Nobel Prize Winners of Indian Origin

Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his work 'Gitanjali', becoming the first Indian (and first non-European) to receive the honor.

Sir C.V. Raman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for his work on the scattering of light and the discovery of the Raman Effect.

Har Gobind Khorana shared the prize for his research on the interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.

Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work in bringing help to suffering humanity.

S. Chandrasekhar was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics for his theoretical studies of the physical processes important to the structure and evolution of stars.

Amartya Sen received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 for his contributions to welfare economics.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath for their studies on the structure and function of the ribosome.

Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai were jointly awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.

Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer were jointly awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.

Har Gobind Khorana was born in Raipur (now in Pakistan) and later became a naturalized US citizen. Mother Teresa was of Albanian descent born in Macedonia.

The Chandrasekhar Limit is the maximum mass theoretically possible for a stable white dwarf star, a key discovery by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

Ronald Ross, while working in Secunderabad, India, discovered the transmission of malaria by mosquitoes. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1902.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is the only person of Indian origin to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009).

Gitanjali (Song Offerings) is a collection of poems by Rabindranath Tagore, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.

Mother Teresa, though associated with the Missionaries of Charity, is the only name on the list whose life and work are deeply rooted in Catholic religious service.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was the nephew of Sir C.V. Raman, both being Nobel Laureates in Physics.

Amartya Sen’s work provided a new understanding of the economic mechanisms underlying famines and poverty.

Amartya Sen served as the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1998 to 2004.

Amartya Sen was born in Santiniketan, near Kolkata, and has strong intellectual roots in the city.

India has produced multiple Nobel Laureates in Physics (C.V. Raman, S. Chandrasekhar, and others linked through work/ancestry).

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar spent most of his academic career at the University of Chicago and won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics for his studies on the physical processes important to the structure and evolution of stars.

Sir Ronald Ross was a British officer in the Indian Medical Service when he discovered the malarial parasite in the gastrointestinal tract of an Anopheles mosquito in Secunderabad, India.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz, and Ada E. Yonath were jointly awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.

Har Gobind Khorana was born in Raipur, a village in the Multan district of British India, which is currently in Pakistan.

The prize is officially titled the 'Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel'.

Har Gobind Khorana won the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.

Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, which received the Nobel Peace Prize for its humanitarian efforts in 1979.

Amartya Sen has held several prestigious academic and professional positions, including the presidency of the Econometric Society and the American Economic Association.

Rudyard Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 'in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author'.

Kailash Satyarthi is a prominent child rights activist who founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, dedicated to the eradication of child labor.

Har Gobind Khorana won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the order of nucleotides in nucleic acids, which carries the cell's genetic code.

Both Amartya Sen (at the time of his 1998 prize) and Abhijit Banerjee (at the time of his 2019 prize) have deep professional and academic associations with Harvard University.

Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his deeply sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse in Gitanjali.

C.V. Raman's discovery of the Raman Effect demonstrated light scattering by molecules, a phenomenon tied to the symmetry of molecular vibrations.

Amartya Sen was appointed the first Chancellor of the revived Nalanda University in 2012.

Ronald Ross carried out his most critical research regarding malaria transmission while stationed in India.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is an Indian-born American and British structural biologist who holds dual citizenship.

The Raman Effect is the inelastic scattering of a photon by molecules which are excited to higher vibrational or rotational energy levels.

Abhijit Banerjee shared the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with his spouse, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer.

Amartya Sen, C.V. Raman, and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar were all illustrious alumni of Presidency College, Kolkata.

Har Gobind Khorana shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for his work on the interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.

Rudyard Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907 'in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, and virility of ideas which characterize the creations of this world-famous author'.

Amartya Sen's early research in the 1960s, notably 'Choice of Techniques', was foundational to development economics.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan conducted his award-winning work on the structure and function of the ribosome at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.

Kailash Satyarthi founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan in 1980, which focuses on protecting children from exploitation and child labor.

Sir C.V. Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for his discovery of the Raman Effect.

Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, which was part of the Ottoman Empire (now North Macedonia) at the time.

C.V. Raman served as a professor and later as the first Indian Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Abhijit Banerjee completed his B.Sc. in Economics from Presidency College (now Presidency University), Kolkata, in 1981.

Ronald Ross proved that the Anopheles mosquito transmits malaria while working at the Begumpet Military Hospital in Secunderabad.