How well do you know the Nobel Prizes and their laureates? Challenge yourself with our comprehensive list of 50 Nobel Prize trivia questions spanning all categories!
Easy Level
- Who was the founder of the Nobel Prize?
Answer: Alfred Nobel
- In what year were the first Nobel Prizes awarded?
Answer: 1901
- What are the five original Nobel Prize categories?
Answer: Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, and Peace
- Which famous scientist won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his theory of relativity?
Answer: Albert Einstein (1921)
- Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
Answer: Marie Curie (Physics, 1903)
- Which South African leader won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993?
Answer: Nelson Mandela
- Which author won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954?
Answer: Ernest Hemingway
- What is the name of the sixth Nobel Prize category added in 1968?
Answer: The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (commonly called the Nobel Prize in Economics)
- Which organization has won the Nobel Peace Prize most frequently?
Answer: The International Committee of the Red Cross (3 times)
- Who was the youngest person to ever receive a Nobel Prize?
Answer: Malala Yousafzai (Peace, 2014 at age 17)
- Which famous civil rights leader won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964?
Answer: Martin Luther King Jr.
- Which country awards the Nobel Peace Prize?
Answer: Norway (all others are awarded in Sweden)
- Who was the first Asian Nobel laureate?
Answer: Rabindranath Tagore (Literature, 1913)
- Which scientist won Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields?
Answer: Marie Curie (Physics 1903 and Chemistry 1911)
- Which US president won the Nobel Peace Prize while in office?
Answer: Barack Obama (2009)
Medium Level
- Which Nobel Prize category was Alfred Nobel's own field of expertise?
Answer: Chemistry (he was a chemist and inventor)
- Who has declined the Nobel Prize after being awarded it?
Answer: Jean-Paul Sartre (Literature, 1964) and Le Duc Tho (Peace, 1973)
- Which Nobel laureate discovered penicillin?
Answer: Alexander Fleming (Medicine, 1945)
- Which family has the most Nobel Prizes among its members?
Answer: The Curie family (5 prizes among 4 members)
- Which Nobel Peace Prize winner was also a US Secretary of State?
Answer: Henry Kissinger (1973)
- Who was the first person to win multiple Nobel Prizes?
Answer: Marie Curie
- Which Nobel Prize is not awarded in Stockholm?
Answer: The Peace Prize (awarded in Oslo, Norway)
- Which scientist won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the structure of DNA?
Answer: James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins (Medicine, 1962)
- Who was the first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Answer: Albert Luthuli (1960)
- Which Nobel laureate developed the theory of quantum mechanics?
Answer: Niels Bohr (Physics, 1922)
- Which writer refused the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958?
Answer: Boris Pasternak (forced by Soviet authorities)
- Who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics?
Answer: Elinor Ostrom (2009)
- Which Nobel Peace Prize winner founded the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War?
Answer: Bernard Lown (shared the 1985 prize)
- Which Nobel laureate in Literature wrote "One Hundred Years of Solitude"?
Answer: Gabriel García Márquez (1982)
- Who was the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different fields?
Answer: Marie Curie
- Which Nobel Prize winner discovered the neutron?
Answer: James Chadwick (Physics, 1935)
- Who was the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Answer: Jane Addams (1931)
- Which Nobel laureate developed the polio vaccine?
Answer: John Enders, Thomas Weller, and Frederick Robbins (Medicine, 1954)
- Which Nobel Prize winner in Literature wrote "The Old Man and the Sea"?
Answer: Ernest Hemingway (1954)
- Who was the first organization to win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Answer: International Committee of the Red Cross (1917)
Hard Level
- Which Nobel laureate was forced by the Nazi regime to decline the prize?
Answer: Richard Kuhn (Chemistry, 1938) and Adolf Butenandt (Chemistry, 1939)
- Who is the only person to have won Nobel Prizes in two different sciences?
Answer: Marie Curie (Physics and Chemistry)
- Which Nobel Prize winner was also a US Vice President?
Answer: Charles G. Dawes (Peace, 1925)
- Who was the first posthumous Nobel Prize winner (before the rules changed in 1974)?
Answer: Dag Hammarskjöld (Peace, 1961)
- Which Nobel laureate in Physics was known for his work on the photoelectric effect?
Answer: Albert Einstein (1921)
- Who was the first Nobel laureate born in the 20th century?
Answer: Werner Heisenberg (Physics, 1932, born 1901)
- Which Nobel Prize winner discovered the electron?
Answer: J.J. Thomson (Physics, 1906)
- Who was the first Nobel laureate from China?
Answer: Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee (Physics, 1957)
- Which Nobel Peace Prize winner founded the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs?
Answer: Joseph Rotblat (shared 1995 prize)
- Who was the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Answer: Shirin Ebadi (2003)
- Which Nobel laureate in Chemistry discovered fullerenes?
Answer: Robert Curl, Harold Kroto, and Richard Smalley (1996)
- Who was the first person to win the Nobel Prize in Economics?
Answer: Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen (1969)
- Which Nobel laureate developed the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) technique?
Answer: Kary Mullis (Chemistry, 1993)
- Who was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Answer: Wangari Maathai (2004)
- Which Nobel Prize winner in Literature wrote in Russian but was a US citizen at the time of the award?
Answer: Joseph Brodsky (1987)
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