Women who won the Nobel Prize quiz (50 questions)
Scientists, writers and peacemakers from every continent: test what you know about the women honoured with a Nobel Prize.
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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- How many women in total have been awarded a Nobel Prize between 1901 and 2026, according to the Nobel Prize website?
- 70
- 69
- 100
- 50
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69. Women have been awarded the Nobel Prizes 70 times, but Marie Curie won twice, so 69 individual women have been honoured.
- Which woman is the only one ever to have won two Nobel Prizes?
- Irène Joliot-Curie
- Barbara McClintock
- Marie Curie
- Dorothy Hodgkin
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Marie Curie. Curie won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911.
- In 1903 Marie Curie shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre and which other scientist?
- Henri Becquerel
- Max Planck
- Wilhelm Röntgen
- Ernest Rutherford
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Henri Becquerel. Becquerel discovered spontaneous radioactivity, and the Curies researched the radiation he had found.
- Marie Curie's 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was for the discovery of which two elements?
- Carbon and silicon
- Argon and krypton
- Radium and polonium
- Helium and neon
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Radium and polonium. She also isolated radium and studied its compounds.
- Irène Joliot-Curie won the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband for creating what?
- A new antibiotic
- New radioactive elements (artificial radioactivity)
- The first plastic
- A new vaccine
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New radioactive elements (artificial radioactivity). She was Marie Curie's daughter, so mother and daughter both won Nobel Prizes.
- Who was the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1905?
- Bertha von Suttner
- Mother Teresa
- Alva Myrdal
- Jane Addams
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Bertha von Suttner. She was born in Prague and wrote the anti-war novel Lay Down Your Arms.
- Selma Lagerlöf of Sweden was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In what year?
- 1945
- 1901
- 1909
- 1925
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1909. The citation praised the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception of her writings.
- Grazia Deledda won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1926. Which Italian island was she born on?
- Corsica
- Capri
- Sardinia
- Sicily
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Sardinia. She was born in Nuoro, Sardinia, and died in Rome in 1936.
- Sigrid Undset won the 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature. Which country is she from?
- Denmark
- Finland
- Iceland
- Norway
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Norway. She is best known for the medieval novel Kristin Lavransdatter.
- Jane Addams, an American, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 as the co-founder of which women's organisation?
- Girl Guides
- The League of Nations
- Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
- The Red Cross
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Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She was a leader in the international women's peace movement and also worked for people in poor neighbourhoods.
- Pearl Buck, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938, wrote about peasant life in which country?
- China
- India
- Japan
- Russia
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China. She was born in West Virginia but grew up partly in China. The citation praises her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China.
- Gabriela Mistral, the 1945 literature winner, is from which South American country?
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Chile
- Peru
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Chile. She was born in Vicuña. Her poetry made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world.
- Emily Greene Balch shared the 1946 Peace Prize. What was her job before she became a peace campaigner?
- University professor
- Journalist
- Pilot
- Judge
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University professor. She was a professor of history and sociology and later honorary international president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
- Gerty Cori shared a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with her husband, the first woman honoured in that field. In which year?
- 1947
- 1984
- 1962
- 1923
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1947. The Nobel Prize site notes that, as a woman, she was employed on much less favourable terms than her husband in the early years of their work.
- Maria Goeppert Mayer was the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. What was her prize for?
- Discoveries about nuclear shell structure
- Inventing the laser
- Discovering X-rays
- Finding the neutron
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Discoveries about nuclear shell structure. She won in 1963, sixty years after Marie Curie.
- Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin won the 1964 Chemistry prize for using X-rays to work out the structure of important molecules. Which vitamin was among them?
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin K
- Vitamin D
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Vitamin B12. She also determined the structure of penicillin in 1946.
- Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan founded a peace movement in 1976 in which city?
- Edinburgh
- Dublin
- London
- Belfast
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Belfast. They were moved to act after three children were killed in a shooting incident.
