Roderick MacKinnon
* 2004: Aaron Ciechanover / Avram Hershko / Irwin Rose
* 2005: Robert H. Grubbs / Richard R. Schrock / Yves Chauvin
* 2006: Roger D. Kornberg
* 2007: Gerhard Ertl
* 2008: Osamu Shimomura / Martin Chalfie / Roger Y. Tsien
* 2009: Venkatraman Ramakrishnan / Thomas A. Steitz / Ada E. Yonath
* 2010: Richard F. Heck / Akira Suzuki / Ei-ichi Negishi
* 2011: Dan Shechtman
* 2012: Robert Lefkowitz / Brian Kobilka
* 2013: Martin Karplus / Michael Levitt / Arieh Warshel
* 2014: Eric Betzig / Stefan Hell / William E. Moerner
* 2015: Tomas Lindahl / Paul L. Modrich / Aziz Sancar
* 2016: Jean-Pierre Sauvage / Fraser Stoddart / Ben Feringa
* 2017: Jacques Dubochet / Joachim Frank / Richard Henderson
* 2018: Frances Arnold / Gregory Winter / George Smith
* 2019: John B. Goodenough / M. Stanley Whittingham / Akira Yoshino
* 2020: Emmanuelle Charpentier / Jennifer Doudna
* 2021: David MacMillan / Benjamin List
* 2022: Carolyn R. Bertozzi / Morten P. Meldal / Karl Barry Sharpless
* 2023: Moungi G. Bawendi / Louis E. Brus / Alexei I. Ekimov
* 2024: David Baker / Demis Hassabis / John M. Jumper

* v
* t
* e

1986 Nobel Prize laureates

Chemistry|

* Dudley R. Herschbach (United States)
* Yuan T. Lee (United States)
* John Polanyi (Canada)

Literature (1986)|

* Wole Soyinka (Nigeria)

Peace|

* Elie Wiesel (United States)

Physics|

* Ernst Ruska (Germany)
* Gerd Binnig (Germany)
* Heinrich Rohrer (Switzerland)

Physiology or Medicine|

* Stanley Cohen (United States)
* Rita Levi-Montalcini (United States/Italy)

Economic Sciences|

* James M. Buchanan (United States)

Nobel Prize recipients
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991

* v
* t
* e

Han Chinese Nobel laureates

Chemistry|

* Yuan T. Lee (1986)
* Roger Y. Tsien (2008)

Physics|

* Chen-Ning Yang (1957)
* Tsung-Dao Lee (1957)
* Samuel C. C. Ting (1976)
* Steven Chu (1997)
* Daniel C. Tsui (1998)
* Charles K. Kao (2009)

Peace|

* Liu Xiaobo (2010)

Literature|

* Gao Xingjian (2000)
* Mo Yan (2012)

Physiology or Medicine|

* Tu Youyou (2015)

* v
* t
* e

United States National Medal of Science laureates

Behavioral and social science

| 1960s|

1964
Neal Elgar Miller

|

1980s|

1986
Herbert A. Simon
1987
Anne Anastasi
George J. Stigler
1988
Milton Friedman

1990s|

1990
Leonid Hurwicz
Patrick Suppes
1991
George A. Miller
1992
Eleanor J. Gibson
1994
Robert K. Merton
1995
Roger N. Shepard
1996
Paul Samuelson
1997
William K. Estes
1998
William Julius Wilson
1999
Robert M. Solow

2000s|

2000
Gary Becker
2003
R. Duncan Luce
2004
Kenneth Arrow
2005
Gordon H. Bower
2008
Michael I. Posner
2009
Mortimer Mishkin

2010s|

2011
Anne Treisman
2014
Robert Axelrod
2015
Albert Bandura

2020s|

2023
Huda Akil
Shelley E. Taylor
2025
Larry Bartels

Biological sciences

| 1960s|

1963
C. B. van Niel
1964
Theodosius Dobzhansky
Marshall W. Nirenberg
1965
Francis P. Rous
George G. Simpson
Donald D. Van Slyke
1966
Edward F. Knipling
Fritz Albert Lipmann
William C. Rose
Sewall Wright
1967
Kenneth S. Cole
Harry F. Harlow
Michael Heidelberger
Alfred H. Sturtevant
1968
Horace Barker
Bernard B. Brodie
Detlev W. Bronk
Jay Lush
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
1969
Robert Huebner
Ernst Mayr

|

1970s|

1970
Barbara McClintock
Albert B. Sabin
1973
Daniel I. Arnon
Earl W. Sutherland Jr.
1974
Britton Chance
Erwin Chargaff
James V. Neel
James Augustine Shannon
1975
Hallowell Davis
Paul Gyorgy
Sterling B. Hendricks
Orville Alvin Vogel
1976
Roger Guillemin
Keith Roberts Porter
Efraim Racker
E. O. Wilson
1979
Robert H. Burris
Elizabeth C. Crosby
Arthur Kornberg
Severo Ochoa
Earl Reece Stadtman
George Ledyard Stebbins
Paul Alfred Weiss

