Nobel Prize for Physics Speculation
Just to mention that tomorrow (Tuesday, October 7th 2025) will see the announcement of this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics. I must remember to make sure my mobile phone is fully charged so I can be easily reached, although I am likely to be lecturing when the announcement is made.
The announcement of the Nobel Prize for Physics on Tuesday is preceded today (Monday 6th) by the announcement of the Prize for Applications of Physics to Physiology or Medicine, and followed on Wednesday by the Prize for Applications of Physics to Chemistry. You can find links to all the announcements here.
I do, of course, already have a Nobel Prize Medal of my own already, dating from 2006, when I was lucky enough to attend the prize-giving ceremony and banquet.
I was, however, a guest of the Nobel Foundation rather than a prizewinner, so my medal is made of chocolate rather than gold. I think after 19 years the chocolate is now inedible, but it serves as a souvenir of a very nice weekend in Stockholm! Sadly one of the Laureates whose award we were celebrating passed away recently.
Regular readers of this blog may recall that I called it correctly in 2022 when Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger won the Nobel Prize for Physics that year. I had, however, predicted them every year for many years until they won, and they won’t win it again.
I drew a blank in 2023 when attosecond light pulses were the topic and was completely wrongfooted last when the 2024 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks”. I didn’t see that one coming at all.
I really have no idea who will win it this year, but I’ll suggest that there’s still an outside chance for Michael Berry and Yakir Aharonov for their work on the geometric phase, although if they were going to win they probably would have done so by now.
To find out who the lucky winners you’ll have to wait for the announcement, around about 10.45 (UK/Irish time) on Tuesday morning. I’ll update this post when the wavefunction has collapsed.
Feel free to make your predictions through the comments box below!
Update: I’m not often right but I was wrong again: the 2025 Nobel Prize for Physics goes to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit”…
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2025/press-release/
In the Dark 
October 6, 2025 at 10:41 am
As always there are loads of deserving physicist who will not win, but I went for Aharonov last year and will do so again this year. Ah well, let’s see. My general take on the Nobel is that I just hope it is an interesting topic that is worth learning about.
October 6, 2025 at 1:46 pm
I agree. The system is strange and rather flawed, but at least it gets people talking about physics!
October 6, 2025 at 10:50 am
Irwin Shapiro for Shapiro delay . This is long overdue.
October 6, 2025 at 2:06 pm
This would be deserving, but the 2017 prize to Weiss/Barish/Thorne for LIGO, and 2020 to Penrose/Genzel/Ghez for black holes were both for “GR”, so it seems unlikely they’d give another GR prize so soon.
October 7, 2025 at 12:03 am
From Prof Dr Norma G. Sanchez, Paris
Dear Peter
I have a copy of the Nobel Medal too ! (from 2006) and the Universe maquette given with it !
For Physics Nobel 2025 My prediction and wishes is that it has to go to Quantum Topology/Geometry Phases in Physics largely already measured, and/or Quantum Information:
Please Notice: Alex Starobinsky model of Inflation does not fit all the data, chaotic Inflation neither. Monomial Inflaton models neithe and are Not Physically motivated…
Let us Recall effective theory models in physics (Ginsburg Landau) Binomial and plynomial inflation (cosmic universal banana ) fit All data and it is physically (Ginsburg Landau) motivated without fine tuning…
Closing Parenthesis… With Best Wishes
October 7, 2025 at 5:41 pm
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October 9, 2025 at 10:08 am
John Clarke is a Cambridge product who joined the brain drain.