Honorary Degrees

Nobel Laureates Holding Honorary Degrees from Gustavus Adolphus College

Gustavus Adolphus College has recognized over 100 winners of Nobel Prizes with honorary doctorates. Listed here, by year of visit, are those prizewinners who have been present on the Gustavus campus to accept an honorary degree from the College.

2023

Michael Young (Physiology or Medicine 2017) - Doctor of Science

2018
Rattan Lal (member of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that received the Peace Prize, 2007)
Leymah Gbowee (Peace 2011) - Doctor of Humane Letters
2013
George Smoot III (Physics 2006) - Doctor of Science
Samuel Ting (Physics 1976) - Doctor of Science
Frank Wilczek (Physics 2004) - Doctor of Science
2010
Derek Walcott (Literature '92) - Doctor of Humane Letters
2009
Rajendra K. Pachauri (Peace '07) - Doctor of Science
2008
Leon Lederman (Physics '97) - Doctor of Science
2007
Steven Chu (Physics '97) - Doctor of Science
2006
J. Michael Bishop (Medicine '89) - Doctor of Science
2005
Jody Williams (Peace '97) - Doctor of Humane Letters
Wolfgang Ketterle (Physics '01) - Doctor of Science
2003
Oscar Arias Sánchez - Doctor of Laws
2002
Eric R. Kandel - Doctor of Science
2001
Günter Blobel - Doctor of Science
Edmond H. Fischer - Doctor of Science
Roald Hoffmann - Doctor of Science
Sir Harold W. Kroto - Doctor of Science
2000
Robert A. Mundell - Doctor of Humane Letters
1997
Toni Morrison - Doctor of Humane Letters
F. Sherwood Rowland - Doctor of Science
1995
Philip W. Anderson - Doctor of Science
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes - Doctor of Science
1994
David Hubel - Doctor of Science
Elie Wiesel - Doctor of Humane Letters
1992
Baruj Benacerraf - Doctor of Science
1991
William A. Fowler - Doctor of Science
1990
Ilya Prigogine - Doctor of Science
1989
Sheldon Lee Glashow - Doctor of Science
1986
James Tobin - Doctor of Humane Letters
1985
Salvador Luria - Doctor of Science
1984
Herbert Simon - Doctor of Science
1982
Sir Peter Medawar - Doctor of Science
1981
Ragnar Granit - Doctor of Science
Czeslaw Milosz - Doctor of Humane Letters
George Snell - Doctor of Science
Eugene Wigner - Doctor of Science
1980
William N. Lipscomb Jr. - Doctor of Science
Isaac Bashevis Singer - Doctor of Literature
1977
Max Delbrück - Doctor of Science
1976
Murray Gell-Mann - Doctor of Science
1975
Christian Anfinsen - Doctor of Laws
George Beadle - Doctor of Science
Hans Bethe - Doctor of Science
Felix Bloch - Doctor of Science
Leon Cooper - Doctor of Laws
Christian de Duve - Doctor of Laws
Gerald Edelman - Doctor of Laws
Charles Huggins - Doctor of Science
Simon Kuznets - Doctor of Laws
Willis Lamb Jr. - Doctor of Science
Fritz Lipmann - Doctor of Science
Robert Mulliken - Doctor of Science
Lars Onsager - Doctor of Science
Julian Schwinger - Doctor of Science
Ernest Walton - Doctor of Science
Thomas Weller - Doctor of Science
Chen Ning Yang - Doctor of Science
1974
Paul A. Samuelson - Doctor of Laws
1972
Ulf S. von Euler - Doctor of Science
George Wald - Doctor of Science
1971
Norman Borlaug - Doctor of Humane Letters
Alva Myrdal - Doctor of Divinity
Gunnar Myrdal - Doctor of Humane Letters
1970
Willard Frank Libby - Doctor of Science
1967
Sir John Eccles - Doctor of Science
1966
Charles Hard Townes - Doctor of Science
1963
Carl D. Anderson - Doctor of Science
Georg von Békésy - Doctor of Science
Walter H. Brattain - Doctor of Science
Melvin Calvin - Doctor of Science
Carl F. Cori - Doctor of Science
Andre F. Cournand - Doctor of Science
Peter J. W. Debye - Doctor of Science
Edward A. Doisy - Doctor of Science
James Franck - Doctor of Science
Dag Hammarskjöld - Doctor of Laws (posthumously)
Philip S. Hench - Doctor of Science
Robert Hofstadter - Doctor of Science
Edward C. Kendall - Doctor of Science
Polykarp Kusch - Doctor of Science
Edwin M. McMillan - Doctor of Science
Rudolf Mössbauer - Doctor of Science
William P. Murphy - Doctor of Science
Severo Ochoa - Doctor of Science
Linus C. Pauling - Doctor of Science
Emilio G. Segrè - Doctor of Science
William B. Shockley - Doctor of Science
Wendell M. Stanley - Doctor of Science
Edward L. Tatum - Doctor of Science
Arne Tiselius - Doctor of Science
Harold C. Urey - Doctor of Science
1954
Glenn T. Seaborg - Doctor of Science
1950
Ralph J. Bunche - Doctor of Laws

In addition, the following Nobel Prize winners have been on campus as guests of the College but were not recognized with honorary degrees for various reasons.

2001
Stanley B. Prusiner (Medicine '97) - could not be present on campus and delivered lecture by phone hook-up
2000
Joseph E. Stiglitz (Economics '01) - visited before being named a laureate
1999
Elizabeth Blackburn (Medicine '09) - visited before being named a laureate
Jose Ramos-Horta (Peace '96) - honorary degree nomination not submitted to faculty
1986
James Buchanan (Economics '86) - visited before being named a laureate
1978
Tjalling C. Koopmans (Economics '75) - declined honorary degree
1976
Steven Weinberg (Physics '79) - visited before being named a laureate
1923
Bishop Nathan Soderblom (Peace '30) - visited before being named a laureate, nomination not submitted to faculty