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Object.assign.bind() : function (target) { for (var i = 1; i < arguments.length; i++) { var source = arguments[i]; for (var key in source) { if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(source, key)) { target[key] = source[key]; } } } return target; }; return _extends.apply(this, arguments); }\nfunction _objectWithoutProperties(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded); var key, i; if (Object.getOwnPropertySymbols) { var sourceSymbolKeys = Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(source); for (i = 0; i < sourceSymbolKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceSymbolKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; if (!Object.prototype.propertyIsEnumerable.call(source, key)) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } } return target; }\nfunction _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = {}; var sourceKeys = Object.keys(source); var key, i; for (i = 0; i < sourceKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } return target; }\n/* @jsxRuntime classic */\n/* @jsx mdx */\n\nvar _frontmatter = {\n  \"date\": \"2026-10-12\",\n  \"title\": \"The Nobel Laureates of UC Berkeley\",\n  \"bylineName\": [\"Esha Bansiya\", \"Philip Park\"],\n  \"bylineUrl\": [\"\", \"\"],\n  \"featuredImage\": \"../images/nobel-cover-grid.png\",\n  \"hideHeroImage\": true,\n  \"aboutStory\": \"This story uses Berkeley Inspire’s list of 63 Nobel laureates, with award and affiliation data spanning 1934–2025. Biographies and informti\"\n};\nvar makeShortcode = function makeShortcode(name) {\n  return function MDXDefaultShortcode(props) {\n    console.warn(\"Component \" + name + \" was not imported, exported, or provided by MDXProvider as global scope\");\n    return mdx(\"div\", props);\n  };\n};\nvar NobelScrolly = makeShortcode(\"NobelScrolly\");\nvar NobelNote = makeShortcode(\"NobelNote\");\nvar layoutProps = {\n  _frontmatter: _frontmatter\n};\nvar MDXLayout = \"wrapper\";\nreturn function MDXContent(_ref) {\n  var components = _ref.components,\n    props = _objectWithoutProperties(_ref, _excluded);\n  return mdx(MDXLayout, _extends({}, layoutProps, props, {\n    components: components,\n    mdxType: \"MDXLayout\"\n  }), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"nobel-opening\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"In 1939, physicist Ernest Lawrence won UC Berkeley\\u2019s first Nobel Prize for his invention of the cyclotron, a machine that accelerated charged particles and introduced a new way to study the atom. Nearly a century later, UC Berkeley\\u2019s Nobel laureates have investigated how cells transport proteins, developed models for economic equilibrium and theorized that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate. Their work spans decades of research on campus and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"As this year\\u2019s Nobel Prize announcements \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"https://www.nobelprize.org/all-nobel-prizes-2026/\"\n  }, \"come to a close\"), \", The Daily Californian is looking back at the history of UC Berkeley\\u2019s laureates, tracing the recipients and their connections to campus. While campus primarily recognizes 63 UC Berkeley Nobel laureates, more than 100 laureates have been associated with UC Berkeley as alumni, short-term faculty or researchers.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"\\u201COur list includes alumni, faculty, emeriti and long-term postdoctoral researchers whose education and careers are rooted here,\\u201D said campus spokesperson Will Kane. \\u201CWe expect to add many more Berkeley names in the years ahead.\\u201D\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"The campus\\u2019s list includes laureates who hold a degree from UC Berkeley, held a multi-year postdoc or fellowship at UC Berkeley or who are current faculty, emeriti or faculty that stayed until retirement. Other affiliations, including shorter research appointments or visiting lecturers, generally fall outside this criteria.\")), mdx(NobelScrolly, {\n    mdxType: \"NobelScrolly\"\n  }, mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step\",\n    \"data-focus\": \"all\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"All laureates\"\n  }), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step\",\n    \"data-focus\": \"all\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Berkeley laureates overview\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box-copy\"\n  }, \"These 63 laureates span nearly a century of Nobel Prize winners. Some spent much of their careers at UC Berkeley, while others conducted research here before moving to other institutions.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step\",\n    \"data-focus\": \"Faculty\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Faculty laureates\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box-copy\"\n  }, \"Twenty-nine of UC Berkeley\\u2019s 63 laureates are faculty or emeriti. Twenty-four were faculty members or professor emeriti when they received their prizes; five became faculty after winning their prize.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step\",\n    \"data-focus\": \"Alumni\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Alumni laureates\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box-copy\"\n  }, \"Thirty-five laureates are alumni, including former students and postdoctoral researchers. They account for more than half of the laureates represented.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step\",\n    \"data-focus\": \"Women\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Women laureates\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box-copy\"\n  }, \"Four of the 63 laureates are women: Carol Greider, Frances Arnold, Jennifer Doudna and Carolyn Bertozzi. Three received prizes in chemistry and one in physiology or medicine. Greider and Arnold are alumni, Bertozzi is former faculty and Doudna is current faculty.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step\",\n    \"data-parking-step\": \"morph\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Portraits become colored marks\"\n  }), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step\",\n    \"data-parking-step\": \"context\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Berkeley Nobel parking spaces\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--parking\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"UC Berkeley affiliates have received prizes across five fields. Twenty-one laureates each received prizes in physics and chemistry, 11 received prizes in economics, nine received prizes in physiology or medicine and one received a prize in literature.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize recognized climate research that scientists at UC Berkeley helped produce through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory were contributors to this project. This prize is not included in our count, as it was awarded to an organization.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step\",\n    \"data-parking-step\": \"fill\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"All laureates fill their prize-category parking bays\"\n  }), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step\",\n    \"data-parking-step\": \"lab\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Berkeley Lab laureates highlighted\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"Sixteen laureates have worked at \", mdx(\"strong\", null, mdx(NobelNote, {\n    kind: \"lab\",\n    mdxType: \"NobelNote\"\n  }, \"Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.\")), \" All of them received prizes in physics or chemistry, beginning with Ernest Lawrence\\u2019s award for the cyclotron. Their discoveries range from finding new elements to genome editing.