10 Nobel Prize Winning Families In Science

The Nobel Prize is the most prestigious award given for intellectual achievement in the world. While there have been several controversial snubs, few have also gone on to win multiple prizes. This, is a list of 10 famous Nobel laureate families of the world.

Curie family

You may already know that Marie Curie and Pierre Curie have jointly won the Nobel Prize in physics. Their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie received the Prize in chemistry, sharing it with her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie.

Marie Curie was awarded one more Prize for work done in chemistry thus taking their family total to five Nobel Prizes.

Niels and Aage Bohr

This father and son duo has won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1922 and 1975 respectively. Niels Bohr was awarded for his services in the investigation of atomic structure and Aage Bohr won for describing the structure of atomic nucleus.

Raman and beyond

In 1930, C.V. Raman became India's first Nobel laureate in physics. His nephew Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was awarded in 1983 for explaining the evolution of stars. In 2009, another Tamilian Venki Ramakrishnan won the Prize only this time in chemistry.

Thomson family

J.J. Thomson got the 1906 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of electron, the first subatomic particle to be found. His son, George Paget Thomson was recognized by the Nobel Committee in 1937 for showing that electron behaved like a wave.

Arthur and Roger Kornberg

Roger was only 12 years old when he saw his father Arthur Kornberg receive the most coveted Prize in 1959. Then, 47 years later, Roger won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for explaining how information is copied from DNA to RNA.

Euler family

Hans von Euler-Chelpin, distantly related to mathematician Leonhard Euler, was a biochemist who won the 1929 Nobel Prize in chemistry. His son Ulf von Euler was a physiologist who won the Prize in medicine for work done on neurotransmitters.

Manne and Kai Siegbahn

This father and son duo was an expert on spectroscopy. Manne Siegbahn won the Nobel Prize in physics for pioneering work done in x-ray spectroscopy. Whereas his son Kai Siegbahn won the same Prize for developing a new method of electron spectroscopy.

Bragg family

William and Lawrence Bragg were jointly awarded the 1915 Nobel Prize for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of x-rays. Lawrence is thus far the youngest ever laureate in physics. The father-son duo also have a crystal named after them – Braggite.

May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser

The Curies are not the only couples that have won the Nobel Prize. In 2014, Edvard Moser and May-Britt Moser received the Prize in medicine for the discovery of grid cells. These are neurons which provide a coordinate system to the brain and thus help an animal navigate in space.

Carl Ferdinand and Gerty Cori

Another Nobel Prize winning couple: Gerti Corie was the third woman to win a Nobel Prize in science. The biochemist duo shared the 1947 Prize in medicine for their discovery of glycogen.