Qikun Xue
An experimental physicist known for work on quantum materials. His team’s observation of the quantum anomalous Hall effect connected topological ideas with measurable transport in magnetic thin films.
Nobel Prize in Physics: Selection, History and Research
Nobel Prize in Physics: Selection, History and Research. Explore the context, source evidence and related Nobel Prize coverage.
Start with the awarding body and selection rules, then explore contributions and verified past recipients. The current-year discussion is kept on its own annual page.
Awarding body
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Selection process
The responsible prize body receives eligible nominations, evaluates the proposed contributions and decides the recipients. The rules and eligible nominators differ by field; a nomination is not a guarantee of selection.
NobelPrize.orgResearch and work
Quantum materials · OLEDs · quantum anomalous Hall effect
2025 laureates
John Clarke · Michel H. Devoret · John M. Martinis
Current nomination records are confidential for 50 years. An expert recommendation or a market listing does not establish an official nomination.
Read each source within its own scope. A name appearing in several lists is a useful observation, not a calculated chance of winning.
Nobel Prize in Physics 2026Related reading
Nicola A. Spaldin
A materials theorist who investigates why electric and magnetic order can coexist. Her calculations and conceptual work helped establish multiferroics as a field of materials design.
Stephen R. Forrest
A researcher in organic optoelectronics whose work helped improve phosphorescent OLEDs. His research addresses how organic devices convert electrical energy into light efficiently.
Francis Halzen
Francis Halzen is a physicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and IceCube's principal investigator. The 2026 Physics Prize recognizes his contributions to IceCube and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from astrophysical sources.
Quantum anomalous Hall effect
The quantum anomalous Hall effect is quantized transverse electrical transport associated with magnetism and topology, without a large external magnetic field. Its experimental observation in magnetic thin films is distinct from the ordinary Hall effect and from a finished commercial device.
OLED research
An OLED produces light in organic materials when electrical charges recombine. Phosphorescence and thermally activated delayed fluorescence are routes to use excited states more efficiently. High efficiency alone does not settle lifetime, manufacturing cost or device reliability.
Multiferroic materials
Multiferroics combine more than one type of ordered property, often electric polarization and magnetic order. Coupling between them can make electric control of magnetism possible. Not every multiferroic has equally strong coupling or works under practical device conditions.