Backgrounder: Recent winners of Nobel Prize in physics

The following is a list of winners of the Nobel Prize in physics since 2000:

2009: Charles K. Kao (Britain and U.S.), Willard S. Boyle (U.S. and Canada) and George E. Smith (U.S.);

2008: Yoichiro Nambu (U.S.), Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa (Japan);

2007: Albert Fert (France) and Peter Grunberg (Germany);

2006: John C. Mather and George F. Smoot (U.S.);

2005: John L. Hall, Roy J. Glauber (U.S.) and Theodor W. Haensch (Germany);

2004: David J. Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczeck (U.S.);

2003: Alexei A. Abrikosov, Anthony J. Leggett (U.S.) and VitalyL. Ginzburg (Russia);

2002: Masatoshi Koshiba (Japan), Raymond Davis Jr. and Riccardo Giacconi (U.S.);

2001: Eric A. Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle and Carl E. Wieman (U.S.);

2000: Zhores I. Alferov (Russia), Herbert Kroemer and Jack S. Kilby (U.S.).

Source: Xinhua