- Rosalyn Yalow won the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for developing what method of measuring tiny amounts of substances in blood?
- Dialysis
- Radioimmunoassay
- Electrophoresis
- Chromatography
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Radioimmunoassay. Yalow trained in physics before moving into medical research.
- Mother Teresa, who won the Peace Prize in 1979, led the Missionaries of Charity in which city?
- Calcutta (Kolkata)
- Colombo
- Delhi
- Mumbai
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Calcutta (Kolkata). She was born in Skopje and spent most of her life in India.
- Alva Myrdal of Sweden shared the 1982 Peace Prize for work on what cause?
- Disarmament
- Free trade
- Women's voting rights
- Famine relief
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Disarmament. She was honoured for her work for disarmament and nuclear and weapon-free zones, and shared the prize with Alfonso García Robles of Mexico.
- Barbara McClintock won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on her own for discovering what?
- Mobile genetic elements
- Insulin
- Blood groups
- Penicillin
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Mobile genetic elements. She worked at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.
- Rita Levi-Montalcini of Italy shared the 1986 Medicine prize for discovering what?
- The blood groups
- Growth factors for nerve cells
- The structure of DNA
- A cure for malaria
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Growth factors for nerve cells. She and Stanley Cohen discovered nerve growth factor.
- Gertrude Elion shared the 1988 Medicine prize for discovering important principles for what?
- Surgery
- Drug treatment
- Radiotherapy
- Nutrition
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Drug treatment. She shared it with Sir James Black and George Hitchings.
- Nadine Gordimer won the Literature prize in 1991. Which country is she from?
- Kenya
- Nigeria
- South Africa
- Egypt
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South Africa. She was born in Springs, South Africa, and the Nobel Committee said her writing had been of very great benefit to humanity.
- Rigoberta Menchú Tum won the 1992 Peace Prize for her struggle for the rights of Indigenous peoples in which country?
- Peru
- Guatemala
- Mexico
- Chile
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Guatemala. She was born in 1959 and raised in the Quiché branch of Maya culture.
- Toni Morrison, who won in 1993, wrote the novel Beloved. Where was she born?
- Lorain, Ohio, USA
- London, England
- Toronto, Canada
- Kingston, Jamaica
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Lorain, Ohio, USA. The citation says her novels give life to an essential aspect of American reality.
- Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard won in 1995 for discoveries about the genetic control of what?
- Early embryonic development
- Blood pressure
- Vision
- Hearing
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Early embryonic development. She shared the prize with Edward Lewis and Eric Wieschaus.
- Wisława Szymborska of Poland won the literature prize in 1996. What did she write?
- Poetry
- Novels
- Plays
- Newspaper columns
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Poetry. The citation praised poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light.
- Jody Williams shared the 1997 Peace Prize for the campaign to ban what?
- Whaling
- Child labour
- Landmines
- Chemical weapons
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Landmines. She was the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
- Shirin Ebadi, who won the Peace Prize in 2003, was one of the first female judges in which country?
- Egypt
- Iran
- Pakistan
- Indonesia
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Iran. She was dismissed as a judge after the 1979 revolution and then defended people who were being persecuted.
- Wangari Maathai of Kenya, a Peace Prize winner in 2004, started a movement to plant what?
- Rice paddies
- Cotton fields
- Vegetable gardens
- Trees
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Trees. The Green Belt Movement contributed to the planting of over thirty million trees.
- Linda Buck shared the 2004 Medicine prize for discoveries about which of our senses?
- Hearing
- Touch
- Taste
- Smell
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Smell. The prize was for discoveries of odorant receptors and the organisation of the olfactory system.
- Doris Lessing won the Literature prize in 2007. In what country was she born?
- England
- Persia (now Iran)
- South Africa
- Zimbabwe
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Persia (now Iran). She was born in Kermanshah and lived in the United Kingdom when she won.
- Françoise Barré-Sinoussi shared the 2008 Medicine prize for discovering which virus?
