Nobel Committee Will Announce Physics Prize Tuesday
The 2026 physics announcement follows Monday's medicine award and precedes chemistry and economics.
Updated on Oct. 6, 2026 in Physics
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The Nobel Committee will announce the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday at 11:45 am in Stockholm. This announcement follows the award for medicine on Monday, which recognized optogenetics.
Why it matters
The annual selection reflects the current focus of the Nobel Committee on foundational scientific discoveries. The physics prize remains one of the most significant indicators of major shifts in physical research priorities.
The committee maintains a specific sequence for the Nobel season, with physics following the medicine award. Previous accolades in physics include the 2010 prize for graphene research and the 2025 prize for John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis.
The players
John Pendry
A researcher cited as a potential candidate to share the physics prize with David Smith.
David Smith
A researcher noted for potential consideration alongside John Pendry for the physics award.
The details
Nobel Prize selections often follow long-term trends in citation analysis, a method used by Clarivate to identify potential winners. One area of ongoing interest in the physics community is twistronics, where twisting two layers of graphene—a one-atom-thick layer of carbon—produces superconductivity. While graphene received a prize in 2010, the broader application of twistronics is expected to take another few years to reach similar recognition levels.
Timeline
2010: Nobel committee awarded the prize for graphene research.
Monday: Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded.
Tuesday, 11:45 am: Nobel Prize in Physics is announced.
Wednesday: Nobel Prize in Chemistry is announced.
October 12: Nobel season economics prize is announced.
The Tech Race
The 2026 announcement follows the precedent of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for graphene by highlighting advancements in material science. The award committee continues to balance established material research against emerging fields like twistronics.
The Nobel announcement determines the central focus of global physics research for the coming year. While the immediate impact is academic, the winners often signal which technological domains will receive increased funding and commercial attention.
The takeaway
The physics community is watching to see if the committee recognizes work related to metamaterials or condensed matter physics. Observers should track the formal announcement on Tuesday to see if it follows the projections surrounding researchers like John Pendry.
Further reading
For more on the current state of the field, visit Physics.
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