Who Was the Youngest Person to Win a Nobel Prize?

As of 2012, the youngest person to win a Nobel Prize was William Lawrence Bragg, who was 25 when he and his father, Sir William Bragg, jointly won the 1915 prize for physics. Their investigations were important to the development of X-ray technology. William Lawrence Bragg went on to be knighted in 1941.

More about Nobel Prizes:

• As of 2012, the oldest living Nobel laureate was neurologist Rita Levi-Montalcini, who shared the Physiology or Medicine award with Stanley Cohen in 1986. Dr. Levi-Montalcini turned 103 in April 2012.


• Nobel Prizes are awarded in the categories of chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, economics, peace and physics.


• During the 1920s, Nobel laureates were, on average, in their mid-40s. The average age of a Nobel prize winner steadily increased over the years to more than 60 years of age in 2000.