- HIV
- Hepatitis B
- Zika
- Ebola
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HIV. She shared that half of the prize with Luc Montagnier.
- Ada Yonath of Israel shared the 2009 Chemistry prize for studies of the structure and function of what?
- Haemoglobin
- Insulin
- The nucleus
- The ribosome
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The ribosome. She shared it with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz.
- Elizabeth Blackburn, born in Hobart, Australia, shared the 2009 Medicine prize with Carol Greider and Jack Szostak. What did they discover?
- How insulin works
- The role of vitamins
- The ABO blood groups
- How chromosomes are protected by telomeres
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How chromosomes are protected by telomeres. Telomeres are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes.
- Elinor Ostrom won the 2009 Economics prize for her analysis of economic governance, especially of what?
- Central banks
- The commons
- Taxes
- Stock markets
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The commons. The commons are resources shared by a community, such as fisheries or forests.
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman shared the 2011 Peace Prize for the safety of women and women's rights. Which country were the first two from?
- Liberia
- Sierra Leone
- Ghana
- Yemen
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Liberia. Karman is from Yemen.
- May-Britt Moser shared the 2014 Medicine prize for discovering cells that form what in the brain?
- A pain centre
- A memory of faces
- A positioning system
- A clock for sleep
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A positioning system. The cells help animals know where they are and find their way.
- Malala Yousafzai was 17 when she won the Peace Prize in 2014. She campaigned for what?
- Free trade
- Girls' right to education
- Voting at 16
- Clean water
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Girls' right to education. She was born in Mingora, Pakistan, and shared the prize with Kailash Satyarthi.
- Tu Youyou, born in Ningbo, China, won in 2015 for discovering a drug against which disease?
- Tuberculosis
- Polio
- Malaria
- Cholera
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Malaria. She was honoured for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria.
- Esther Duflo shared the 2019 Economics prize with Abhijit Banerjee (born in Mumbai) and Michael Kremer for an experimental approach to what?
- Reducing taxes
- Building railways
- Alleviating global poverty
- Controlling inflation
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Alleviating global poverty. They tested which programs help the poor, rather than just guessing.
- Frances Arnold won the 2018 Chemistry prize for the directed evolution of what?
- Fruit
- Crops
- Enzymes
- Bacteria
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Enzymes. She works at Caltech and shared the prize with George Smith and Gregory Winter.
- Donna Strickland was the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. What was her field?
- Geology
- Laser physics
- Acoustics
- Astronomy
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Laser physics. She shared the 2018 prize with Gérard Mourou for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics.
- Andrea Ghez shared the 2020 Physics prize for discovering a supermassive compact object at the centre of what?
- The Earth
- The Moon
- Our galaxy
- The Sun
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Our galaxy. She shared the prize with Reinhard Genzel and Roger Penrose.
- Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna won the 2020 Chemistry prize for a method of what?
- Genome editing
- Purifying water
- Cloning sheep
- Making plastics
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Genome editing. It is known as CRISPR/Cas9, or genetic scissors.
- Katalin Karikó, born in Hungary, shared the 2023 Medicine prize for discoveries that led to what?
- Smallpox vaccines
- mRNA vaccines against COVID-19
- Insulin pumps
- Penicillin
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mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. She shared it with Drew Weissman.
- Narges Mohammadi, awarded the 2023 Peace Prize, was in prison in which country when she won?
- Iran
- Turkey
- Iraq
- Saudi Arabia
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Iran. She was honoured for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran.
- Anne L'Huillier shared the 2023 Physics prize for pulses of light measured in what unit of time?
- Hours
- Years
- Milliseconds
- Attoseconds
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Attoseconds. They allow scientists to study the movement of electrons in matter.
- Han Kang of South Korea won the 2024 Literature prize for prose that confronts what?
- Historical traumas
- Cooking
- Space travel
- Sport
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Historical traumas. The citation praised her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.