1980s|

1981
Philip Handler
1982
Seymour Benzer
Glenn W. Burton
Mildred Cohn
1983
Howard L. Bachrach
Paul Berg
Wendell L. Roelofs
Berta Scharrer
1986
Stanley Cohen
Donald A. Henderson
Vernon B. Mountcastle
George Emil Palade
Joan A. Steitz
1987
Michael E. DeBakey
Theodor O. Diener
Harry Eagle
Har Gobind Khorana
Rita Levi-Montalcini
1988
Michael S. Brown
Stanley Norman Cohen
Joseph L. Goldstein
Maurice R. Hilleman
Eric R. Kandel
Rosalyn Sussman Yalow
1989
Katherine Esau
Viktor Hamburger
Philip Leder
Joshua Lederberg
Roger W. Sperry
Harland G. Wood

1990s|

1990
Baruj Benacerraf
Herbert W. Boyer
Daniel E. Koshland Jr.
Edward B. Lewis
David G. Nathan
E. Donnall Thomas
1991
Mary Ellen Avery
G. Evelyn Hutchinson
Elvin A. Kabat
Robert W. Kates
Salvador Luria
Paul A. Marks
Folke K. Skoog
Paul C. Zamecnik
1992
Maxine Singer
Howard Martin Temin
1993
Daniel Nathans
Salome G. Waelsch
1994
Thomas Eisner
Elizabeth F. Neufeld
1995
Alexander Rich
1996
Ruth Patrick
1997
James Watson
Robert A. Weinberg
1998
Bruce Ames
Janet Rowley
1999
David Baltimore
Jared Diamond
Lynn Margulis

2000s|

2000
Nancy C. Andreasen
Peter H. Raven
Carl Woese
2001
Francisco J. Ayala
George F. Bass
Mario R. Capecchi
Ann Graybiel
Gene E. Likens
Victor A. McKusick
Harold Varmus
2002
James E. Darnell
Evelyn M. Witkin
2003
J. Michael Bishop
Solomon H. Snyder
Charles Yanofsky
2004
Norman E. Borlaug
Phillip A. Sharp
Thomas E. Starzl
2005
Anthony Fauci
Torsten N. Wiesel
2006
Rita R. Colwell
Nina Fedoroff
Lubert Stryer
2007
Robert J. Lefkowitz
Bert W. O'Malley
2008
Francis S. Collins
Elaine Fuchs
J. Craig Venter
2009
Susan L. Lindquist
Stanley B. Prusiner

2010s|

2010
Ralph L. Brinster
Rudolf Jaenisch
2011
Lucy Shapiro
Leroy Hood
Sallie Chisholm
2012
May Berenbaum
Bruce Alberts
2013
Rakesh K. Jain
2014
Stanley Falkow
Mary-Claire King
Simon Levin

2020s|

2023
Gebisa Ejeta
Eve Marder
Gregory Petsko
Sheldon Weinbaum
2025
Bonnie Bassler
Angela Belcher
Helen Blau
Emery N. Brown
G. David Tilman
Teresa Woodruff

Chemistry

| 1960s|

1964
Roger Adams

|

1980s|

1982
F. Albert Cotton
Gilbert Stork
1983
Roald Hoffmann
George C. Pimentel
Richard N. Zare
1986
Harry B. Gray
Yuan Tseh Lee
Carl S. Marvel
Frank H. Westheimer
1987
William S. Johnson
Walter H. Stockmayer
Max Tishler
1988
William O. Baker
Konrad E. Bloch
Elias J. Corey
1989
Richard B. Bernstein
Melvin Calvin
Rudolph A. Marcus
Harden M. McConnell

1990s|

1990
Elkan Blout
Karl Folkers
John D. Roberts
1991
Ronald Breslow
Gertrude B. Elion
Dudley R. Herschbach
Glenn T. Seaborg
1992
Howard E. Simmons Jr.
1993
Donald J. Cram
Norman Hackerman
1994
George S. Hammond
1995
Thomas Cech
Isabella L. Karle
1996
Norman Davidson
1997
Darleane C. Hoffman
Harold S. Johnston
1998
John W. Cahn
George M. Whitesides
1999
Stuart A. Rice
John Ross
Susan Solomon

