List of Nobel laureates who worked on the Manhattan Project

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to a total of 965 individuals and 27 organizations as of 2023^[update].^[1] It was awarded to 32 scientists who also worked on the Manhattan Project. Of these, 24 won the Prize in Physics, five won the Prize in Chemistry, one won the Peace Prize, and two won the Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

[1]

Year	Laureate	Prize	Motivation	Manhattan Project	References
1922	Niels Bohr	Physics	"for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[2]
1925	James Franck	Physics	“for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom”	Metallurgical Laboratory	^[1]^[3]
1927	Arthur Compton	Physics	"for his discovery of the effect named after him"	Metallurgical Laboratory	^[1]^[4]
1932	James Chadwick	Physics	"for the discovery of the neutron"	British contribution to the Manhattan Project	^[1]^[5]
1934	Harold Urey	Chemistry	"for his discovery of heavy hydrogen"	SAM Laboratory	^[1]^[6]
1938	Enrico Fermi	Physics	"for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons"	Metallurgical Laboratory, Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[4]^[7]
1939	Ernest Lawrence	Physics	"for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements"	Radiation Laboratory	^[1]^[8]

Year	Laureate	Prize	Motivation	Manhattan Project	References
1946	Hermann Joseph Muller	Physiology or Medicine	"for the discovery of the production of mutations by means of X-ray irradiation"	Civilian advisor	^[10]^[11]
1951	John Cockcroft	Physics	"for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles"	Montreal Laboratory	^[1]^[12]
1951	Edwin M. McMillan	Chemistry	"for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[13]
1951	Glenn Theodore Seaborg	Chemistry	"for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements"	Metallurgical Laboratory	^[1]^[14]
1952	Felix Bloch	Physics	"for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[15]
1959	Owen Chamberlain	Physics	"for their discovery of the antiproton"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[16]
1959	Emilio Segrè	Physics	"for their discovery of the antiproton"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[17]
1960	Willard F. Libby	Chemistry	"for his method to use carbon-14 for age determination in archaeology, geology, geophysics, and other branches of science"	SAM Laboratories	^[1]^[18]
1961	Melvin Calvin	Chemistry	"for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants"	Radiation Laboratory	^[19]^[20]^[21]
1962	Maurice Wilkins	Physiology or Medicine	"for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material"	Radiation Laboratory	^[1]^[22]
1963	Maria Goeppert Mayer	Physics	"for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure"	SAM Laboratories, Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[23]
1963	Eugene Wigner	Physics	"for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles"	Metallurgical Laboratory	^[1]^[24]
1965	Richard P. Feynman	Physics	"for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[25]
1967	Hans Bethe	Physics	"for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[26]
1968	Luis Alvarez	Physics	"for his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[27]
1975	Aage Bohr	Physics	"for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[28]
1975	James Rainwater	Physics	"for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection"	Metallurgical Laboratory	^[1]^[29]
1977	John van Vleck	Physics	"for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems"	Consultant	^[1]^[30]^[31]
1980	Val Fitch	Physics	"for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[32]
1983	William Alfred Fowler	Physics	"for his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[33]
1989	Norman F. Ramsey	Physics	"for the invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[34]
1995	Frederick Reines	Physics	"for the detection of the neutrino"	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[35]
1995	Joseph Rotblat	Peace	"for efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international affairs and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms."	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[36]
2005	Roy Glauber	Physics	"for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence."	Los Alamos Laboratory	^[1]^[37]

v t e Manhattan Project
Timeline
Sites	Ames Berkeley Chicago (Site A) Dayton Hanford Inyokern Los Alamos Montreal New York Oak Ridge Salt Wells Pilot Plant Trinity Wendover Heavy water sites
Administrators	Lyman Briggs Vannevar Bush Arthur Compton James B. Conant Priscilla Duffield Thomas Farrell Leslie Groves John Lansdale Ernest Lawrence James Marshall Franklin Matthias Dorothy McKibbin Kenneth Nichols Robert Oppenheimer Deak Parsons Boris Pash William Purnell Frank Spedding Charles Thomas Paul Tibbets Bud Uanna Harold Urey Stafford Warren Ed Westcott Roscoe Wilson
Scientists	Luis Alvarez Robert Bacher Hans Bethe Aage Bohr Niels Bohr Norris Bradbury James Chadwick John Cockcroft Charles Critchfield Harry Daghlian John R. Dunning Enrico Fermi Richard Feynman Val Fitch James Franck Klaus Fuchs Maria Goeppert Mayer George Kistiakowsky George Koval Willard Libby Edwin McMillan Mark Oliphant George B. Pegram Norman Ramsey Jr. Isidor Isaac Rabi James Rainwater Bruno Rossi Glenn Seaborg Emilio Segrè Louis Slotin Henry DeWolf Smyth Leo Szilard Edward Teller Stanisław Ulam John von Neumann John Wheeler Eugene Wigner Robert Wilson Leona Woods Chien-Shiung Wu
Operations	Alsos Mission Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Operation Crossroads Operation Peppermint Project Alberta Silverplate 509th Composite Group Enola Gay Bockscar The Great Artiste
Weapons	Fat Man Little Boy Pumpkin bomb Thin Man
Related topics	African Americans Atomic Energy Act of 1946 Bismuth phosphate process B Reactor British contribution Calutron Girls Chicago Pile-1 Chicago Pile-3 Demon core Einstein–Szilard letter Feed materials Franck Report Interim Committee K-25 Project Los Alamos Primer Nobel Prize laureates Oppenheimer security hearing Plutonium Quebec Agreement RaLa Experiment S-1 Executive Committee S-50 Project Smyth Report Special Engineer Detachment Uranium X-10 Graphite Reactor Y-12 Project
Category

List of Nobel laureates who worked on the Manhattan Project

Awarded Nobel Prize during the Manhattan Project

Awarded Nobel Prize after working on the Manhattan Project

Notes

References

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