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step\",\n    \"data-parking-step\": \"manhattan\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Manhattan Project laureates highlighted\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"Several laureates also contributed to the \", mdx(NobelNote, {\n    kind: \"manhattan\",\n    mdxType: \"NobelNote\"\n  }, \"Manhattan Project\"), \", the United States\\u2019 project during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step\",\n    \"data-parking-step\": \"oppenheimer\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"UC Berkeley physics professor J. Robert Oppenheimer directed the Manhattan project\\u2019s Los Alamos Laboratory. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics four times, but never won.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step\",\n    \"data-parking-step\": \"literature\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Literature laureate highlighted\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"Czes\\u0142aw Mi\\u0142osz is UC Berkeley\\u2019s only Nobel laureate in literature. He received the prize in 1980.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--year\",\n    \"data-timeline-step\": \"year\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Year of award\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"UC Berkeley laureates received their Nobel Prizes between 1934 and 2025.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--decade\",\n    \"data-decade-step\": \"fields\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Prize fields by decade\"\n  }), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--decade\",\n    \"data-decade-step\": \"economics-medicine\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Recent economics and physiology or medicine laureates highlighted\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"Twenty laureates received prizes in economics or physiology or medicine. Five of the 11 economics laureates won during the 2000s. Six of the nine physiology or medicine laureates received their prizes from 2000 onward.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--year\",\n    \"data-timeline-step\": \"portion\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Share of the prize by decade\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"The Nobel Prize monetary award can be divided up to three individuals, either between co-researchers for a single discovery or split between two separate discoveries.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--year\",\n    \"data-timeline-step\": \"portion-paabo\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Svante P\\xE4\\xE4bo, the only full-prize winner since the 1980s\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, mdx(\"strong\", null, \"Svante P\\xE4\\xE4bo\"), \", UC Berkeley postdoctoral alumnus, has been the only individual since the 1980s who has won the entire Nobel Prize portion for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution in 2022.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--decade\",\n    \"data-decade-step\": \"totals\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Total laureates by decade\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"The number of prize recipients rose from two in the 1930s to 13 between 2020 and 2025, though increases are not consistent across all decades.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--age\",\n    \"data-story-step\": \"age\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Age at award by decade\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"The average age of prize recipients rose from about 40 in the 1930s to 67 in the 2020s.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--age\",\n    \"data-story-step\": \"age-hold\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Age graph continued\"\n  }), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--map\",\n    \"data-story-step\": \"birth-map\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Country of birth\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"Berkeley\\u2019s laureates were born in 14 different countries. Forty-seven were born in the United States.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--map\",\n    \"data-story-step\": \"map-affiliations\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Affiliations at the time of the award\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"A connection to UC Berkeley did not always mean working here when the prize was awarded. Laureates\\u2019 affiliations at the time of their award included universities and research institutions across the United States, Europe and Asia.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--map\",\n    \"data-story-step\": \"map-asia\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Award affiliations in Asia\"\n  }), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--map\",\n    \"data-story-step\": \"map-europe\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Award affiliations in Europe\"\n  }), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--map\",\n    \"data-story-step\": \"map-us-east\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Award affiliations in the eastern United States\"\n  }), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--map\",\n    \"data-story-step\": \"map-us-west\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Award affiliations in the western United States\"\n  }), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--map\",\n    \"data-story-step\": \"map-berkeley\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Berkeley award affiliations\"\n  }, mdx(\"div\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__box intro-scrolly__box--story\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"Twenty-four laureates were UC Berkeley faculty members or professors emeriti when they received their Nobel Prizes.\"))), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"intro-scrolly__step intro-scrolly__step--year\",\n    \"data-timeline-step\": \"faculty\",\n    \"aria-label\": \"Faculty laureates\"\n  })), mdx(\"section\", {\n    className: \"nobel-closing\"\n  }, mdx(\"p\", null, \"UC Berkeley\\u2019s 63 Nobel laureates represent 7% of all Nobel laureates in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and economics.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"For Randy Schekman, who won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, UC Berkeley\\u2019s research culture has been central to his career. He recalled the \\u201Cspecial cozy feeling\\u201D he experienced when first visiting the campus in 1975.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"\\u201CWe don\\u2019t have the deep pockets of a place like Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford. So we have to be interdependent in a way that is much less common,\\u201D Schekman said. \\u201CAnd we are all keenly interested in applying our work.\\u201D\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"However, Shekman is worried about the future of research amid funding cuts and the current political climate.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"\\u201CWe admit many fewer graduate students because faculty can\\u2019t afford them. Over the next two years, people are going to be closing their labs,\\u201D he said.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Schekman still emphasized the importance of preserving curiosity-driven research. He pointed to Jennifer Doudna\\u2019s Nobel Prize-winning research on CRISPR, which was built on decades of previous discoveries.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"\\u201CI think my concern going forward is that we don\\u2019t lose sight of that investment in basic science,\\u201D Schekman said.\")));\n}\n;\nMDXContent.isMDXComponent = true;","frontmatter":{"date":"October 12, 2026","title":"The Nobel Laureates of UC Berkeley","bylineName":["Esha Bansiya","Philip Park"],"bylineUrl":["",""],"subhead":null,"aboutStory":"This story uses Berkeley Inspire’s list of 63 Nobel laureates, with award and affiliation data spanning 1934–2025. 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