Nobel Prizes awarded to former and current MSCA supervisors and researcher
Among this year's winners are Michel H. Devoret for Physics, Omar M. Yaghi for Chemistry, and Philippe Aghion for Economic Sciences.
Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry 2025 awarded to former and current MSCA supervisors
Nobel Prize in Physics 2025 to Michel H. Devoret
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prestigious science prize to Michel H. Devoret, alongside John Clarke and John M. Martinis, “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.”
Professor Devoret was a supervisor in the MSCA-funded Super MagneFiQuE project, which defined new research directions in fundamental physics and experimental quantum information science, by developing new hybrid quantum systems. In addition, he was also involved in the MSCA FP5 DIENOW project.
The transistors in computer microchips are one example of the established quantum technology that surrounds us. This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics has provided opportunities for developing the next generation of quantum technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers, and quantum sensors.
Read more about the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 to Omar M. Yaghi
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prestigious science prize to Omar M. Yaghi, alongside Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, “for the development of metal–organic frameworks.”
Professor Yaghi will be supervising the MSCA-funded AQUAFRAME project, which aims to develop and thoroughly characterize metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with random and correlated disorder (“quasiperiodic MOFs”) to improve the efficiency of the atmospheric water harvesting process.
The project will have scientific, economic, and social impact as it is designed to transform the established view of water harvesting MOFs as perfectly ordered materials, and to provide a novel solution to the global challenges related to water scarcity.
Read more about the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2025 awarded to former MSCA researcher
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2025 has been awarded to Philippe Aghion, who previously took part in several Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) projects.
The prestigious prize was awarded “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth” with one half to Joel Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress” and the other half jointly to Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.”
Professor Aghion participated in the MSCA FP7 ECOCEP project, which worked on developing an integrated approach to modelling the impacts of climate and energy policies as a way to advance towards a highly energy efficient, low carbon and green global economy. In addition, he was also involved as a scientific coordinator of the MSCA FP5 ERIETE and a researcher in the MSCA FP5 NET projects.
Read more about Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2025
MSCA and the Nobel Prize through the years
These are by no means the first Nobel Prizes for MSCA researchers and supervisors.
Many MSCA researchers have had the chance to work alongside Nobel Prize Laureates, whilst others have been personally honoured with this world-famous award, which highlights their extraordinary contributions to both the scientific community and to society.
2024
David Baker won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for computational protein design”, alongside Demis Hassabis and John Jumper “for protein structure prediction”.
Baker has been supported by MSCA over the past two decades to train several postdoctoral researchers, including through projects such as CC-LEGO, ENGAGE, ISLET GABA and ROSETTA-MEMBRANE.
2023
Anne L’Huillier and Ferenc Krausz won the Nobel Prize in Physics alongside Pierre Agostini, “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”.
L’Huillier has supervised MSCA postdoctoral researchers, received funding for and coordinated several MSCA projects over the past two decades, including ATTOPIE, OHIO, ATTOCO and MEDEA. Recently she also obtained funding for the MSCA doctoral training network QU-ATTO, training and supervising doctoral researchers.
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) were crucial at the beginning of my career in Sweden. [...] Receiving support from MSCA to train and supervise doctoral and postdoctoral fellows within a network was very important for me. [...] I think the MSCA have helped a lot to increase networking and communication among research actors.
Dr. Anne L’Huillier
2023 Nobel Prize in Physics and Wolf Prize Winner
Dr Krausz has supervised MSCA postdoctoral researchers and coordinated several MSCA projects over the past two decades, including NICOS, ALPINE or ATTOTRON.
Both L’Huillier and Krausz obtained funding and cooperated through the MSCA doctoral training network ATTOFEL, and trained and supervised a number of doctoral researchers.
They also received funding through several projects funded under FP6, the 6th EU’s research and innovation programme.
2022
Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to former MSCA supervisors Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger, alongside John F. Clauser, “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to former MSCA supervisor Morten Meldal, alongside Carolyn R. Bertozzi and K. Barry Sharpless, "for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry".
2021
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to former MSCA supervisors Benjamin List and David MacMillan for their development of organocatalysis, a new precise tool for molecular construction described as “an ingenious tool for building molecules”.
2020
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier (Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens), an MSCA alumna and principal investigator involved in the training of young researchers in the field of genomics in the MSCA project ENLIGHT-TEN ITN.
Dr Charpentier received the award alongside Dr Jennifer A. Doudna "for the development of a method for genome editing", CRISPR/Cas9.
2017
Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded for the work of Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne "for their decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".
The MSCA project GraWIToN involved nine MSCA fellows who contributed to the preparation of the data on gravitational waves.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, to Richard Henderson (Medical Research Council), the coordinator of the MSCA project Membrane Proteases. His work was honoured along with Jacques Dubochet and Joachim Frank "for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution".
2016
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to Bernard Feringa, Jean-Pierre Sauvage and J. Fraser Stoddart. Bernard Feringa (University of Groningen) was in charge and supervisor of several MSCA projects such as ALERT while Jean-Pierre Sauvage (University of Strasbourg) was the supervisor for the MSCA projects NANO-PRESSES and FEMOS.
They received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with J. Fraser Stoddart "for the design and synthesis of molecular machines".
2015
Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to Takaaki Kajita (University of Tokyo) who was involved in MSCA projects as a participant. He earned the Nobel Prize "for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass".
The Japanese researcher has participated in several MSCA projects promoting international collaboration, such as ELITES, SKPLUS and InvisiblesPlus.
2014
Stefan W. Hell (Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg) was an MSCA fellow at the University of Turku in 1996-1997. He then coordinated several MSCA Individual Fellowships prior to receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Eric Betzig and William E. Moerner "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy".
The MSCA fellowship saved my career because it bought me some time to perform a number of important experiments that supported the viability of my ideas and eventually find an institution that would support me in pursuing them.
Dr. Stefan Hell
2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Edvard I. Moser and May-Britt Moser (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim) are former MSCA project coordinators. The two Norwegians received a Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology alongside John O’Keefe "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain".
Jean Tirole (Toulouse School of Economics) was a supervisor of the MSCA project MASIEGE. He received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel "for his analysis of market power and regulation".
2013
James Rothman (Yale School of Medicine) was a supervisor in the MSCA project BFLDs. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine alongside Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof "for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells".
Several fellows from the MSCA projects ITN ACEOLE, ITN TALENT, COFUND CERN, COFUND CERN 2010 and LHC-PHYS were directly or indirectly involved in the revolutionary sub-atomic particle discovery of the Higgs Boson.
This discovery led to the award of the Nobel Prize in Physics to François Englert and Peter W. Higgs.
2012
Serge Haroche (Collège de France and École Normale Supérieure) supervised the MSCA project ONDEQUAM. He received the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics alongside David J. Wineland “for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems”.
2010
Konstantin Novoselov (University of Manchester) has received funding, supervised and coordinated several MSCA projects, including GRAPHENE, MEDICIS-PROMED, 2DMAT4ENERGYand PTMCnano. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics alongside Andre Geim “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”.
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