This list of Nobel laureates affiliated with Washington University in St. Louis as alumni or faculty comprehensively shows alumni (graduates and attendees) or faculty members (professors of various ranks, researchers, and visiting lecturers or professors) affiliated with Washington University in St. Louis who were awarded the Nobel Prize or the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. People who have given public lectures, talks or non-curricular seminars; studied as non-degree students; received honorary degrees; or served as administrative staff at the university are excluded from the list. Summer school attendees and visitors are generally excluded from the list, since summer terms are not part of formal academic years; the same rule applies to the extension school.
The Nobel Prizes are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Karolinska Institute, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals who make outstanding contributions in the fields of chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine. They were established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel, which dictates that the awards should be administered by the Nobel Foundation. Another prize, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, was established in 1968 by the Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, for contributors to the field of economics. Each prize is awarded by a separate committee; the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, and Economics, the Karolinska Institute awards the Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Prize in Peace. Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma and a cash prize that has varied throughout the years. In 1901, the winners of the first Nobel Prizes were given 150,782 SEK, which is equal to 7,731,004 SEK in December 2007. In 2008, the winners were awarded a prize amount of 10,000,000 SEK. The awards are presented in Stockholm in an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
As of 2022, there have been 26 laureates affiliated with Washington University in St. Louis. Washington University considers laureates who attended the university as undergraduate students, graduate students or were members of the faculty as affiliated laureates. Arthur Compton, the chancellor of the university from 1945 to 1953, was the first laureate affiliated with the university, winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927. Four Nobel Prizes were shared by Washington University laureates; Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Spencer Gasser won the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Carl Ferdinand Cori and wife Gerty Cori won the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Arthur Kornberg and Severo Ochoa won the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and Daniel Nathans and George Davis Snell won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Seventeen Washington University laureates have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, more than any other category. With the exception of Daniel Nathans, who received his M.D. from Washington University and William E. Moerner who received his undergraduate degrees from the university, all Washington University laureates have been members of the university faculty. Also of note, co-discoverer of the neutrino Clyde Cowan, received master's and doctoral degrees from the university but died before the Nobel Prize was awarded for that work in 1995.
Laureates Year Image Laureate Relation Category Rationale 1927 Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1920–1923 and 1945–1962, Chancellor, 1945–1953 Physics "for his discovery of the effect named after him" 1943 Faculty of Medicine, 1919–1923 Physiology or Medicine "for his discovery of the chemical nature of vitamin K" 1944 Chairman, Department of Physiology, 1910–1946 Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries relating to the highly differentiated functions of single nerve fibres" 1944 Faculty of Medicine, 1916–1931 Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries relating to the highly differentiated functions of single nerve fibres" 1947 Faculty of Medicine, 1931–1984 Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen" 1947 Faculty of Medicine, 1931–1957 Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen" 1959 Chairman, Department of Microbiology, 1952–1959 Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid" 1959 Faculty of Medicine, 1940–1942 Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid" 1969 Faculty of Medicine, 1934–1950Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses" 1970 Faculty of Medicine, 1944 Chemistry "for his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates" 1971 M.D., 1942, Resident in Internal Medicine, 1943–1945, Faculty of Medicine, 1945–1953 Physiology or Medicine "for his discoveries concerning the mechanisms of the action of hormones" 1974 Faculty of Medicine, 1946–1947 Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell" 1978 M.D., 1954 Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics" 1978 Washington University Medical Service, 1956–1957 Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics" 1980 Faculty of Medicine, 1954–1959 Chemistry "for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA" 1980 Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1933–1934 Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions" 1986 Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1953–1959 Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries of growth factors" 1986 Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1948–1977 Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries of growth factors" 1992 M.D., 1943, Resident in Internal Medicine, Research Fellow in Biological Chemistry, 1945–1948 Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning reversible protein phosphorylation as a biological regulatory mechanism" 1993 Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1983– Economics "for having renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and quantitative methods in order to explain economic and institutional change" 1998 Faculty of Medicine, 1949–1956 Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system" 2004 Visiting Professor of Pediatrics, 1987– Chemistry "for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation" 2012 Medical Resident 1981–84 Chemistry "for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors" 2014 B.S., B.S., A.B., 1975 Chemistry "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy"2020 Faculty of Medicine, 1986–2001 Adjunct Faculty of Medicine, 2001–presentPhysiology or Medicine"for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus"2022 Faculty of Business, 1989- Visiting Professor, July 1988-December 1988Economics“for research on banks and financial crises"
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External links Official website of Washington University in St. Louis Official website of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Official website of the Nobel Foundation