View source for Wolf Prize in Physics

{{Short description|One of six awards by the Wolf Foundation}}
The '''Wolf Prize in Physics''' is awarded once a year by the [[Wolf Foundation]] in [[Israel]]. It is one of the six [[Wolf Prize]]s established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in [[Wolf Prize in Agriculture|Agriculture]], [[Wolf Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]], [[Wolf Prize in Mathematics|Mathematics]], [[Wolf Prize in Medicine|Medicine]] and [[Wolf Prize in Arts|Arts]].

The Wolf Prizes in physics and chemistry are often considered the second most prestigious awards in those fields, after the Nobel Prize.<ref>[http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/18884 "Wolf prize goes to particle theorists"] ''Physicsworld.com'' January 20, 2004</ref><ref name="gongs_away">{{cite journal
|last=Harris
|first=Margaret
|date=November 2010
|title=Gongs away
|journal=[[Physics World]]
|location=Bristol
|volume=23
|issue=11
|pages=46–47
|doi=10.1088/2058-7058/23/11/46
|bibcode=2010PhyW...23k..46H
}}</ref><ref>Basolo, F: ''From Coello to Inorganic Chemistry: A Lifetime of Reactions'', page 65, Springer, 2002</ref> The prize in physics has gained a reputation for identifying future winners of the Nobel Prize – from the 26 prizes awarded between 1978 and 2010, fourteen winners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, five of those in the following year.<ref name=gongs_away/>

