The Nobel Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed on "those who conferred the greatest benefit on humankind" in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences, instituted by Alfred Nobel's last will, which specified that a part of his fortune be used to create the prizes. Each laureate (recipient) receives a gold medal, a diploma and a sum of money, which is decided annually by the Nobel Foundation. They are widely recognized as one of the most prestigious honours awarded in the aforementioned fields.

First instituted in 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to a total of 965 individuals and 27 organizations . Among them, 28 Swiss nationals have been honored with the Nobel Prize. Additionally, two laureates acquired Swiss citizenship through naturalization after the award: Wolfgang Pauli and Jack Steinberger.

Nine organizations headquartered in Switzerland have received the Nobel Peace Prize. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been awarded twice, and the International Committee of the Red Cross three times. Five of these organizations were also founded in Switzerland, and eight of them had their headquarters in Geneva, a city hosting more than 40 international organizations and 750 non-governmental organizations.

The first Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in 1901, went to the Swiss humanitarian Henry Dunant. The latest Swiss laureates are Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2019. The 28 prizes are distributed as follows: eight for medicine, eight for chemistry, seven for physics, three for peace, and two for literature. No Swiss national has yet received a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Switzerland is among the countries with the highest number of Nobel laureates, both in total and per capita. Several factors have been suggested as possible explanation, including large public funding for research, the presence of highly ranked universities such as ETH Zurich and EPFL, and the neutrality of Switzerland in the two World Wars, which attracted scientists from abroad. The Nobel Prize has also been often recognized as being biased towards Western countries. According to Nobel laureate Werner Arber, the large number of awards to Swiss nationals is "likely a statistical anomaly", while Richard R. Ernst believes the number of Swiss laureates will keep increasing as the country still attracts talent.

Laureates + Year Image Laureate Born Died Field Rationale1901, co-founder of the Red Cross in Geneva in HeidenPeace"for his humanitarian efforts to help wounded soldiers and create international understanding"prize shared with Frédéric Passy1902, politician and director of the Permanent International Peace Bureau in Tramelan in BernPeace"for his eminently practical administration of the Inter-Parliamentary Union"prize shared with Élie Ducommun1902, peace activist and director of the Permanent International Peace Bureau in Geneva in BernPeace"for his untiring and skilful directorship of the Bern Peace Bureau"prize shared with Charles Albert Gobat1909, physician who introduced scientific methods in surgery in Bern in BernPhysiology or Medicine"for his work on the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid gland"1913, professor at the University of Zurich in Mulhouse, Franceacquired Swiss citizenship in 1894 in ZurichChemistry"in recognition of his work on the linkage of atoms in molecules by which he has thrown new light on earlier investigations and opened up new fields of research especially in inorganic chemistry"1919, poet and writer in Liestal in LucerneLiterature"in special appreciation of his epic, Olympian Spring"1920, physicist, head of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Fleurier in Sèvres, FrancePhysics"in recognition of the service he has rendered to precision measurements in Physics by his discovery of anomalies in nickel steel alloys"1921, theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity in Ulm, Germanyacquired Swiss citizenship in 1901 in Princeton, USPhysics"for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect"1937, organic chemist known for his contributions on vitamins in Moscow, Russia in Zurich, SwitzerlandChemistry"for his investigations on carotenoids, flavins and vitamins A and B2"prize shared with Norman Haworth1939, chemist, professor at ETH Zurich in Vukovar, Austria-Hungaryacquired Swiss citizenship in 1917 in ZurichChemistry"for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes"prize shared with Adolf Butenandt1946, poet, novelist and painter in Calw, Germanyacquired Swiss citizenship in 1924 in MontagnolaLiterature"for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style"1948, chemist at J. R. Geigy AG who synthesized DDT in Olten in BaselPhysiology or Medicine"for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods"1949, physiologist and professor at the University of Zurich who mapped areas of the brain in Frauenfeld in AsconaChemistry"for his discovery of the functional organization of the interbrain as a coordinator of the activities of the internal organs"prize shared with Egas Moniz1950, chemist and professor at the University of Basel who contributed to the isolation of cortisone in Włocławek, Polandacquired Swiss citizenship in 1914 in BaselPhysiology or Medicine"for their discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects"prize shared with Edward Calvin Kendall and Philip Showalter Hench1951, South African-American virologist and physician in Pretoria, South Africa in New Haven, USPhysiology or Medicine"for his discoveries concerning yellow fever and how to combat it"1952, physicist, first director-general of CERN and among the developers of nuclear magnetic resonance in Zurich in ZurichPhysics"for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith"prize shared with Edward Mills Purcell1957, pharmacologist who discovered antihistamines in Neuchâtel in Rome, ItalyPhysiology or Medicine"for his discoveries relating to synthetic compounds that inhibit the action of certain body substances, and especially their action on the vascular system and the skeletal muscles"1975, organic chemist, professor at ETH Zurich in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungaryacquired Swiss citizenship in 1959 in ZurichChemistry"for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions"prize shared with John Cornforth1978, microbiologist and geneticist, professor at the University of Geneva and Basel in Gränichen—Physiology or Medicine"for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics"prize shared with Daniel Nathans and Hamilton O. Smith1986, physicist, IBM Fellow in Buchs in WollerauPhysics"for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope"prize shared with Gerd Binning and Ernst Ruska1987, physicist, IBM Fellow in Basel in ZurichPhysics"for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials"prize shared with J. Georg Bednorz1991, physical chemist, professor at ETH Zurich in Winterthur in WinterthurChemistry"for his contributions to the development of the methodology of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy"1992, biochemist, professor at the University of Washington in Shanghai, Chinaacquired Swiss citizenship in 1947 in Seattle, USPhysiology or Medicine"for their discoveries concerning reversible protein phosphorylation as a biological regulatory mechanism"prize shared with Edwin G. Krebs1996, professor of experimental immunology at the University of Zurich in Basel—Physiology or Medicine"for their discoveries concerning the specificity of the cell mediated immune defence"prize shared with Peter C. Doherty2002, chemist and biophysicist, professor at ETH Zurich and The Scripps Research Institute in Aarburg—Chemistry"for his development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution"prize shared with John B. Fenn and Koichi Tanaka2017, biophysicist, professor at the University of Lausanne in Aigle—Chemistry"for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution"prize shared with Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson2019, astrophysicist, professor at the University of Geneva in Lausanne—Physics"for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star"prize shared with Jim Peebles and Didier Queloz2019, astronomer, professor at the University of Cambridge and Geneva in Geneva—Physics"for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star"prize shared with Jim Peebles and Michel Mayor

Individuals who acquired Swiss citizenship after the award + Year Image Laureate Born Died Field Rationale1945, Austrian theoretical physicist and pioneer of quantum mechanics in Vienna, Austrianaturalized Swiss in 1949 (place of origin: Zollikon) in ZurichPhysics"for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli Principle"1988, American physicist noted for his work with neutrinos in Bad Kissingen, Germanynaturalized Swiss in 2000 (place of origin: Geneva) in GenevaPhysics"for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino"prize shared with Leon M. Lederman and Melvin Schwartz

Organizations headquartered in Switzerland who received the Nobel Peace Prize