Commentators have floated candidates ranging from John Pendry to researchers of antihydrogen. The predictions precede the October 6 announcement and do not indicate the committee’s decision.
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics is due to be announced in Stockholm on Tuesday, October 6, at 11:45 a.m. CEST at the earliest. Ahead of the announcement, commentators have discussed possible fields and candidates. Their suggestions are speculation, not nominations or information about the Nobel committee’s decision.
Camilla Widebeck, a science producer at Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio, told AFP that metamaterials and the work of British physicist John B. Pendry could be recognised. Pendry is associated with the concept of an “invisibility cloak” that bends light around an object. Widebeck also mentioned American researcher David Smith. Other commentators have pointed to Italian-American physicist Federico Capasso for his role in developing the quantum cascade laser.
Another possibility is research into twistronics, which studies how layers of graphene behave when twisted relative to each other, including the emergence of superconductivity. Possible candidates named in the discussion are Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, Allan MacDonald and Rafi Bistritzer, who received the 2020 Wolf Prize in Physics. Widebeck also mentioned Eva Andrei but said the Nobel committee could take several more years to recognise the field.
Citation-analysis firm Clarivate highlighted Chihaya Adachi, Stephen R. Forrest and Mark E. Thompson for work on highly efficient organic light-emitting diodes. OLED technology is used in displays for phones, televisions and computers. Clarivate research head David Pendlebury told AFP that some discoveries straddle disciplines, so OLED research could potentially be considered for either physics or chemistry. Clarivate also pointed to Nicola Spaldin’s theoretical work on magnetoelectric multiferroics and Qikun Xue’s experimental observation of the quantum anomalous Hall effect.
Physics World online editor Hamish Johnston wrote that condensed-matter physics, particle physics and nuclear physics may be due for recognition. He cited CERN’s ATHENA and ALPHA collaborations, which were the first to trap cold antihydrogen atoms and study them in detail. An award in that area could recognise Jeffrey Hangst, a physicist based in Denmark who helped found both collaborations.
Johnston also mentioned Ingrid Daubechies, Stéphane Mallat and Yves Meyer for wavelet theory, which has applications such as image and video compression. Widebeck’s astrophysics possibilities included British astronomer Martin Rees and galaxy-formation researchers Carlos Frenk, Julio Navarro and Simon White. Work related to the James Webb Space Telescope has also been discussed in previous Nobel speculation. All these names remain possibilities proposed by commentators.
The medicine prize was awarded on October 5 to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries in optogenetics, which uses light to control nerve signals. The physics award is the next announcement in the Nobel schedule.