UC Nobel Prize Haul Sets Record, System Says

Three academics affiliated with the University of California system were awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.”

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Five faculty members and researchers affiliated with the University of California system won a Nobel Prize this year, setting what the system says is a world record.

The faculty won Nobel Prizes in medicine, physics and chemistry. The winners for physics and chemistry currently work in the system, while the university is also counting Frederick Ramsdell, who graduated from UC San Diego and UCLA and was part of the group awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in medicine.

Over all, the system says 49 Nobel laureates were affiliated with UC at the time they won—the most of any institution, according to a news release.

UC officials added in the release that breakthroughs recognized by the Nobel Prize committee were supported with “decades of federal investment.” The National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the National Security Agency and the Department of Defense all supported the research that led to new molecular structures that can harvest water or store toxic gases, breakthroughs in quantum technology, and improved treatments for autoimmune diseases.

“Today, that support is at risk as federal research funds are frozen or cut, and as the administration’s proposed budget reductions threaten to slow the very discoveries that keep the United States at the forefront of global leadership,” the release says.

The Trump administration froze millions in federal funds at UCLA and threatened the system’s funding. A federal judge has since restored the UCLA grants.