Meet the 2026 Nobel Prize Winners
The unveiling of this year's awards is now underway. Here's what to know about the winners who have been announced—and the honors yet to come.
The Nobel Prize committees unveiled the winners of the 2026 awards on Monday. The first prize was for physiology or medicine, awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel. They were recognized for their groundbreaking work in optogenetics, a technique that utilizes light to understand and control cellular processes within the brain. This innovation has opened up new avenues for mapping the brain with unprecedented precision.
Deisseroth, a professor at Stanford University, expressed his delight at the recognition, calling it a "happy" moment. Hegemann, a professor of biophysics at Humboldt University in Berlin, admitted to being "overwhelmed" by the honor. Nagel, who teaches plant physiology at the University of Wurzburg in Germany, expressed surprise at the timing of the award, suggesting other medical discoveries might have had a broader impact.
The Nobel Prize for literature will be announced on Thursday, followed by the peace prize on Friday. The economic sciences award will be revealed on the following Monday, October 12th. Each laureate will receive a diploma, a medal, and a prize of 12 million Swedish kroner, equivalent to approximately $1.2 million. These awards will be presented in Stockholm and Oslo during December.
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