Nobel Prize 2025: Who Won and Why? Complete Breakdown

The Nobel Prize is the most prestigious honor in the world, awarded annually for groundbreaking achievements that benefit humanity in six different fields, such as physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace, and economic sciences. Nobel Prize Winners 2025 announcements are scheduled from 6th to 13th October 2025, bringing attention to possible scientific advancements, humanitarian initiatives, and other topics worldwide.

What are the Nobel Prizes?

The Nobel Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious awards established by the last will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor, engineer, and industrialist, best known for the invention of dynamite. Nobel Prizes are officially awarded every year on 10th December 2025, the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel.

Each winner, called a laureate, receives: 

• A gold medal
• A diploma
• Monetary/ cash award of about 11 million Swedish kronor (around $1.2 million USD) in recognition of their exceptional contributions to society.

Nobel Prize 2025 Categories

The Nobel Prizes for 2025 will be awarded to individuals or organizations for their exceptional contributions to humanity across six fields. The prizes originally began with five categories as outlined in Alfred Nobel’s will. In 1968, a sixth category, Economic Sciences, was added by Sweden’s central bank, bringing the total to six categories.

Nobel Prize Winner List 2025 Schedule

The announcements of Nobel Prize Winners 2025 began on Monday, starting with the medicine prize announced by a panel at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Check the schedule for the Nobel Prize Winners announcement from the table below.

Nobel Prize Winner 2025 for Economic Sciences

Nobel Prize Winner 2025 for Economic Sciences has been awared to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt for “having explained innovation-driven economic growth”. Mokyr was awarded half the prize, with the other half being shared between Aghion and Howitt.

• Joel Mokyr – Mokyr is a professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, United States
• Philippe Aghion – Aghion is a professor at the College de France and INSEAD, in Paris, and at the London School of Economics and Political Science, in Britain
• Peter Howitt – Howitt is a professor at Brown University in Providence the United States.

Nobel Prize Winner 2025 for Peace

María Corina Machado is a Venezuelan politician and activist, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”. The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised her courage in defending democracy, even under threat and repression.

Nobel Prize Winner 2025 for Literature

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2025 to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.”

Nobel Prize Winner 2025 for Chemistry

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2025 has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M Yaghi for the development of metal-organic frameworks.

Nobel Prize Winner 2025 for Physics

The Nobel Prize 2025 in Physics is going to be awared to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit”.

It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises. It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology,” said Olle Eriksson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

Nobel Prize Winner 2025 for Physiology or Medicine

As per the announcement of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Prize 2025 in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance. The laureates identified the immune system’s security guards, regulatory T cells, which prevent immune cells from attacking our own body. 

• Mary E. Brunkow – Senior Program Manager, Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, USA.
• Fred Ramsdell – Scientific Advisor, Sonoma Biotherapeutics, San Francisco, USA.
• Shimon Sakaguchi – Distinguished Professor, Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University, Japan.

The chairperson of the Nobel Committee, Mrs. Olle Kämpe, stated, “Their discoveries have been decisive for our understanding of how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases.”

History of the Nobel Prize?

It was established by Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel in his will in 1895. Nobel allocated the majority of his wealth to fund prizes for outstanding achievements that benefit humanity in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace.

• The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. In 1968, the central bank of Sweden, known as Sveriges Riksbank, funded the establishment of the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences. Since then, Nobel Prizes have been awarded in six different fields.
• Administered by the Nobel Foundation, the prizes include a medal, diploma, and cash award, recognizing individuals and organizations for their groundbreaking contributions that advance society.

Nobel Prize Nomination Process

The Nobel laureates are selected through a specific nomination process. Only eligible nominators can propose candidates, and self-nominations are not permitted. Each year, approximately 3,000 individuals receive nomination forms from the Nobel Committee, usually in September of the year prior to the awarding of the prizes. These individuals are generally respected scholars and experts in their respective fields. The Nobel Committee creates a list of around 300 potential laureates from these submissions. The names of the nominees and their consideration status remain confidential. All nomination records are kept sealed for 50 years after the award is given.

Also Check – Nobel Prize Winners in India