Nobel Prize is considered as the highest honor in the world. The award has been given since 1901 for outstanding contributions to science, literature, peace and economics. So far 975 people have been honored with this award. Among them, four scientists have received Nobel several times. Scientists who received this rare honor were—Frederick Sanger, Linus Pauling, John Burdeen and Marie Curie.

Marie Curie

Marie Curie

Polish scientist Marie Sklodowska Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize twice for the first time in history. He received this award in Physics and Chemistry. Almost everyone knows about this achievement of Marie Curie. Unsurprisingly, Marie Curie was initially excluded from her first Nobel Prize nomination.

In 1903, the Nobel Committee initially nominated only Henri Becquerel and Pierre Curie for the Nobel. Mathematician Gosta Mittag-Leffler was furious after learning of the nomination. At her suggestion, Pierre Curie wrote a letter to the Nobel Committee about Marie's contribution. This woman discovered the atomic mass of radium. Pierre made it clear that he wanted to share the prize with Marie.

Then the Nobel committee also nominated Marie Curie for the prize. In December 1903, these three scientists were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of radioactivity. The organizers deliberately refrained from mentioning the Curie couple's discoveries of polonium and radium at the award ceremony. They were of the view that this matter may be considered suitable for award again later.

It took only 5 years for their idea to come true. On December 10, 1911, Marie Curie was selected for the Nobel Prize for the second time. Not in physics this time. He was single handedly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of radium and polonium. Unfortunately, Pierre Curie died in an accident in 1906. So he could not be a partner of the second Nobel Prize.

Linus Pauling

Linus Carl Pauling (common pronunciation, Linus) won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Peace. He is the only person in history who has received both Nobel Prizes alone. This brilliant scientist won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 for discovering the nature of chemical bonding or orbital hybridization theory. Eight years later, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his important contribution against the use of nuclear weapons.

Pauling is one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. He started a new horizon by applying quantum mechanics in chemistry. He also researched hydrogen bonding, protein folding and the structure and function of blood hemoglobin.

World War II witnessed the devastating power of atomic bombs. Pauling realized that a nuclear war would be enough to bring about the end of human civilization. Realizing its horror, he got down to work. Studies have shown that not only the devastation, but the radiation from the atomic bomb can cause cancer in millions of people.

He appealed to the World Council to ban nuclear weapons testing. Collected the letters of more than 8 thousand scientists from 49 countries. Finally in 1963, the United Kingdom, the United States and the then Soviet Union agreed to the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

John Bardeen

Today's world has come to hand thanks to electronic devices like computers or smartphones. John Burdeen's contribution behind all this is immense. He changed the concept of electronic devices by inventing the transistor. Computers weighing several tons have come to hand because of this transistor. John Burdeen is the only scientist in history to have received two Nobel Prizes in Physics.

Electrical engineer John Burdeen earned a PhD in physics from Princeton University. It was there that he began researching the atomic structure and properties of semiconductors. After a few years, he got a research opportunity at Bell Labs in the United States.

There he discovered the transistor with Walter Bratton. Currently, this transistor can be considered as the lifeblood of electronic devices. As a result of this discovery, John Burdeen received the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with William B. Shockley in 1956.

Then he researched superconductors. John Burdeen is one of the founders of BCS theory, which is the current theory of superconductivity. The theory is named after his initials along with those of his two co-researchers, Leon N. Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer—the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory or BCS theory. Bardeen was again awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972, jointly with these two co-researchers, for providing this theory.

Frederick Sanger

Frederick Sanger is the only person to have received two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry. This English biochemist won the Nobel Prize in 1958 alone for discovering the structure of proteins, especially insulin. Insulin is the main hormone that regulates glucose metabolism in the human body. Thanks to him, it was possible to produce insulin artificially. As a result crores of diabetic patients are saved from premature death.

Later in 1980, Frederick Sanger won the Nobel again. He shared half of the Nobel Prize with Walter Gilbert for discovering the base structure of nucleic acids. The other half of the Nobel Prize was awarded to Paul Berg for his fundamental research on the biochemistry of nucleic acids.

Adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and uracil (U)—these four bases of nucleic acids were discovered by Frederick Sanger. Apart from these four brilliant scientists, two institutions have won multiple Nobels. The first of these is the Red Cross. This international service organization has received 3 Nobel Prizes so far. The Red Cross won this award in 1917, 1944 and 1963 for peace. The second is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1981 for its contribution to world peace.