Top 7 universities with most Nobel Prize winners

What is a Nobel university? 

One of the biggest claims to fame is how many Nobel Prize winners a university has, either from its faculty or its graduates. The ability of a university to hold its students and faculty to rigorous standards, encourage their people’s talents and provide facilities that allow them to explore and further their theories make it a Nobel university. This also might be why it has so many Nobel Prize winners. In this blog, we will discuss top universities with most Nobel laureates.

Top 7 universities with the most Nobel Prize winners

The Nobel Prize is a prestigious award that has global recognition. It is presented every year in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Each competition winner gets a medal, a personalized certificate, and a monetary prize. The following universities boast some of the most Nobel laureates-

Harvard University

Massachusetts’s Cambridge is home to Harvard University, established in 1636. Harvard is among the most prestigious universities in the world and the oldest in the United States. There have reportedly been 150 Harvard Nobel laureates who graduated from its halls. Politicians, authors, economists, and others are among them. Harvard graduates Theodore Roosevelt, Ralph Bunche, Henry Kissinger, and Al Gore have all won the Nobel Peace Prize. Also on the list are some professors of Harvard, including J. M. Coetzee, the author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and Martin Karplus, the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Columbia University

Founded in 1754 in New York, Columbia University is New York’s oldest institution of higher learning. World leaders, Oscar winners, and senior court justices are among its graduates who won a Nobel Prize. More specifically, about 100 Nobel Prize winners are estimated to have passed through its doors. The former president of the United States, Barack Obama, is one of the most well-known alumni to receive a Nobel Prize. The German physicist Max Planck and the authors Gabriela Mistral, Nadine Gordimer, and Mario Vargas Llosa are also on the list of Columbia University alumni who have received the Nobel Prize.

The University of Cambridge

Established in Cambridge, UK, in 1209, the recent data for the University of Cambridge indicates that about 90 Nobel Prize winners have been the University of Cambridge graduates. The physicists’ Lord Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, and Abdus Salam, as well as the writers Bertrand Russell and Patrick White, are among the university’s Nobel laureates. It is worth noting that Salam is the first Muslim scientist and the only winner from Pakistan. 

The University of Chicago

Established in 1890 in Chicago, the University of Chicago is a privately run research institute. Approximately 89 Nobel Prize winners were either graduates or held staff positions there. Among the graduates to receive a Nobel Prize in economics are Milton Friedman, George J. Stigler, Harry M. Markowitz, and Gary S. Becker. Barack Obama, a former U.S. president and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, also gave lectures at the university’s law school between 1992 and 2004.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

MIT is a technical school in Boston, Massachusetts. Among the most well-known Nobel laureates to have graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are the economist Paul Krugman and the diplomat Kofi Annan, both of whom received their Master of Science degrees from the institution. According to the most recent data, MIT came into existence in 1861 and has produced 83 Nobel laureates.

The University of California

Established in 1868, the University of California is a public research university in Berkeley, California. It counts almost 60 Nobel winners. Steven Chu served as Secretary of Energy in the United States and won a Nobel Prize in Physics. He was a professor of physics and molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The University of Oxford

Established in 1096, the University of Oxford is a public research university in Oxford, United Kingdom. It has about 58 Nobel laureates who are well-known figures, including the authors T.S. Eliot and William Golding, as well as the influential economist Sir John R. Hicks.

Summary

S.No	University Name	No. of Nobel Prizes
1	Harvard University	150
2	Columbia University	100
3	The University of Cambridge	90
4	The University of Chicago	89
5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	83
6	The University of California	60
7	The University of Oxford	58

Key takeaways

• A university’s capacity to hold its students and faculty to rigorous standards, encourage their talents, and provide facilities that allow them to explore and further their theories. These factors are essential for universities that produce Nobel Prize winners.
• Nobel Prize is a prestigious award that has global recognition. The Nobel Foundation presents it annually in Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden. Each winner gets a medal, a certificate, and a monetary prize.
• Harvard University, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, the University of Oxford, and the University of Cambridge are some of the top universities with most noble prize winners

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FAQs

Q1. What are the top 3 countries with the most Nobel Prize winners?

Ans- The United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany are the three nations with the most Nobel Prize winners, with a total of 383 winners. 

Q2. Which university decides the Nobel Prize?

Ans- Alfred Nobel named the organizations in charge of the prizes, including the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry, Karolinska Institutet for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and a Committee of five individuals to be chosen by the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Q3. Who was the last Indian who won Nobel Prize?

Ans- Abhijit Banerjee is an economist born in Dhule, India, on February 21, 1961. Together with his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer of Harvard University, he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Q3. Which university has the most Nobel prize winners?

Ans-Harvard University has more Nobel Prize winners than any other university in the world.