2026 Nobel Prizes Award Innovation, Exploration, and Pursuit of Justice

Wordplay poetry, brain-mapping algae, and a giant block of ice were among the topics that earned Nobel Prizes this month. The Swedish-based Nobel committees pick the winners.

Alfred Nobel was a Swedish scientist. He started the Nobel Prizes in 1896 as part of his will. He left much of his money to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." The awards are given in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economics, and peace. The first awards were given in 1901. Past winners include Winston Churchill, Bob Dylan, and Barack Obama.      

Here’s a rundown of this year’s winners.

Peace: Navanethem “Navi” Pillay of South Africa. She won for her work on behalf of global justice. Pillay is a lawyer and judge. She serves on the International Court of Justice. And she chaired a UN commission that studied the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Her rulings have helped shape legal action in war-affected regions.     

Physics: Francis Halzin of the US. He won for creating IceCube. It's a research lab at the South Pole. IceCube uses a full square kilometer of ice to record interactions between atoms and neutrinos. Those are a kind of high-energy particle. 

Chemistry: Henri B. Kagan of France and Kenso Soai of Japan. They won for findings that helped explain homochirality. It occurs when amino acids have a mirrored version that rarely appears in nature. 

Medicine: Karl Deisseroth of the US and Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel of Germany. They won for discovering a protein in single-celled algae that is sensitive to light. It can be used to research how nerves work in the human brain.  

Literature: Anne Carson of Canada. She won for her poetry that "has created new forms for contemporary literature.” 

Economics: Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford of the US. They won for their economic models that allow large economies to be more stable. The model avoids large swings that can get in the way of steady progress.

All winners receive a gold medal, a diploma, and 12,000,000 Swedish krona. That's about $1,196,400.  

Reflect: What does it mean to you for someone’s work to benefit humankind?

Photo of 2026 Nobel Prize winners illustrations by Niklas Elmehed courtesy of Nobel Prize Outreach.