2000s|

2000
John D. Baldeschwieler
Ralph F. Hirschmann
2001
Ernest R. Davidson
Gábor A. Somorjai
2002
John I. Brauman
2004
Stephen J. Lippard
2005
Tobin J. Marks
2006
Marvin H. Caruthers
Peter B. Dervan
2007
Mostafa A. El-Sayed
2008
Joanna Fowler
JoAnne Stubbe
2009
Stephen J. Benkovic
Marye Anne Fox

2010s|

2010
Jacqueline K. Barton
Peter J. Stang
2011
Allen J. Bard
M. Frederick Hawthorne
2012
Judith P. Klinman
Jerrold Meinwald
2013
Geraldine L. Richmond
2014
A. Paul Alivisatos
2025
R. Lawrence Edwards

Engineering sciences

| 1960s|

1962
Theodore von Kármán
1963
Vannevar Bush
John Robinson Pierce
1964
Charles S. Draper
Othmar H. Ammann
1965
Hugh L. Dryden
Clarence L. Johnson
Warren K. Lewis
1966
Claude E. Shannon
1967
Edwin H. Land
Igor I. Sikorsky
1968
J. Presper Eckert
Nathan M. Newmark
1969
Jack St. Clair Kilby

|

1970s|

1970
George E. Mueller
1973
Harold E. Edgerton
Richard T. Whitcomb
1974
Rudolf Kompfner
Ralph Brazelton Peck
Abel Wolman
1975
Manson Benedict
William Hayward Pickering
Frederick E. Terman
Wernher von Braun
1976
Morris Cohen
Peter C. Goldmark
Erwin Wilhelm Müller
1979
Emmett N. Leith
Raymond D. Mindlin
Robert N. Noyce
Earl R. Parker
Simon Ramo

1980s|

1982
Edward H. Heinemann
Donald L. Katz
1983
Bill Hewlett
George Low
John G. Trump
1986
Hans Wolfgang Liepmann
Tung-Yen Lin
Bernard M. Oliver
1987
Robert Byron Bird
H. Bolton Seed
Ernst Weber
1988
Daniel C. Drucker
Willis M. Hawkins
George W. Housner
1989
Harry George Drickamer
Herbert E. Grier

1990s|

1990
Mildred Dresselhaus
Nick Holonyak Jr.
1991
George H. Heilmeier
Luna B. Leopold
H. Guyford Stever
1992
Calvin F. Quate
John Roy Whinnery
1993
Alfred Y. Cho
1994
Ray W. Clough
1995
Hermann A. Haus
1996
James L. Flanagan
C. Kumar N. Patel
1998
Eli Ruckenstein
1999
Kenneth N. Stevens

2000s|

2000
Yuan-Cheng B. Fung
2001
Andreas Acrivos
2002
Leo Beranek
2003
John M. Prausnitz
2004
Edwin N. Lightfoot
2005
Jan D. Achenbach
2006
Robert S. Langer
2007
David J. Wineland
2008
Rudolf E. Kálmán
2009
Amnon Yariv

2010s|

2010
Shu Chien
2011
John B. Goodenough
2012
Thomas Kailath

2020s|

2023
Subra Suresh
2025
John Dabiri

Mathematical, statistical, and computer sciences

| 1960s|

1963
Norbert Wiener
1964
Solomon Lefschetz
H. Marston Morse
1965
Oscar Zariski
1966
John Milnor
1967
Paul Cohen
1968
Jerzy Neyman
1969
William Feller

|

1970s|

1970
Richard Brauer
1973
John Tukey
1974
Kurt Gödel
1975
John W. Backus
Shiing-Shen Chern
George Dantzig
1976
Kurt Otto Friedrichs
Hassler Whitney
1979
Joseph L. Doob
Donald E. Knuth

1980s|

1982
Marshall H. Stone
1983
Herman Goldstine
Isadore Singer
1986
Peter Lax
Antoni Zygmund
1987
Raoul Bott
Michael Freedman
1988
Ralph E. Gomory
Joseph B. Keller
1989
Samuel Karlin
Saunders Mac Lane
Donald C. Spencer

1990s|

1990
George F. Carrier
Stephen Cole Kleene
John McCarthy
1991
Alberto Calderón
1992
Allen Newell
1993
Martin David Kruskal
1994
John Cocke
1995
Louis Nirenberg
1996
Richard Karp
Stephen Smale
1997
Shing-Tung Yau
1998
Cathleen Synge Morawetz
1999
Felix Browder
Ronald R. Coifman

