List of South African Nobel laureates and nominees

The Nobel Prizes were established according to the will of the Swedish industrialist and inventor, Alfred Nobel and are awarded to individuals who have excelled in the fields of chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature, economics and peace. Since 1951, eleven South African-born individuals have been awarded.

Laureates

Year Image Laureate Born Died Field Citation
Citizens
1951 Max Theiler 30 January 1899
Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
11 August 1972
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Physiology or Medicine "for his discoveries concerning yellow fever and how to combat it."
1960 Albert Luthuli c. 1898
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
27 July 1967
KwaDukuza, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Peace "for his non-violent struggle against apartheid."
1979 Allan MacLeod Cormack 23 February 1924
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
7 May 1998
Winchester, Massachusetts, United States
Physiology or Medicine "for the development of computer assisted tomography."
(awarded together with Godfrey Hounsfield)
1984 Desmond Tutu 7 October 1931
Klerksdorp, North West, South Africa
26 December 2021
Cape Town, South Africa
Peace "for his role as a unifying leader figure in the non-violent campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa."
1991 Nadine Gordimer 20 November 1923
Springs, Gauteng, South Africa
13 July 2014
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Literature "who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity."
1993 Nelson Mandela 18 July 1918
Mvezo, OR Tambo, Eastern Cape, South Africa
5 December 2013
Houghton Estate, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Peace "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa."
Frederik Willem de Klerk 18 March 1936
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
11 November 2021
Cape Town, South Africa
2002 Sydney Brenner 13 January 1927
Germiston, Transvaal, South Africa
5 April 2019
Singapore
Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death."
(awarded together with H. Robert Horvitz and John E. Sulston)
2003 John Maxwell Coetzee 9 February 1940
Cape Town, South Africa
Literature "who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider."
2013 Michael Levitt 9 May 1947
Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Chemistry "for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems."
(awarded together with Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel)
Expatriates
1982 Aaron Klug 11 August 1926
Želva, Ukmergė, Lithuania
20 November 2018
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Chemistry "for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes."

Members of laureate organizations

The following South African-based organizations and individuals were significant members who contributed largely in making a larger organization become a Nobel laureate.

Year Image Individual/
organization
Born Died Laureate organization Citation
1963 South African Red Cross Society (SARCS) founded in 1921 in Cape Town, South Africa League of Red Cross Societies
(with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC))
"for promoting the principles of the Geneva Convention and cooperation with the U.N."
1965 UNICEF South Africa founded in 1946 in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) "for its effort to enhance solidarity between nations and reduce the difference between rich and poor states"
2007 Debra Roberts 13 January 1961
Harare, Zimbabwe
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
(with Al Gore (b. 1948))
"for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

Nominations

The first South African nominee for the Nobel Prize was a certain P. B. de Ville who was unsuccessfully recommended twice (in 1930 and 1932) by South African Minister of Health and Social Welfare Karl Bremer (1885–1953). Since then, other South African influential figures and organizations started receiving nominations as well. The following list are the nominees with verified nominations from the Nobel Committee and recognized international organizations. There are also other purported nominees whose nominations are yet to be verified since the archives are revealed 50 years after, among them:

Nominees

Image Nominee Born Died Years Nominated Citation Nominator(s)
Physics
Johannes Frederik ("Hannes") de Beer 1930 1966 "for the development of the spark chamber" Yozo Nogami (1918-2008) from University of Tokyo
 Japan
Chemistry
John Bockris 5 January 1923 in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa 7 July 2013 in Gainesville, Florida, United States 1970 "for his research on the first model of the electrode-electrolyte surface that include the dipole moment of the solvent." T. M. Salem (?)
 Egypt
Physiology or Medicine
Joseph Gillman 3 December 1907 in Pretoria, South Africa 5 September 1981 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France 1953 "for their contributions in addressing malnutrition and pellagra in South Africa."
  • E. H. Cluver (?)
     South Africa
  • O. S. Heyns (?)
     South Africa
  • Raymond Dart
    (1893–1988)
     South Africa
Theodore Gillman c. 1917 in South Africa 12 July 1971 in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Literature
J. R. R. Tolkien 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa 2 September 1973 in Bournemouth, Hampshire, England 1961 The Hobbit (1937)
The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955)
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962)
The Road Goes Ever On (1967)
C. S. Lewis
(1898–1963)
 United Kingdom
1967 Gösta Holm
(1916–2011)
 Sweden
1969 Richard E. Wycherley
(1909–1986)
 United Kingdom
Nadine Gordimer 20 November 1923 in Springs, Gauteng, South Africa 13 July 2014 in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa 1972 A World of Strangers (1958)
The Conservationist (1974)
Burger's Daughter (1979)
July's People (1981)
Artur Lundkvist
(1906–1991)
 Sweden
Alan Paton 11 January 1903 in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 12 April 1988 in Botha's Hill, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 1972 Cry, The Beloved Country (1948)
Too Late the Phalarope (1953)
Tales from a Troubled Land (1961)
Ah, but Your Land Is Beautiful (1983)
Astley Cooper Partridge
( 1901–?)
 South Africa
Peace
P. B. de Ville ?
South Africa
?
South Africa
1930, 1932 Karl Bremer
(1885–1953)
 South Africa
Jan Smuts 24 May 1870 in Riebeek West, Swartland, Western Cape, South Africa 11 September 1950 in Irene, Gauteng, South Africa 1945 "for his efforts to end World War II and for South Africa's main role in the war of helping the allies in preventing Germany and Italy from conquering North Africa." Halvdan Koht
(1873–1965)
 Norway
Marcus [Mordechai Aryeh] Wald 1 June 1901 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania 12 March 1957 in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa 1949 "for his book on Jewish comprehensions of the peace problem." D. L. Smit (?)
 South Africa
Helen Suzman 7 November 1917 in Germiston, Transvaal, South Africa 1 January 2009 in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa 1972 Richard Luyt
(1915–1994)
 South Africa
Stephen Biko 18 December 1946 in Tarkastad, Eastern Cape, South Africa 12 September 1977 in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa 1978 American Friends Service Committee
Beyers Naudé 10 May 1915 in Roodepoort, Gauteng, South Africa 7 September 2004 in Johannesburg, South Africa 1993 "for his role in the dismantling of apartheid, as fighter for human rights, and prophet and humane pastor to all who suffered under apartheid."
Zackie Achmat 21 March 1962 in Vrededorp, Gauteng, South Africa 2004 "for having helped to galvanize a global movement to provide hope and gain access to treatment for those with HIV and AIDS."
Treatment Action Campaign founded in 1998 in Cape Town, South Africa
14 South African women (part of the 1000 PeaceWomen) began in 2003 in Bern, Switzerland 2005 "in recognition of women's efforts and visibility in promoting peace all over the world." Ruth-Gaby Vermont-Mangold
(born 1941)
  Switzerland

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