Honors & Awards

Faculty, student and staff recipients listed here performed their award-winning work at Princeton, were employed by or studying at Princeton when they received their award, or are currently working at the University. Alumni recipients are denoted in italics. An asterisk is used to denote graduate alumni. Alumni Pulitzer Prize winners are not listed.

• 2021 David MacMillan, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry
• 2018 Frances H. Arnold, Class of 1979
• 2015 Tomas Lindahl, researcher
• 2008 Osamu Shimomura, research associate in biology
• 1996 Richard Smalley, Ph.D. *74
• 1951 Edwin M. McMillan, Ph.D. *33 (physics)

• 2022 Ben Bernanke, professor of economics and public affairs 1985-2002, and chair, Department of Economics 1996-2002
• 2022 Philip H. Dybvig, assistant professor of economics, 1980-1981
• 2021 Joshua Angrist, Ph.D. *89
• 2021 David Card Ph.D. *83
• 2016 Oliver Hart, Ph.D. *74
• 2015 Sir Angus Deaton, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of International Affairs Emeritus
• 2012 Lloyd Shapley, Ph.D. *53
• 2011 Christopher Sims, the Harold H. Helm '20 Professor of Economics and Banking
• 2011 Thomas Sargent, visiting professor of economics
• 2008 Paul Krugman, professor of economics and international affairs emeritus
• 2007 Eric S. Maskin, visiting lecturer with the rank of professor of economics
• 2002 Daniel Kahneman, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus and professor of psychology and public affairs emeritus
• 2001 A. Michael Spence, Class of 1966
• 2000 James J. Heckman, M.A. *68, Ph.D. *71
• 1994 John F. Nash, Ph.D. *50, senior research mathematician
• 1992 Gary S. Becker, Class of 1951
• 1979 Sir W. Arthur Lewis, the James Madison Professor of Political Economy

• 2010 Mario Vargas Llosa, Distinguished Visitor in the Program in Latin American Studies and visiting lecturer in the Program in Creative Writing and the Lewis Center for the Arts
• 1993 Toni Morrison, the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities Emeritus
• 1936 Eugene O'Neill, Class of 1910

• 2021 Maria Ressa, Class of 1986, investigative journalist
• 1919 Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, member of the faculty and president emeritus of the University

• 2024 John Hopfield, Howard A. Prior Professor of Molecular Biology, Emeritus
• 2021 Syukuro Manabe, senior meteorologist in atmospheric and oceanic sciences
• 2019 James Peebles, the Albert Einstein Professor of Science, Emeritus, and professor of physics, emeritus; Ph.D. *62
• 2017 Kip S. Thorne, Ph.D. *65
• 2016 F. Duncan Haldane, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics
• 2015 Arthur McDonald, professor of physics
• 2004 David Gross, the Thomas D. Jones Professor of Mathematical Physics Emeritus
• 2004 Frank Wilczek, Ph.D. *75
• 1998 Daniel C. Tsui, the Arthur Legrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering 
• 1993 Joseph H. Taylor, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics
• 1993 Russell Hulse, principal research physicist, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
• 1980 James W. Cronin, professor of physics
• 1980 Val L. Fitch, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics
• 1979 Steven Weinberg, Ph.D. *57
• 1978 Arno A. Penzias, visiting lecturer with rank of professor
• 1977 Philip W. Anderson, the Joseph Henry Professor of Physics 
• 1972 John Bardeen, Ph.D. *36
• 1965 Richard P. Feynman, Ph.D. *42 
• 1963 Eugene P. Wigner, the Jones Professor of Mathematical Physics
• 1961 Robert Hofstadter, Ph.D. *38
• 1956 John Bardeen, Ph.D. *36
• 1937 Clinton J. Davisson, Ph.D. *11
• 1927 Arthur H. Compton, Ph.D. *16

• 2013 James Rothman, the Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology 
• 1995 Eric Wieschaus, the Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology

• 2015 Simon Levin, the George M. Moffett Professor of Biology and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology
• 2012 Anne Treisman, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Psychology Emeritus
• 2009 James Gunn, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy
• 2002 W. Jason Morgan, the Knox Taylor Professor of Geography
• 2001 Elias Stein, the Albert Baldwin Dod Professor of Mathematics Emeritus
• 2000 Jeremiah P. Ostriker, the Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy
• 1998 John Bahcall, visiting lecturer, astrophysical sciences
• 1997 Martin Schwarzschild †, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy Emeritus
• 1993 Val Fitch, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics; Martin Kruskal, physics and mathematics
• 1991 George Miller, professor of psychology
• 1989 Donald Spencer, professor of mathematics
• 1982 Philip Anderson, the Joseph Henry Professor of Physics Emeritus
• 1979 Lyman Spitzer Jr. Ph.D. *38, the Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy Emeritus
• 1976 Hassler Whitney, professor of mathematics
• 1973 John Tukey, the Donner Professor of Science, Center for Statistics and Machine Learning
• 1970 Robert Dicke, professor of physics; John A. Wheeler, professor of physics
• 1969 William Feller †, professor of mathematics
• 1966 John Milnor, professor of mathematics
• 1964 Solomon Lefschetz, professor of mathematics

† posthumous

• 2015 Elaine Pagels, the Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion
• 2014 Jhumpa Lahiri, professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts
• 2012 William Bowen Ph.D. *58, president of the University emeritus
• 2012 Natalie Zemon Davis, the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History Emeritus
• 2011 Kwame Anthony Appiah, the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values Emeritus
• 2011 Robert Darnton, the Shelby Cullom Davis '30 Professor of European History Emeritus
• 2010 Stanley Katz, lecturer with the rank of professor in public and international affairs
• 2010 Joyce Carol Oates, Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the Humanities
• 2006 Robert Fagles, Arthur Marks ’19 Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus
• 2006 Bernard Lewis, the Cleveland Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies Emeritus
• 2000 Toni Morrison, the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities Emeritus

• 2022 June Huh, professor of mathematics
• 2018 Akshay Venkatesh Ph.D. *02
• 2014 Manjul Bhargava Ph.D. *01, the Robert C. Gunning *55 and R. Brandon Fradd ’83 Professor in Mathematics
• 2010 Elon Lindenstrauss, professor of mathematics
• 2006 Andrei Okounkov, professor of mathematics
• 2006 Terence C. Tao Ph.D. *96
• 1990 Edward Witten Ph.D. *76
• 1986 Gerd Faltings, professor of mathematics
• 1986 Michael H. Freedman Ph.D. *73
• 1982 William Thurston, professor of mathematics
• 1978 Charles Fefferman Ph.D. *69, the Herbert Jones University Professor
• 1962 John Milnor, Class of 1951, Ph.D. *54, professor of mathematics
• 1954 Kunihiko Kodaira, associate professor of mathematics

• 2013 For music: Caroline Shaw, graduate student, Department of Music
• 2012 For poetry: Tracy K. Smith, the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor in the Humanities and professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts
• 2003 For poetry: Paul Muldoon, the Howard Clark '21 University Professor in the Humanities and professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts
• 2003 For fiction: Jeffrey Eugenides, professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts
• 2002 For national reporting: Barton Gellman '82, Ferris Professor of Journalism (as part of a team of Washington Post reporters)
• 2000 For fiction: Jhumpa Lahiri, professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts
• 2000 For poetry: C.K. Williams, lecturer with the rank of professor in the Council of the Humanities and the Lewis Center for the Arts' Program in Creative Writing
• 1999 For general nonfiction: John McPhee '53, Ferris Professor of Journalism
• 1989 For history: James McPherson, the George Henry Davis '86 Professor of United States History Emeritus