Ben Bernanke, economic sciences (2022), was on the economics faculty of Stanford Graduate School of Business 1979-1985. He shared the award with Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig “for research on banks and financial crises.”
Eric A. Cornell shared the 2001 physics prize with Carl E. Wieman and Wolfgang Ketterle “for creating Bose-Einstein condensation using laser cooling and evaporation techniques.” Cornell, a senior scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and professor adjoint at the University of Colorado-Boulder, received his bachelor’s degree in physics from Stanford in 1985. Wieman received his doctorate from Stanford in 1977 and is currently a Professor of Physics and of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University.
Louise Glück, literature (2020), at the time of the award was a visiting professor in the Creative Writing Program, where she was the Mohr Visiting Poet from 2017 to 2020. She was cited “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”
Robert H. Grubbs, chemistry (2005), was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Stanford in 1968-69 working with chemistry Professor James Collman. Grubbs, a professor of chemistry at Caltech, was cited with Yves Chauvin and Richard R. Schrock “for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis.”
Theodor Hänsch, physics (2005), was at Stanford from 1970 to 1986 (postdoc–professor). Since 1986 at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich and the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, he was cited with John L. Hall “for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique.” They share the Nobel Prize with Roy J. Glauber.
John C. Harsanyi, economic sciences (1994), earned a Stanford degree: PhD ’59 in economics. The University of California-Berkeley professor was cited with John F. Nash and Reinhard Selten “for their pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games.” Harsanyi died Aug. 9, 2000.
Dudley Herschbach, chemistry (1986), holds two Stanford degrees: BS ’54 in mathematics and MS ’55 in chemistry. The Harvard professor was cited with Yuan T. Lee and John C. Polanyi “for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes.”
Bengt Holmström, economic sciences (2016), holds two Stanford degrees: MS ’75 in operations research and PhD ’78 in business. The MIT professor was cited with Oliver Hart “for their contributions to contract theory.”
Paul Krugman, economic sciences (2008), of Princeton University is a former member of the Stanford faculty. He was cited “for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.” Krugman was at Stanford from 1994 to 1996 (visiting professor in 1993-94).
Willis E. Lamb Jr., physics (1955), was a professor at Stanford at the time of his award; he left for Oxford University in 1956. Lamb was cited “for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum.” At Stanford 1951-56; Oxford 1956-62; Yale 1962-74; Arizona 1974-2008; died 2008.
Joshua Lederberg, physiology or medicine (1958), of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, at the time of his award, was chair of genetics at Stanford for several years. Lederberg shared the 1958 prize with two professors who left Stanford before they became Nobelists: George Beadle and Edward Tatum. Lederberg was cited “for his discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria.” Beadle and Tatum were cited “for their discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events.”
- Lederberg: At Stanford 1959-78; Rockefeller University, 1978-1990; died 2008.
- Beadle: At Stanford 1937-47; Caltech, 1947-61; Chicago, 1961-75; died 1989.
- Tatum: At Stanford 1937-45 and 1948-57; Yale, 1945-48; Rockefeller Institute, 1957-75; died 1975.
Paul Modrich, chemistry (2015), received his PhD in biochemistry from Stanford in 1973. The professor of biochemistry at Duke University School of Medicine was cited with Tomas Lindahl and Aziz Sancar “for mechanistic studies of DNA repair.”
Ferid Murad, physiology or medicine (1998), of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, is a former professor of medicine at Stanford. He was cited with Robert F. Furchgott and Louis J. Ignarro “for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system.” Murad was affiliated with the University of Virginia, 1975-81; Stanford, 1981-89; Abbott Laboratories, 1990-92; Molecular Geriatrics Corp., 1993-95; University of Texas Medical School, 1996-present.
James E. Rothman, physiology or medicine (2013), of Yale University was a member of the Stanford faculty from 1978 to 1988. He was cited with Thomas C. Südhof, professor of molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford, and Randy W. Schekman “for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.”
Randy W. Schekman, physiology or medicine (2013), holds a Stanford degree: PhD ’75 in biochemistry. Schekman is a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was cited with Thomas C. Südhof, professor of molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford, and James E. Rothman “for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.”
Melvin Schwartz, physics (1988), was a consulting professor at Stanford at the time of his award; he was a faculty member from 1966 to 1983. He shared the award with Leon M. Lederman and Jack Steinberger “for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino.” At Digital Pathways, Mountain View, Calif., 1983-91; Columbia, 1991-2000; died 2006.
K. Barry Sharpless, chemistry (2001, 2022), earned a Stanford degree: PhD ’68 in chemistry. The Scripps Research Institute professor was cited in 2001 “for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions.” He was cited in 2022 for work with Carolyn Bertozzi of Stanford and Morton Meldal of the University of Copenhagen “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.”
Oliver Williamson, economic sciences (2009), holds a Stanford degree: MBA ’60. A professor at the University of California, Berkeley, he was cited “for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm.” He shared the award with Elinor Ostrom.