The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will announce the recipient(s) of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday (today).

“The prize will be announced on Tuesday, 6 October, 11:45 CEST at the earliest, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,” a statement by the Nobel Prize said.

Physics was the first prize category Alfred Nobel mentioned in his 1895 will. At the time, physics was widely regarded as the foremost scientific discipline, a view that Nobel may have shared as his own research was closely related to physics.

Michel Devoret, John Martinis and John Clarke were the physics prize winners in 2025 for their contributions to quantum mechanical tunnelling and quantised energy levels in a system big enough to be held in the hand.

Since the first Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in 1901, the prize has been awarded 119 times to 230 laureates, including five women. The youngest Physics laureate was 25, while the oldest was 96.

The Physics Prize will be the second category announced this week, after Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel were named winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday.