Nobel laureates from India and Australia quiz (50 questions)
From a poet in Calcutta to a surgeon-scientist in Adelaide: meet the Nobel laureates linked to India and Australia and test what you know about their work.
About this quiz: the people, prizes and dates were checked against official and reference sources, and the stories are retold in makekite's own words with the help of AI. If you spot a mistake, please tell us on the contact page.
50 multiple-choice questions, with the answer explained after each one.
Answer each question, see why, and beat your best score.
All 50 questions and answers
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- Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta and won the Nobel Prize in Literature. In which year?
- 1901
- 1913
- 1979
- 1930
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1913. Tagore was first of all a poet, and he also became a spokesperson for Indian independence from British colonial rule.
- Which collection of Tagore's poems is among the works named by the Nobel Prize site?
- Gitanjali
- Godaan
- Kim
- Shakuntala
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Gitanjali. The Nobel Prize site lists Gitanjali among his volumes of poetry.
- C. V. Raman, born in Tiruchirappalli, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for his work on the scattering of what?
- Heat
- Sound
- Electricity
- Light
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Light. At the time of the award he was at Calcutta University. The discovery is known as the Raman effect.
- Har Gobind Khorana, born in Raipur, shared the 1968 Medicine prize for interpreting what?
- The cause of malaria
- The structure of insulin
- The blood groups
- The genetic code
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The genetic code. He was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison when he received the prize.
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was born in Lahore, then part of India. What did his prize-winning work study?
- The structure and evolution of stars
- The sound of whales
- The weather on Earth
- Why metals rust
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The structure and evolution of stars. He won the 1983 Physics prize while working at the University of Chicago.
- Abdus Salam, born in Jhang in what was then India and is now Pakistan, shared the 1979 Physics prize for a theory unifying which forces?
- Heat and pressure
- Light and sound
- Gravity and magnetism
- Weak and electromagnetic forces
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Weak and electromagnetic forces. He worked at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, and at Imperial College London.
- Sir Ronald Ross, born in Almora, India, won the 1902 Medicine prize for work on which disease?
- Cholera
- Plague
- Malaria
- Leprosy
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Malaria. He joined the Indian Medical Service in 1881 and began studying malaria in 1892.
- Mother Teresa, who won the Peace Prize in 1979, was born in what is now North Macedonia. In which Indian city did she lead her mission?
- Madras (Chennai)
- Bombay (Mumbai)
- Delhi
- Calcutta (Kolkata)
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Calcutta (Kolkata). She led the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta and died there in 1997.
- The 14th Dalai Lama won the Peace Prize in 1989. Which country did the Nobel Prize site give as his residence at the time of the award?
- Nepal
- Bhutan
- India
- Switzerland
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India. He has lived in exile in Dharamsala since 1960. The prize recognised his call for peaceful solutions based on tolerance and mutual respect.
- Kailash Satyarthi, born in Vidisha, India, shared the 2014 Peace Prize. Which movement did he found to protect children?
- Bhoodan Movement
- Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement)
- Chipko Movement
- Narmada Bachao Andolan
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Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement). According to the Nobel Prize biography, the movement has liberated more than 83,000 children from exploitation.
- Who shared the 2014 Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi?
- Nadia Murad
- Malala Yousafzai
- Shirin Ebadi
- Wangari Maathai
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Malala Yousafzai. Malala was 17, the youngest Nobel laureate ever.
- Amartya Sen, born in Santiniketan, won the 1998 prize in Economic Sciences for contributions to what?
- Taxation
- Welfare economics
- Computer science
- Banking
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Welfare economics. His studies have included famines, to create a deeper understanding of the economic reasons behind famine and poverty.
- Abhijit Banerjee, born in Mumbai, shared the 2019 Economics prize for an experimental approach to what?
- Managing central banks
- Building railways
- Cutting trade barriers
- Alleviating global poverty
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Alleviating global poverty. He shared it with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer.
- Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, born in Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu, won the 2009 Chemistry prize for the structure and function of what?
- The ribosome
- The cell wall
- The nucleus
- Haemoglobin
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The ribosome. He worked at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and shared the prize with Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath.
- Muhammad Yunus was born in Chittagong, then British India and now in which country?
- Sri Lanka
- Nepal
- Myanmar
- Bangladesh
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Bangladesh. He and Grameen Bank shared the 2006 Peace Prize for creating economic and social development from below.
- How many Nobel Prizes did Rabindranath Tagore win?
- Two
- Three
- None
- One
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One. He won the Literature prize in 1913. Marie Curie remains the only woman to win two.
- William Lawrence Bragg, born in Adelaide, shared the 1915 Physics prize with his father. How old was he?
- 34
- 25
- 42
- 19
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25. The Nobel Prize site calls him the youngest-ever laureate. The prize was for using X-rays to study crystals.
- Sir Howard Florey was born in Adelaide. For which medicine did he share the 1945 prize?
- Insulin
- Streptomycin
- Penicillin
- Aspirin
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Penicillin. He shared it with Alexander Fleming and Ernst Chain, and worked at the University of Oxford.
- Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, born in Traralgon, shared the 1960 prize for discovering what?
- Blood groups
- Penicillin
- Acquired immunological tolerance
- The polio vaccine
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Acquired immunological tolerance. He worked at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research in Melbourne.
- Sir John Eccles, born in Melbourne, shared the 1963 Medicine prize. At which Canberra institution was he working?
- University of Melbourne
- CSIRO
- University of Sydney
- Australian National University
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Australian National University. He shared the prize with Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley for discoveries about how nerve cells excite and inhibit.
- John Cornforth, born in Sydney, won the 1975 prize in which subject?
- Physics
- Medicine
- Chemistry
- Literature
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Chemistry. His work was on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalysed reactions. He was working at the University of Sussex in England.
- Peter Doherty, born in Brisbane, shared the 1996 prize with Rolf Zinkernagel for discoveries about what?
- The cell-mediated immune defence
- Blood circulation
- Vision
- Bone growth
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The cell-mediated immune defence. The citation refers to the specificity of the cell mediated immune defence.
- Barry Marshall, born in Kalgoorlie, and Robin Warren shared the 2005 prize for discovering which bacterium?
- Escherichia coli
- Salmonella
- Vibrio cholerae
- Helicobacter pylori
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Helicobacter pylori. The bacterium plays a role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. Marshall spent much of his childhood in Perth.
- Elizabeth Blackburn was born in which Australian city?
- Darwin
- Brisbane
- Perth
- Hobart
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Hobart. She shared the 2009 Medicine prize for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres, and was working at the University of California, San Francisco.
- Brian Schmidt shared the 2011 Physics prize for discovering that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. At which Australian university was he based?
- University of Western Australia
- University of Queensland
- Monash University
- Australian National University
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Australian National University. Schmidt was born in Missoula, Montana, in the United States. He shared the prize with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess.
- Patrick White won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature. What did the citation say his narrative art had introduced into literature?
- A new continent
- A new language
- A new rhyme scheme
- A new publishing form
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A new continent. White wrote novels such as The Tree of Man and Voss. He was born in London.
- J. M. Coetzee, the 2003 literature laureate, was born in Cape Town. Which country does the Nobel Prize site say he now lives in?
- Argentina
- Canada
- Ireland
- Australia
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Australia. The citation says he portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider.
- The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the 2017 Peace Prize. In which country is its founding listed?
- Norway
- Switzerland
- Australia
- India
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Australia. The Nobel Prize site lists it as founded in 2007 in Australia.
- Nicolay Basov and Aleksandr Prokhorov shared the 1964 Physics prize with Charles Townes. Prokhorov was born in which unexpected country?
- Australia
- China
- Brazil
- India
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Australia. He was born in Atherton, Queensland, and worked at the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow. The prize was for work leading to the maser and laser.
- Which city was the birthplace of William Lawrence Bragg, Howard Florey and Robin Warren?
- Melbourne
- Sydney
- Adelaide
- Perth
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Adelaide. All three Nobel laureates were born in Adelaide.
- Which Indian poet wrote his poems partly in English and received the Nobel Prize in Literature for 'profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse'?
- Sarojini Naidu
- Mirza Ghalib
- Rabindranath Tagore
- Harivansh Rai Bachchan
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Rabindranath Tagore. The citation says he made his poetic thought a part of the literature of the West, expressed in his own English words.
- Ronald Ross began studying medicine in 1875 at which London hospital?
- Guy's Hospital
- Great Ormond Street Hospital
- Royal Free Hospital
- St Bartholomew's Hospital
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St Bartholomew's Hospital. He entered the Indian Medical Service in 1881, was born in Almora, and won the 1902 prize for his malaria research.
- In which decade did Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar begin to formulate his theories of what happens to stars after their hydrogen fuel is used up?
- The 1930s
- The 1980s
- The 1900s
- The 1950s
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The 1930s. He did not win the Physics prize until 1983.
- Har Gobind Khorana shared the 1968 Medicine prize with Marshall Nirenberg and which other American scientist?
- James Watson
- Frederick Sanger
- Robert Holley
- Linus Pauling
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Robert Holley. The three were honoured for interpreting the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.
- At which college of Cambridge University was Amartya Sen when he won the 1998 prize?
- St John's College
- Trinity College
- King's College
- Newnham College
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Trinity College. He was born in Santiniketan, India.
- William Lawrence Bragg and his father used X-rays to work out the structure of what?
- Clouds
- Crystals
- Seawater
- Muscles
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Crystals. The Nobel Prize site says the Braggs deserve the credit for the work, and the prize was awarded jointly to father and son in 1915.
- At which English university did Howard Florey work when he shared the 1945 prize?
- Oxford
- Durham
- Manchester
- Cambridge
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Oxford. He was born in Adelaide, Australia.
- Which Patrick White novel from 1955 tells the story of a farmer and his wife?
- Happy Valley
- The Aunt's Story
- The Tree of Man
- Voss
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The Tree of Man. The Nobel Prize site describes it as a novel about how a farmer and his wife toil.
- Which J. M. Coetzee novel is named on the Nobel Prize site among his works?
- Disgrace
- Oscar and Lucinda
- The Secret River
- Cloudstreet
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Disgrace. Coetzee was born in Cape Town and now lives in Australia.
- Peter Medawar shared the 1960 prize with which Australian immunologist?
- Peter Doherty
- John Eccles
- Howard Florey
- Frank Macfarlane Burnet
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Frank Macfarlane Burnet. They were honoured for the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance.
- Peter Doherty shared the 1996 Medicine prize with a scientist from which country?
- Germany
- Switzerland (Rolf Zinkernagel)
- Norway
- Sweden
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Switzerland (Rolf Zinkernagel). Doherty was working at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.
- Elizabeth Blackburn was working at which university in California when she won in 2009?
- Caltech
- Stanford University
- University of California, San Francisco
- University of California, Los Angeles
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University of California, San Francisco. She was born in Hobart, Tasmania.
- What did the Nobel Committee honour Mother Teresa for in 1979?
- Her writing about poverty
- Her talks with world leaders
- Her work for bringing help to suffering humanity
- Her discovery of a medicine
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Her work for bringing help to suffering humanity. She was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje and led the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta.
- The 14th Dalai Lama was born in Taktser, a village in which region?
- Tibet
- Mongolia
- Ladakh
- Nepal
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Tibet. He later went into exile in India and has lived in Dharamsala since 1960.
- In which year did Muhammad Yunus establish Grameen Bank, according to the Nobel Prize site?
- 1999
- 1971
- 1950
- 1983
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1983. The bank's objective since then has been to grant poor people small loans on easy terms.
- John Eccles shared the 1963 Medicine prize with Alan Hodgkin and which other scientist?
- Max Perutz
- Peter Medawar
- Francis Crick
- Andrew Huxley
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Andrew Huxley. The three were honoured for discoveries about how nerve cells fire and are inhibited.
- Brian Schmidt, who shared the 2011 Physics prize while working in Australia, was born in which US state?
- Montana
- Maine
- Oregon
- Texas
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Montana. He was born in Missoula in 1967.
- What did the Nobel Prize site say about both of Abhijit Banerjee's parents?
- They were sailors
- They were professors of economics
- They were farmers
- They were doctors
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They were professors of economics. He was born in Mumbai and went on to share the 2019 Economics prize.
- In which year was the Australian chemist John Cornforth born in Sydney?
- 1968
- 1890
- 1917
- 1945
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1917. He won the Chemistry prize in 1975, at the University of Sussex.
- The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, where Frank Macfarlane Burnet worked, is in which Australian city?
- Canberra
- Hobart
- Melbourne
- Sydney
Show answer
Melbourne. Burnet shared the 1960 Medicine prize with Peter Medawar.