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Nobel Prize winners

Twenty-nine people associated with Johns Hopkins as a faculty member, fellow, resident, or graduate have received a Nobel Prize, including four Nobel laureates currently on the faculty—molecular biologists Peter Agre and Carol Greider, geneticist Gregg Semenza, and astrophysicist Adam Riess.

Our Nobel winners include recipients of the prize in Medicine (16), Physics (4), Chemistry (3), Economics (3), Physiology (1), and two Nobel Peace Prize honorees—among them President Woodrow Wilson, who received a doctorate from Hopkins in 1886.

A full list of our honorees:

Woodrow Wilson, Ph.D. 1886 (History)
Nobel Prize in Peace, 1919

James Franck, Professor of Physics, 1935-38
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1925

Thomas Hunt Morgan, Ph.D. 1890 (Zoology); LL.D. 1915
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1933

George Hoyt Whipple, M.D. 1905; Associate Professor in Pathology, 1910-14
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1934

Joseph Erlanger, M.D. 1899; Assistant in Physiology, 1900-01; Instructor, 1901-03; Associate, 1903-04; Associate Professor, 1904-06; LL.D. 1947
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1944

Herbert Spencer Gasser, M.D. 1915
Nobel Prize in Physiology, 1944

Vincent du Vigneaud, National Research Fellow, Pharmacology 1927-28
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1955

Maria Goeppert-Mayer, Assistant in Physics, 1930-32; Associate, 1932-36
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1963

Francis Peyton Rous, A.B. 1900; M.D. 1905
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1966

Haldan Keffer Hartline, M.D. 1927; Professor of Biophysics, 1949-54
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1967

Simon Kuznets, Professor of Political Economy, 1954-60
Nobel Prize in Economics, 1971

Christian B. Anfinsen, Professor of Biology, 1982-1995
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1972

Hamilton O. Smith, M.D. 1956; Assistant Professor of Microbiology, 1967-69; Associate Professor, 1969-1973; Professor, 1973-1998; Professor Emeritus 1998-present
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1978

Daniel Nathans, Assistant Professor, 1962-65; Associate Professor, 1965-67; Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, 1967-1999; Interim President, 1995-96
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1978

David H. Hubel, Assistant Resident, Neurology, 1954-55; Fellow, Neuroscience, 1958-59
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1981

Torsten Wiesel, Fellow, Ophthalmology, 1955-58; Assistant Professor, 1958-59
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1981

Merton H. Miller, Ph.D. 1952 (and honorary doctorate 1993)
Nobel Prize in Economics, 1990

Robert W. Fogel, Ph.D. 1963
Nobel Prize in Economics, 1993

Martin Rodbell, B.A. Biology 1949
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1994

Jody Williams, M.A. Latin American Studies (SAIS) 1984
Nobel Prize in Peace, 1997

Paul Greengard, Ph.D. Biophysics 1953
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2000

Riccardo Giacconi, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, 1982-1997; Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy 1998-2018
Nobel Prize in Physics, 2002

Peter Agre, M.D. 1974; Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Pharmacology, 1974-75; Research Associate/Instructor, Cell Biology and Anatomy, and Medicine, 1981-83; Assistant Professor, 1984-88; Associate Professor, 1988-93; Professor of Biological Chemistry and Medicine, 1993-2005, Malaria Institute, 2008–present
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2003

Richard Axel, M.D. 1971
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2004

Andrew Fire, Adjunct professor of biology, 1989–2009
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2006

Carol Greider, Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics; Institute of Basic Biomedical Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine 1997–present
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2009

Adam Riess, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, 2006–present
Nobel Prize in Physics, 2011

Gregg Semenza, Professor of Medicine, 1990-present
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2019

William G. Kaelin Jr., Postdoctoral fellow and resident, Internal Medicine, 1983-1987
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2019

NOTE: International Physicians for The Prevention of Nuclear War Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts, was the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. Two Johns Hopkins graduates—Bernard Lown, M.D. 1945; and James E. Muller M.D. 1969—were among the six physicians (three Americans, three Soviets) who founded that organization in 1980. Dr. Lown delivered one of the two Nobel acceptance speeches on behalf of the organization.