Norman Borlaug, B.S. '37, M.S. '41, Ph.D. '42, Nobel Peace Prize, 1970, for developing disease-resistant and highly adaptable crop varieties that sparked the "green revolution." Read the Minnesota magazine profile.

Walter H. Brattain, Ph.D. '29, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1956, for developing the transistor

Melvin Calvin, Ph.D. '35, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1961, for describing the chemical reactions that occur during photosynthesis

Louis Ignarro, Ph.D. '66, Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology, 1999, for contributions to discovery that led to the development of Viagra

Ernest O. Lawrence, M.A. '23, Nobel Prize for Physics, 1939, for inventing and developing the cyclotron, a device that accelerates atomic particles in a spiral path by means of a fixed magnetic field. Read the Inventing Tomorrow profile.

Edward B. Lewis, B.S. '39, honorary Ph.D. '93, Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, 1995, for discovering a class of genes that control embryonic development and discovering that they are the same in all animals. Read the 2004 UMNnews obituary.

Daniel McFadden Ph.D. '62, Nobel Prize in economics, 2000, for developing theories that predict individual and collective behavior. Read Minnesota profile.

Note: Several current or former faculty members have earned Nobel Prizes as well: John Bardeen, Nobel Prize for Physics, 1956 and 1972; Saul Bellow, Literature, 1976; Paul Boyer, Chemistry, 1997; Arthur Compton, Physics, 1927; Milton Friedman, Economics, 1976; Phillip Hench and Edward Kendall, Medicine, 1950; Leonid Hurwicz, Economics, 2007; William Lipscomb, Chemistry, 1976; Edward Prescott, Economics, 2004; George Stigler, Economics, 1982; and John Van Vleck, Physics, 1977.