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2026 Nobel Prize winners

DW reporters
October 6, 2026

The Nobel Prize is an annual award for outstanding achievements. Each day in early October, selection committees announce the yearly laureates in one of six categories. The award ceremony is in December.

A bust of Alfred Nobel in the Nobel Forum at the Karolinska Institute
Image: Steffen Trumpf/dpa/picture alliance

Here is a list of the 2026 Nobel Prize winners:

  • Nobel Prize in medicine — Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.
  • Nobel Prize in physics — Francis Halzen for "decisive contributions to the IceCube neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin."
  • Nobel Prize in chemistry — Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai for the "discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis."
  • Nobel Prize in literature — Anne Carson for her "bold and inventive oeuvre."
  • Nobel Peace Prize — Navanethem "Navi" Pillay for her "efforts to promote peace and international law."
  • Nobel Prize in economics — Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford for "microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation."
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