THE Nobel Prizes won by Italian citizens are – so far – 21divided into different categories: literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, economics and peace. The first compatriot to receive the coveted award was Giosuè Carducci in 1906, while the most recent dates back to 2021, with the Nobel Prize for Physics going to Giorgio Parisi for his contribution «to the understanding of complex physical systems».
The 21 Italian Nobel Prize winners
Nobel Prizes for Literature
One of the categories in which Italy has obtained the greatest number of Nobel Prizes is undoubtedly literature: 6 Italian authors have been awarded the prestigious award. Let’s talk about:
- Giosuè Carducci, 1906: the Nobel was awarded to him «not only in recognition of his profound teachings and critical research, but for all the tribute to the creative energy, purity of style and lyrical strength that characterizes his poetic masterpiece».
- Grazia Deledda, 1927: the first Italian woman to win a Nobel Prize won it «for her power as a writer, supported by a high ideal, who portrays life as it is in her secluded native island in plastic forms and who deals with problems of general human interest with depth and warmth».
- Luigi Pirandello, 1934: the Sicilian writer was awarded the Nobel «for his daring and ingenious renewal of dramatic and theatrical art».
- Salvatore Quasimodo, 1959: after 25 years, the Nobel Prize for literature returned to Italian hands, with Quasimodo awarded «for his lyrical poetry, which with ardent classicism expresses the tragic experiences of life in our times».
- Eugenio Montale, 1975: Montale was awarded the Nobel Prize «for his distinct poetics which, with great artistic sensitivity, interpreted human values under the symbol of a vision of life free of illusions».
- Dario Fo, 1997: the last Italian awarded for literature was Dario Fo, who according to the Stockholm Commission «mocks power by restoring dignity to the oppressed, following the tradition of medieval jesters».
Nobel Prizes for Medicine
Even in the field of medicine, Italian researchers have received important recognition for their discoveries: in fact, 6 Italian men and women have been awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine, from Camillo Golgi to Rita Levi-Montalcini.
- Camillo Golgi, 1906: Golgi obtained the Nobel Prize for medicine together with Santiago Ramón y Cajal, thanks to his studies onhistology (the branch of medicine that studies the structure, function and pathologies of biological tissues) of the nervous system.
- Daniel Bovet, 1957: Swiss naturalized Italian, Bovet was rewarded for his research dedicated to two types of drugsi.e. antihistamines and synthetic curaric compounds.
- Salvador E. Luria, 1969: Italian naturalized American, Luria won the Nobel together with Max Delbrück and Alfred Hershey for their studies on phages (i.e. viruses that exploit bacteria to replicate) and on bacteria, which led to the recognition of the virology and genetics as independent disciplines.
- Renato Dulbecco, 1975: among the most important researchers of his era, he obtained the coveted prize after discovering the mechanism of action of tumor viruses in animal cells.
- Rita Levi-Montalcini, 1986: internationally renowned neurologist, second and last woman to win a Nobel Prize and senator for life until 2012, Levi-Montalcini was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for her discovery of the nerve growth factor (NGF).
- Mario Capecchi, 2007: Capecchi was awarded the Nobel together with scientists Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies for their discoveries on the use of stem cells in genetic modification processes.
Nobel Prizes for Physics
Physics represents the category for which Italy received the most recent award: in 2021, in fact, Giorgio Parisi was the last Italian to be awarded a Nobel Prize. The full list includes:
- Guglielmo Marconi, 1909: among the first Nobel Prizes in history was the one awarded to Marconi, inventor of the telegraph and scientist author of numerous research on radio waveswhich laid the foundations for the birth of radio and television.
- Enrico Fermi, 1938: Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his studies on neutrons and radioactivity. The Italian scientist was also one of the technical directors of the Manhattan Project, leading to the creation of the first atomic bomb.
- Emilio Gino Segrè, 1959: Italian naturalized American, Segrè collaborated with Fermi and won the Nobel Prize thanks to his discoveries on the antiproton.
- Carlo Rubbia, 1984: he won the coveted prize together with his Dutch colleague Simon van der Meer for «their decisive contribution to the large project that led to the discovery of the W and Z particle fields, indicators of the weak interaction».
- Riccardo Giacconi, 2002: Giacconi was one of the most important astrophysicists of the new Millennium. Together with Raymond Davis Jr. and Masatoshi Koshiba he received the Nobel «for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which led to the discovery of cosmic sources of X-rays».
- Giorgio Parisi, 2021: the last Italian to have won the Nobel is the physicist Giorgio Parisi, awarded together with his colleagues Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann “for the discovery of the interaction between disorder and fluctuations in physical systems, from the atomic to the planetary scale”.
Nobel Prizes for Chemistry
So far, only one Italian chemist has received the Nobel Prize for his studies conducted in this field:
- Giulio Natta, 1963: together with his colleague Karl Ziegler, Natta won the Nobel Prize in the early 1960s for “discoveries in the field of polymer chemistry and technology”.
Nobel Prize winners in economics
Even for the economy, there is only one Italian to have won a Nobel Prize. These are:
- Franco Modigliani, 1985: Modigliani, an Italian naturalized American, was the only compatriot to receive the Nobel Prize for economics thanks to “his pioneering analysis of savings and financial markets”.
Nobel Peace Prize winners
Finally, the Nobel Peace Prize, perhaps one of the most prestigious and coveted. Throughout history, only one Italian has managed to obtain it:
- Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, 1907: together with the French professor Louis Renault, the journalist Moneta received the Nobel Peace Prize for “his commitment and the foundation of the Lombard Union for peace and arbitration”.
