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Notable Nobelists

Can you guess these people who won a Nobel Prize?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: October 20, 2021
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First submittedSeptember 3, 2015
Times taken13,883
Average score55.0%
Rating4.00
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Prize
Year
Hint
Answer
Peace
2009
Newly elected President whose win puzzled many
Barack Obama
1999
Group also known as Médecins Sans Frontières
Doctors Without Borders
1994
PLO leader who briefly ceased hostilities
Yasser Arafat
1993
Brought an end to apartheid in South Africa
Nelson Mandela
F. W. de Klerk
Literature
2016
First person to win a prize for their songwriting
Bob Dylan
1982
Colombian author known for "magical realism"
Gabriel García Márquez
1969
Absurdist Irish playwright who wrote "Waiting for Godot"
Samuel Beckett
1964
(declined)
Existentialist French author whose partner
was Simone de Beauvoir
Jean-Paul Sartre
1954
American author known for his white beard
and heavy drinking
Ernest Hemingway
1953
British politician who wrote
"A History of the English-Speaking Peoples"
Winston Churchill
Physics
1922
Danish quantum theorist
Niels Bohr
1921
Came up with the Theory of Relativity
Albert Einstein
Physics,
Chemistry
1903, 1911
First woman to win. First person to win twice.
Marie Curie
Medicine
1962
Discovered the structure of DNA
James Watson
Francis Crick
1945
Discovered penicillin
Alexander Fleming
Economics
1976
Most well-known of the "Chicago School" economists
Milton Friedman
1994
Game theorist who was the subject of the movie
"A Beautiful Mind"
John Nash
Chemistry,
Peace
1954, 1962
Brilliant chemist, anti-nuclear activist, vitamin C quack
Linus Pauling
+12
Level 71
Oct 5, 2015
"Also known as" Médecins Sans Frontières?? That's the original name. The organization was founded in France.
+8
Level 83
Oct 23, 2017
Yes, I only knew them by the French name and ended up guessing the translation.
+5
Level 59
Nov 20, 2017
Same with me. I've only ever heard it being referred to by the name in French.
+1
Level 72
Mar 22, 2020
Me too, I was unfamiliar with any translation of MSF into English. I wondered: isn't "Doctors without Borders" a fictional organisation that the doctor in the film The Constant Gardener is supposed to be working for? Clearly meant to be understood to be MSF, but presumably they didn't want to use that name. Now I find out that the name actually is used by some people for MSF.
+1
Level 66
Dec 11, 2022
They specifically ask you NOT to call them Doctors without Borders, because, well, that's not their name!
+1
Level 64
Dec 11, 2022
Agree completely, Isulv. And MSF should also be accepted as an answer. In Europe they're known either by the full name or by the abbreviation.
+1
Level 80
Dec 14, 2022
Completely threw me too. I just typed in the translation as a long shot.
+3
Level 72
Oct 5, 2015
Dammit, couldn't spell Crick. Tried Creek, Kreek, Criek...
+7
Level 77
Oct 5, 2015
Of course Rosalind Franklin contributed mightily to the discovery of DNA, but was left off the list by the Nobel Committee.
+5
Level 55
Oct 6, 2015
She was dead. It never goes to dead people unless they died right before the announcement (as happened last year, I think).
+2
Level 82
Oct 22, 2017
First it was possible to award it to people who died after their nomination.

Since 1974 they must be alive at the time of the announcement, but they may die before the actual award ceremony (William Vickrey, Economics 1996).

In 2001 the laureate (Ralph M. Steinman, Medicine) died 3 days before the annoucement, but as the comittee didn't know about it at the time, they checked the wording of the rules and decided to award it anyway.

