Last year's Nobel Prize in physics went to researchers who developed artificial neural networks and laid the cornerstone of the artificial intelligence (AI) era. Then who will have the honor of the Nobel Prize in physics this year? Ahead of the Nobel physics announcement on the 7th, attention is focused on the winners of major international academic awards and the candidate pools released by forecasting institutions, known as the preliminary skirmish.
Every year ahead of Nobel season, the Wolf Prize, called the "pre-Nobel," the Breakthrough Prize, known as the "Silicon Valley Nobel," and the list of highly cited researchers from Clarivate, a global academic information analytics company, are released. Each highlights scientists who have contributed to the expansion of human knowledge in different ways and serves as a barometer for gauging Nobel prospects. In fact, many researchers who appear on these lists go on to receive Nobel Prizes.
In Mar., Israel's Wolf Prize named as co-laureates in physics James P. Eisenstein, emeritus professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology in the United States, Jainendra K. Jain, professor of physics at Pennsylvania State University in the United States, and Mordehai Heiblum, researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, for their research on the fractional quantum Hall effect.
The fractional quantum Hall effect is a quantum phenomenon in which, when a very thin layer of electrons is placed in a strong magnetic field, the current appears to flow as if carried by particles that look like a single electron has split into several pieces. The three researchers who previously discovered this phenomenon won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1998.
The researchers who received the Wolf Prize this time were recognized for deepening both theoretical and experimental understanding of the fractional quantum Hall effect. The Wolf Prize committee said, "Professor Jain introduced a concept that allows for intuitive understanding of particle behavior, researcher Heiblum probed the particles through experiments, and Professor Eisenstein studied interactions among quantum particles," adding, "This has had a wide-ranging impact on new quantum technologies."
The 2025 Breakthrough Prize in fundamental physics, announced in Apr., went to 13,508 physicists worldwide who conducted collaborative research at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The list also included about 150 Korean researchers, such as Moon Dong-ho of Chonnam National University and Kim Se-yong, Kim Hyun-soo, Kim Yong-seon, and Oh Sae-hansle of Sejong University.
They measured the properties of the Higgs boson, a fundamental particle in particle physics, and discovered more than 72 new particles that interact strongly. They were also recognized for advancing modern particle physics by studying the properties of the quark–gluon plasma, the state of the early universe immediately after the Big Bang (dae pogbal), which created the universe, and the matter–antimatter asymmetry.
Clarivate this year announced 22 "Nobel-class" highly cited researchers. In physics, six researchers who study signal processing, quantum computing, and interstellar chemistry were selected. Since 2002, it has announced researchers in the top 0.01% by citation count, and to date 83 people who appeared on this list have received Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, or economics.
First, Ingrid Daubechies of Duke University in the United States, Stéphane Mallat of the Collège de France in France, and Yves Meyer, emeritus professor at the École normale supérieure (ENS) Paris-Saclay in Paris, France, who advanced wavelet theory, were named as highly cited researchers.
They advanced methods that break down complex signals or images into small wave pieces called wavelets for analysis. This theory is used in photo compression technology, noise reduction for audio and video, and interpretation of medical imaging data. By developing this theory, the three researchers opened the way to efficiently analyze complex phenomena and created a new turning point across mathematics and physics research.
David P. DiVincenzo of RWTH Aachen University in Germany and Daniel Loss of the University of Basel in Switzerland also made the list. They proposed the Loss–DiVincenzo model, which implements qubits, the smallest unit of quantum information, inside quantum dots by using a property of electrons called spin. Spin, in quantum mechanics that governs the microscopic world, refers to an intrinsic angular momentum independent of a particle's motion. The Loss–DiVincenzo model is regarded as a foundational theory of quantum computers because it presented a way to control each electron as a unit of information.
Ewine F. van Dishoeck of Leiden University in the Netherlands, a pioneer in interstellar chemistry, was also included. Van Dishoeck observed and analyzed interstellar molecular clouds that exist in space and revealed the process by which stars and planets form. By showing how chemical reactions occur in the molecular clouds where stars are born and how that process leads to the materials of planets, she provided key clues to solving the puzzle of cosmic evolution.
Looking at this year's major academic awards and prediction lists, research achievements with the common theme of "quantum" stand out. Quantum mechanics is the fundamental law that governs the microscopic world, the core of modern physics, and the foundation for next-generation quantum computer, quantum cryptography, and quantum sensor technologies.
The 2022 Nobel Prize in physics also went to achievements in the quantum field. At the time, the Nobel committee selected three physicists from France, the United States, and Austria for experimentally verifying quantum entanglement and, through that, opening the era of quantum information technologies such as quantum computers and quantum communication.