==Laureates==

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|- bgcolor="#ccccc"
! Year
! width=180px|Name
! width=250px|Nationality
!scope = col class = unsortable| Citation
|-
| 1978
| [[Chien-Shiung Wu]]
| {{flagu|United States}} / {{flagu|Republic of China}}
| for her persistent and successful exploration of the [[weak interaction]], which helped establish the precise form and the [[Parity (physics)#Parity violation|non-conservation of parity for this natural force]].
|-
|rowspan=2| 1979
| [[George Eugene Uhlenbeck]]
| {{flagu|Netherlands}} / {{flagu|United States}}
|  for his discovery, jointly with the late [[S. A. Goudsmit]], of the electron [[Spin (physics)|spin]].
|-
| [[Giuseppe Occhialini]]
|{{flagu|Italy}}
| for his contributions to the discoveries of [[pair production|electron pair production]] and [[Pion#History|of the charged pion]].
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1980
| [[Michael E. Fisher]] <br>  
|{{flagu|United Kingdom}}
| rowspan="3" | for pathbreaking developments culminating in the general theory of the critical behavior at [[Phase transition|transitions]] between the different thermodynamic [[phases of matter]].
|-
|[[Leo P. Kadanoff]] 
| rowspan="2" |{{flagu|United States}}
|-
|[[Kenneth G. Wilson]]
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1981
| [[Freeman Dyson]] 
| {{flagu|United Kingdom}} / {{flagu|United States}}
| rowspan="3" | for their outstanding contributions to theoretical physics, especially in the development and application of the [[quantum theory of fields]].
|-
|[[Gerard 't Hooft]] 
|{{flagu|Netherlands}}
|-
|[[Victor F. Weisskopf]]
|{{flagu|Austria}} / {{flagu|United States}}
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1982
| [[Leon M. Lederman]] 
| rowspan="2" | {{flagu|United States}} 
| rowspan="2" | for their experimental discovery of unexpected new particles establishing a third generation of [[quark]]s and [[lepton]]s.
|-
|[[Martin Lewis Perl]]
|-
|rowspan=3| 1983/84
| [[Erwin Hahn]]
| {{flagu|United States}}
|  for his discovery of nuclear [[spin echo]]es and for the phenomenon of self-induced transparency.
|-
| [[Peter B. Hirsch]]
| {{flagu|United Kingdom}}
| for his development of the utilization of the [[transmission electron microscope]] as a universal instrument to study the structure of crystalline matter.
|-
| [[Theodore H. Maiman]]
| {{flagu|United States}}
| for his realization of the first operating laser, the pulsed three level [[ruby laser]].
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1985
| [[Conyers Herring]]
| {{flagu|United States}}   
| rowspan="2" |  for their major contributions to the fundamental theory of solids, especially of the behaviour of electrons in metals.
|-
|[[Philippe Nozieres]]
|{{flagu|France}}
|-
|rowspan=2| 1986
| [[Mitchell J. Feigenbaum]]
| {{flagu|United States}}
|  for his pioneering theoretical studies demonstrating the universal character of [[non-linear system]]s, which has made possible the systematic study of [[Chaos theory|chaos]].
|-
| [[Albert J. Libchaber]]
| {{flagu|France}} / {{flagu|United States}}
| for his brilliant experimental demonstration of the transition to [[turbulence]] and chaos in dynamic systems.
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1987
| [[Herbert Friedman]]
| {{flagu|United States}}
|  for pioneering investigations in solar [[X-ray]]s.
|-
| [[Bruno B. Rossi]] 
| rowspan="2" |  {{flagu|Italy}} / {{flagu|United States}} 
| rowspan="2" |  for the discovery of [[Astrophysical X-ray source|extra-solar X-ray sources]] and the elucidation of their physical processes.
|-
|[[Riccardo Giacconi]]
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1988
|  [[Roger Penrose]]
| rowspan="2" |  {{flagu|United Kingdom}} 
| rowspan="2" |  for their brilliant development of the [[Introduction to general relativity|theory of general relativity]], in which they have shown the necessity for [[cosmological singularities]] and have elucidated the physics of [[black hole]]s. In this work they have greatly enlarged our understanding of the [[Cosmogony|origin]] and possible [[fate of the Universe]].
|-
|[[Stephen W. Hawking]]
|-
| 1989 || No award ||||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1990
| [[Pierre-Gilles de Gennes]]
| {{flagu|France}}; 
| rowspan="2" |  for a wide variety of pioneering contributions to our understanding of the organization of complex [[condensed matter system]]s, de Gennes especially for his work on [[Macromolecular#Properties|macromolecular matter]] and [[liquid crystal]]s and Thouless for his on disordered and low-dimensional systems.
|-
|[[David Thouless|David J. Thouless]]
|{{flagu|United Kingdom}} / {{flagu|United States}}
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1991
| [[Maurice Goldhaber]] 
| {{flagu|United States}}
| rowspan="2" | for their separate seminal contributions to nuclear and particle physics, particularly those concerning the [[Lepton#Weak Interaction|weak interactions involving leptons]].
|-
|[[Valentine L. Telegdi]]
|{{flagu|Hungary}} / {{flagu|Switzerland}} / {{flagu|United States}}
|-
| 1992
| [[Joseph H. Taylor, Jr.]]
| {{flagu|United States}}
| for his discovery of an orbiting [[radio pulsar]] and its exploitation to verify the general theory of relativity to high precision.
|-
| 1993
| [[Benoît Mandelbrot]]
| {{flagu|France}} / {{flagu|United States}}
| by recognizing the widespread occurrence of [[fractal]]s and developing mathematical tools for describing them, he has changed our view of nature.
|-
|rowspan=2| 1994/95
| [[Vitaly L. Ginzburg]]
| {{flagu|Russia}}
|  for his contributions to the theory of [[superconductivity]] and to the theory of high-energy processes in astrophysics.
|-
| [[Yoichiro Nambu]]
| {{flagu|Japan}} / {{flagu|United States}}
| for his contribution to elementary particle theory, including recognition of the role played by [[spontaneous symmetry breaking]] in analogy with superconductivity theory, and the discovery of the color symmetry of the [[strong interaction]]s.
|-
| 1995/96 || No award ||||
|-
| 1996/97
| [[John Archibald Wheeler]]
|  {{flagu|United States}}
|  for his seminal contributions to black holes physics, to [[quantum gravity]], and to the theories of nuclear scattering and [[nuclear fission]].
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1998
| [[Yakir Aharonov]]
| {{flagu|Israel}} 
| rowspan="2" |  for the discovery of quantum topological and geometrical phases. specifically the [[Aharonov–Bohm effect]], the [[Berry phase]], and their incorporation into many fields of physics.
|-
|[[Michael V. Berry]]
|{{flagu|United Kingdom}}
|-
| 1999
| [[Dan Shechtman]]
|  {{flagu|Israel}}
| for the experimental discovery of [[quasi-crystal]]s, non-periodic solids having long-range order, which inspired the exploration of a new fundamental state of matter.
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2000
| [[Raymond Davis, Jr.]]
| {{flagu|United States}} 
| rowspan="2" | for their pioneering observations of astronomical phenomena by [[detection of neutrinos]], thus creating the emerging field of [[neutrino astronomy]].
|-
|[[Masatoshi Koshiba]]
|{{flagu|Japan}}
|-
| 2001 || No award ||||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2002/03
| [[Bertrand I. Halperin]]
| {{flagu|United States}}
| rowspan="2" | for key insights into the broad range of condensed matter physics: Leggett on superfluidity of the light helium isotope and [[macroscopic quantum phenomena]]; and Halperin on two- dimensional melting, disordered systems and strongly interacting electrons.
|-
|[[Anthony J. Leggett]]
|{{flagu|United Kingdom}} / {{flagu|United States}}
|-
| rowspan="3" | 2004 || [[Robert Brout]] 
| rowspan="2" | {{flagu|Belgium}} 
| rowspan="3" | for pioneering work that has led to the insight of mass generation whenever a [[local gauge symmetry]] is realized asymmetrically in the world of sub-atomic particles.
|-
|[[François Englert]] 
|-
|[[Peter W. Higgs]]
|{{flagu|United Kingdom}}
|-
| 2005
| [[Daniel Kleppner]]
|  {{flagu|United States}}
| for groundbreaking work in atomic physics of hydrogenic systems, including research on the [[hydrogen maser]], [[Rydberg atom]]s and [[Bose–Einstein condensation]].
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2006/07
| [[Albert Fert]] 
| {{flagu|France}} 
| rowspan="2" | for their independent discovery of the [[giant magnetoresistance]] phenomenon (GMR), thereby launching a new field of research and applications known as [[spintronics]], which utilizes the [[Spin (physics)|spin]] of the [[electron]] to store and transport information.
|-
|[[Peter Grünberg]]
|{{flagu|Germany}}
|-
| 2008 || No award ||||
|-
| 2009 || No award ||||
|-
| rowspan="3" | 2010
| [[John Clauser|John F. Clauser]] 
| {{flagu|United States}} 
| rowspan="3" | for their fundamental conceptual and experimental contributions to the foundations of quantum physics, specifically an increasingly sophisticated series of [[Bell test experiments|tests of Bell's inequalities]], or extensions thereof, using [[entangled quantum states]].
|-
|[[Alain Aspect]] 
|{{flagu|France}} 
|-
|[[Anton Zeilinger]]
|{{flagu|Austria}}
|-
| rowspan="3" | 2011
| [[Maximilian Haider]] 
| {{flagu|Austria}} 
| rowspan="3" | for their development of [[aberration-corrected electron microscopy]], allowing the observation of individual atoms with [[picometer]] precision, thus revolutionizing [[materials science]].
|-
|[[Harald Rose]] 
| rowspan="2" |{{flagu|Germany}} 
|-
|[[Knut Urban]]
|-
| 2012
| [[Jacob D. Bekenstein]]  
| {{flagu|Israel}} 
| for his work on [[black hole]]s.<ref>[http://www.ias.edu/2012WolfPrizes Institute for Advanced Study - Wolf Prize 2012] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120122043735/http://www.ias.edu/2012WolfPrizes |date=2012-01-22 }}</ref>
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2013
| [[Peter Zoller]] 
| {{flagu|Austria}} 
| rowspan="2" | for groundbreaking theoretical contributions to [[quantum information]] processing, [[quantum optics]] and the physics of quantum gases. 
|-
|[[Juan Ignacio Cirac Sasturain|Ignacio Cirac]]
|{{flagu|Spain}}
|-
| 2014 || No award |||| 
|-
|rowspan=2| 2015
| [[James D. Bjorken]]
| {{flagu|United States}}
| for predicting scaling in [[deep inelastic scattering]], leading to identification of nucleon's pointlike constituents. He made a crucial contribution for elucidating the nature of the [[strong interaction|strong force]].
|-
| [[Robert P. Kirshner]]
| {{flagu|United States}}
| for creating the group, environment and directions that allowed his graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to uncover [[Accelerating expansion of the universe|the acceleration in the expansion of the universe]]. 
|-
| 2016
| [[Yoseph Imry]]  
| {{flagu|Israel}} 
| for his work in [[mesoscopic physics]] – a branch of physics that studies objects that are smaller than macroscopic (visible to the naked eye) objects but bigger than atoms.
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2017
| [[Michel Mayor]]
| rowspan="2" | {{flagu|Switzerland}} 
| rowspan="2" | for the discovery of an [[exoplanet|extrasolar planet]] orbiting around [[51 Pegasi|a star]] similar to the sun.
|-
|[[Didier Queloz]]
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2018
| [[Charles H. Bennett (physicist)|Charles H. Bennett]] 
| {{flagu|United States}} 
| rowspan="2" | for their collaborative work in the rapidly expanding field of [[quantum information science]].
|-
|[[Gilles Brassard]]
|{{flagu|Canada}}
|-
| 2019 || No award |||| 
|-
| rowspan="3" | 2020
| [[Rafi Bistritzer]] 
| {{flagu|Israel}}  
| rowspan="3" | for pioneering theoretical and experimental work on twisted bilayer graphene.<ref>[https://wolffund.org.il/the-wolf-prize/#Laureates Laureates 2020]</ref>
|-
|[[Pablo Jarillo-Herrero]] 
|{{flagu|Spain}}
|-
|[[Allan H. MacDonald]]
|{{flagu|Canada}}
|-
| 2021
| [[Giorgio Parisi]]  
| {{flagu|Italy}} 
| for ground-breaking discoveries in disordered systems, particle physics and statistical physics.<ref>[https://wolffund.org.il/2021/02/09/giorgio-parisi/ Laureate 2021]</ref>
|-
| rowspan="3" | 2022
| [[Anne L'Huillier]]
| {{flagu|France}} / {{flagu|Sweden}} 
| rowspan="3" | for pioneering contributions to ultrafast laser science and [[attosecond physics]].  <ref>[https://wolffund.org.il/the-wolf-prize/#Laureates Laureates 2022]</ref>
|-
|[[Paul Corkum]] 
|{{flagu|Canada}} 
|-
|[[Ferenc Krausz]]
|{{flagu|Hungary}} / {{flagu|Austria}}
|-
| 2023 || No award ||||
|-
| 2024
|[[Martin Rees]] 
|{{flagu|United Kingdom}}
|for fundamental contributions to high-energy astrophysics, galaxies and structure formation, and cosmology.<ref>[https://wolffund.org.il/the-wolf-prize/#Laureates Laureates 2024]</ref>
|-
| rowspan="3" | 2025
| [[James P. Eisenstein]]
| {{flagu|United States}}
| rowspan="3" | for advancing our understanding of the surprising properties of two-dimensional electron systems in strong magnetic fields.<ref>[https://wolffund.org.il/james-p-eisenstein/ Laureates 2025]</ref>
|-
|[[Mordehai Heiblum]] 
|{{flagu|Israel}} 
|-
|[[Jainendra K. Jain]]
|{{flagu|India}} / {{flagu|United States}}
|-
|}