+3
Level 76
Oct 29, 2019
and Maurice Wilkins also contributed mightily, and shared the nobel prize with Watson and Crick, but was unaccountably missed off by this quiz
+3
Level 79
Oct 16, 2015
Saw Colombian and "magical realism" and could only think of Pablo Escobar.
+1
Level 59
Nov 20, 2017
Off course, Escobar Gaviria was widely known as an author.
+2
Level 72
Jun 13, 2017
I have an Economics degree from a very good British University and I have never heard of the "Chicago School" of Economists. Obviously, I have heard of and studied Friedman, I've just not heard of that 'school'. Either it's not taught/called that in Britain or I was very drunk that day.
+7
Level 79
Oct 21, 2017
I studied politics and sociology in Sheffield, 1980s, and Friedman was always identified as the leading light of the Chicago School of economists.
+2
Level 67
Nov 19, 2017
The name arises from the economics department at the University of Chicago, which is one of America's most elite (and, according to some, the most elite) universities. Their economics department is considered to be the best in the country, and many of the principles it espouses run counter to the theories popular at its peer institutions (especially Harvard).
+3
Level 70
Dec 1, 2017
Why are they all called Milton? Anyway, I only got as far as Milton Keynes.
+1
Level 82
Dec 10, 2022
Considering the gaps in your knowledge about such a wide range of subjects I don't know if I believe this assessment of the quality of your "very good" university...
+7
Level 69
Oct 22, 2017
Awesome quiz! However, i think the Einstein's hint is misleading... he actually won the Nobel prize by explaining the photoelectric effect.
+12
Level 82
Oct 22, 2017
And you think Hemingway was awarded for his white beard and heavy drinking?
+6
Level 69
Oct 22, 2017
it's not quite the same thing... relativity and photoelectric effect are both Physics related, no one would say Hemingway was awarded for his white beard and heavy drinking. My point is that this hint can make someone think that Einstein was awarded for the Relativity, and that's not accurate.
+2
Level 85
Nov 19, 2017
Now that would have been an interesting acceptance speech.
+1
Level 82
May 1, 2018
I mean, if there were a Nobel for drinking, he'd definitely be in with a shot.
+2
Level 81
May 10, 2023
Nicely worded!
+1
Level 66
Dec 11, 2022
This clue is also not very good. Is he that well-known for his looks rather than Old Man & the Sea?
+1
Level 78
Oct 29, 2021
If the clue was concerning his explanation of the photoelectric effect, the percentage getting the answer would be halved, if not drawn and quartered
+1
Level 87
Nov 19, 2017
I posted a quiz on female Nobel laureates here: https://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/107925/female-nobel-laureates
+1
Level 71
Nov 19, 2017
You might like to accept Howard Florey and Ernst Chain as discoverers of penicillin, as they also received the Nobel prize for this
+1
Level 77
Nov 19, 2017
Don't forget Maurice Wilkins for the structure of DNA - he also shared in the Nobel Prize.
+4
Level 80
Nov 19, 2017
Why does Obama have a Peace Prize exactly? Do be honest Jimmy Carter is the only US president (ever) that deserves a Peace Prize.
+1
Level 29
Nov 19, 2017
The peace prize is extremely subjective. Also, it is "To be honest" instead of "Do be honest"...
+1
Level 85
Aug 10, 2020
Obama didn't deserve it and neither did Carter. I think the only recent president you can make a good case for is Bill Clinton.
+5
Level 87
Dec 4, 2020
The man who bombed Bosnia and Kosovo? I mean, it was for a fair reason, but that is definitely not peace. Ironically, Trump is the only one in a while who hasn't started a war. If you're discounting Carter, as you are, he is the first president since Ford that hasn't gotten us involved in a war. And if Arafat wins one for temporarily stopping the mass murder of Israeli civilians, Trump certainly gets one for helping them establish diplomatic relations with three Arab nations in less than five months and securing overflight with the Saudis. Trump is a pretty distasteful man, but the Nobel Committee is too.
+1
Level 78
May 14, 2021
Isn't it ironic that the Nobel Peace Prize is named after the guy who invented dynamite.
+5
Level 78
Oct 29, 2021
It's not ironic at all, he created the award because he felt guilty that his invention was used in war.
+1
Level 76
Feb 15, 2023
@KanzazKyote Trump didn't start any war, but he sure continued them, and even greatly increased drone strikes. A peace living man he is not.
+1
Level 48
Nov 20, 2017
If I learn nothing else today - I now know that there is an R before the T in Sartre
+1
Level 88
Oct 3, 2018
So important when remembering someone who stole all his ideas from Heidegger. However, Heidegger espoused the Nazi cause and Sartre was a French resistance fighter, so I can see why no-one wants to know Heidegger! Satre also cut a romantic/dashing figure in post-war, Parisian cafe culture.
+2
Level 42
Apr 29, 2020
Stole all his ideas from Heidegger? The simple fact that you correctly recall Heidegger backing up a political party exposes how far he is from Sartre - who'd pick no side at all, ever, and indeed would be addressed by someone in his time as somebody who only "sits" in the same direction as history....
+2
Level 69
May 29, 2019
I'm surprised Linus Pauling, one of the 4 people to win 2 noble prizes and the only person to win 2 solo prizes is so low.
+1
Level 69
Dec 10, 2022
And I surprised that Dylan is so high.
+2
Level 89
Dec 10, 2022
I remember Dylan's win being quite prominent in the news and it helps that he's more well-known than some of the others on the list.
+3
Level 48
Jan 24, 2020
Should accept Maria Sklodowska-Curie since that's her real name.
+4
Level 93
Oct 13, 2020
If you typed all that out and didn't type 'curie' you deserved to get it wrong lol.
+5
Level 69
Dec 10, 2022
You're simply wrong. If you're typing someone's full, correct name it should be accepted. She was born Polish as Maria Skłodowska. When she married Pierre Curie, she added his surname to her maiden name. Also, on her Nobel Prize Diploma from 1911 it is clearly stated as Sklodowska Curie
+4
Level 78
May 8, 2022
Great quiz, but you should mention that the 'Nobel Prize' for Economics isn't really one. It was created in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden, and has been known for being extremely biased in favor of the so-called 'orthodox' (liberal) school of economics.
+1
Level 66
Dec 10, 2022
Did the Nobel Prize ever have significance? It seems like .. I don't know if propaganda is the right term, but looking at this list, a lot of these people do not seem respectable.

I guess you should only consider Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine- and the others' deletion from history would be a net benefit.

+1
Level 64
Dec 11, 2022
If you have an axe to grind about Obama 'whose win puzzled many', this is not the place to grind it. The rest of the clue was sufficient.

Also, you should make it clear in the instructions that some clues have two answers, I missed a couple that way.

+1
Level 58
Dec 11, 2022
Selma Lagerlöf IS notable because she was the first woman to win the prize for literature!!!!!!!
+1
Level 93
Aug 10, 2023
Okay but even on Jetpunk you'd be very hard-pressed to find anyone who knows that bit of information.
+1
Level 58
Dec 12, 2022
Accept Maria Sklodowska, since it is a real name of Marie curie