The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022

On 5 October 2022, Professor Morten Meldal of the University of Copenhagen received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 for discovering reactions that let molecules snap together to create new compounds and that offer insight into cell biology. 

Read the full story of Morten Meldals Nobel Prize.

Nobel laureates associated with UCPH

10 researchers associated with the University have achieved such remarkable research results that they have been awarded the Nobel Prize:

	Morten Meldal Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022
	Niels K. Jerne Nobel Prize in Medicine 1984
	Ben R. Mottelson Nobel Prize in Physics 1975
	Aage Bohr Nobel Prize in Physics 1975
	Henrik Dam Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1943
	George de Hevesy Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1943
	Johannes Fibiger Nobel Prize in Medicine 1926
	Niels Bohr Nobel Prize in Physics 1922
	August Krogh Nobel Prize in Medicine 1920
	Niels Finsen Nobel Prize in Medicine 1903

Method of counting

The University of Copenhagen's method of counting is not identical to that of the Nobel Committee, which states the winner's institutional affiliation at the time of the award.

UCPH alumni who have received a Nobel Prize

Jens Christian Skou (1918-2018)

Physiologist Jens Christian Skou was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1997. He graduated as MD from the University of Copenhagen in 1944 and earned his DMSc from Aarhus University in 1954. He became a professor of physiology at Aarhus University in 1963 and held the position of professor of biophysics there from 1978 to 1988. In his research, Skou particularly focused on the ability of cell membranes to transport substances in and out of the cell. He published his first paper on the sodium-potassium pump (Na+,K+-ATPase) in 1957 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery. In 1985, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in medicine at the University of Copenhagen.

Three winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Three authors, all of whom were students at the University of Copenhagen, have received the Nobel Prize in Literature:

Johannes V. Jensen (1873-1950)
Author Johannes V. Jensen received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1944. He was born and bred in Himmerland in northeastern Jutland and from 1893 studied medicine at the University of Copenhagen. After five years of study, he dropped out to devote himself to writing. In 1999, the readers of Danish dailies Politiken and Berlingske named Johannes V. Jensen's novel The Fall of the King the best novel of the 20th century.

Karl Gjellerup (1857–1919)
Author Karl Gjellerup received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1917 for his varied and rich poetry. Gjellerup graduated in theology from the University of Copenhagen in 1878 and was awarded the University's gold medal for his prize paper in 1881. He shared the Nobel Prize with author Henrik Pontoppidan.

Henrik Pontoppidan (1857-1943)
Author and social critic Henrik Pontoppidan received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1917 for his authentic depictions of human destinies and the social class divide in Danish society. From 1874 to 1879, Pontoppidan – like the main character in his novel A Fortunate Man (1904) – studied to be an engineer at the Technical University, which at that time was affiliated with the University of Copenhagen. He shared the Nobel Prize with author Karl Gjellerup.

Read more

Read more about the awards, Alfred Nobel, and all the laureates at the The Nobel Prize website.