2000s|

2000
John Griggs Thompson
Karen Uhlenbeck
2001
Calyampudi R. Rao
Elias M. Stein
2002
James G. Glimm
2003
Carl R. de Boor
2004
Dennis P. Sullivan
2005
Bradley Efron
2006
Hyman Bass
2007
Leonard Kleinrock
Andrew J. Viterbi
2009
David B. Mumford

2010s|

2010
Richard A. Tapia
S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan
2011
Solomon W. Golomb
Barry Mazur
2012
Alexandre Chorin
David Blackwell
2013
Michael Artin

2020s|

2025
Ingrid Daubechies
Cynthia Dwork

Physical sciences

| 1960s|

1963
Luis W. Alvarez
1964
Julian Schwinger
Harold Urey
Robert Burns Woodward
1965
John Bardeen
Peter Debye
Leon M. Lederman
William Rubey
1966
Jacob Bjerknes
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Henry Eyring
John H. Van Vleck
Vladimir K. Zworykin
1967
Jesse Beams
Francis Birch
Gregory Breit
Louis Hammett
George Kistiakowsky
1968
Paul Bartlett
Herbert Friedman
Lars Onsager
Eugene Wigner
1969
Herbert C. Brown
Wolfgang Panofsky

|

1970s|

1970
Robert H. Dicke
Allan R. Sandage
John C. Slater
John A. Wheeler
Saul Winstein
1973
Carl Djerassi
Maurice Ewing
Arie Jan Haagen-Smit
Vladimir Haensel
Frederick Seitz
Robert Rathbun Wilson
1974
Nicolaas Bloembergen
Paul Flory
William Alfred Fowler
Linus Carl Pauling
Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer
1975
Hans A. Bethe
Joseph O. Hirschfelder
Lewis Sarett
Edgar Bright Wilson
Chien-Shiung Wu
1976
Samuel Goudsmit
Herbert S. Gutowsky
Frederick Rossini
Verner Suomi
Henry Taube
George Uhlenbeck
1979
Richard P. Feynman
Herman Mark
Edward M. Purcell
John Sinfelt
Lyman Spitzer
Victor F. Weisskopf

1980s|

1982
Philip W. Anderson
Yoichiro Nambu
Edward Teller
Charles H. Townes
1983
E. Margaret Burbidge
Maurice Goldhaber
Helmut Landsberg
Walter Munk
Frederick Reines
Bruno B. Rossi
J. Robert Schrieffer
1986
Solomon J. Buchsbaum
H. Richard Crane
Herman Feshbach
Robert Hofstadter
Chen-Ning Yang
1987
Philip Abelson
Walter Elsasser
Paul C. Lauterbur
George Pake
James A. Van Allen
1988
D. Allan Bromley
Paul Ching-Wu Chu
Walter Kohn
Norman Foster Ramsey Jr.
Jack Steinberger
1989
Arnold O. Beckman
Eugene Parker
Robert Sharp
Henry Stommel

1990s|

1990
Allan M. Cormack
Edwin M. McMillan
Robert Pound
Roger Revelle
1991
Arthur L. Schawlow
Ed Stone
Steven Weinberg
1992
Eugene M. Shoemaker
1993
Val Fitch
Vera Rubin
1994
Albert Overhauser
Frank Press
1995
Hans Dehmelt
Peter Goldreich
1996
Wallace S. Broecker
1997
Marshall Rosenbluth
Martin Schwarzschild
George Wetherill
1998
Don L. Anderson
John N. Bahcall
1999
James Cronin
Leo Kadanoff

2000s|

2000
Willis E. Lamb
Jeremiah P. Ostriker
Gilbert F. White
2001
Marvin L. Cohen
Raymond Davis Jr.
Charles Keeling
2002
Richard Garwin
W. Jason Morgan
Edward Witten
2003
G. Brent Dalrymple
Riccardo Giacconi
2004
Robert N. Clayton
2005
Ralph A. Alpher
Lonnie Thompson
2006
Daniel Kleppner
2007
Fay Ajzenberg-Selove
Charles P. Slichter
2008
Berni Alder
James E. Gunn
2009
Yakir Aharonov
Esther M. Conwell
Warren M. Washington

2010s|

2011
Sidney Drell
Sandra Faber
Sylvester James Gates
2012
Burton Richter
Sean C. Solomon
2014
Shirley Ann Jackson

2020s|

2023
Barry Barish
Myriam Sarachik
2025
Richard Alley
Wendy Freedman
Keivan Stassun

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* Australia
* Netherlands
* Korea

People|

* Trove

Other|

* IdRef

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