== Laureates per country ==
Below is a chart of all laureates per country (updated to 2025 laureates). Some laureates are counted more than once if they have multiple citizenships.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; overflow:auto;border:2px solid; margin-left:0px; margin-right:auto;"
|-  style="background:#ececec; vertical-align:top;"
!Country
!Number of laureates
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|United States}}
|33
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|United Kingdom}}
|10
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|France}}
|7
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Israel}}
|6
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Austria}}
|5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Italy}}
|4
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Germany}}
|3
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Canada}}
|3
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Switzerland}}
|3
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Japan}}
|2
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Hungary}}
|2
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Spain}}
|2
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Netherlands}}
|2
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Belgium}}
|2
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Republic of China}}
|1
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Russia}}
|1
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Sweden}}
|1
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|India}}
|1
|}

==See also==

* [[List of physics awards]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== External links ==
* [https://wolffund.org.il/home-page/ List of Wolf Prize laureates], Wolf Foundation
* {{cite web | title=Placido Domingo Wins Israel Wolf Prize | work=Huffington Post | date=2012-01-10
 | url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/placido-domingo-israel-wolf-prize_n_1196509.html}}
* {{cite web | title=Eight foreign standouts to receive Wolf Prize |url=https://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=298237|work=Jerusalem Post|date=2013-01-03}}
* [https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Health/Wolf-Prizes-in-the-sciences-and-arts-presented-to-nine-North-Americans-389466 Wolf Prizes 2015] 
* [https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Weizmann-professor-among-7-Wolf-Prize-laureates-441464 Jerusalempost - Wolf Prizes 2016]
* [https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Wolf-Prize-to-be-awarded-to-eight-laureates-from-US-UK-and-Switzerland-477364 Jerusalempost - Wolf Prizes 2017]
* [https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Paul-McCartney-among-9-Wolf-Prize-recipients-542404 Jerusalempost - Wolf Prizes 2018]

{{Wolf Prizes}}
{{Wolf Prize in Physics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf Prize in Physics}}
[[Category:Wolf Prizes|Physics]]
[[Category:Physics awards]]
[[Category:Lists of Israeli award winners]]
[[Category:Awards established in 1978]]
[[Category:Israeli science and technology awards]]
[[Category:1978 establishments in Israel]]