The Nobel Prize has been awarded to 59 persons who have taught or studied at Columbia University.

Twenty present or former Columbia faculty members have won Nobel honors for work done while at the University: Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia, in 1931 for peace for his efforts on behalf of disarmament and international peace; Thomas Hunt Morgan in 1933 for physiology or medicine for his discoveries of the laws of heredity; Harold C. Urey in 1934 for chemistry for his discovery of heavy hydrogen; I.I. Rabi in 1944 for physics for measuring the radio- frequency spectra of atomic nuclei; Polykarp Kusch and Willis E. Lamb in 1955 for physics for work in measuring electromagnetic properties of the electron; Andre F. Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards in 1956 for physiology or medicine for their development of a technique of heart catheterization; Tsung-Dao Lee in 1957 for physics for research refuting the law of parity; Charles H. Townes in 1964 for physics for the development of the maser; Konrad E. Bloch in 1964 for physiology or medicine for cholesterol studies; Salvador E. Luria in 1969 for physiology or medicine for his studies of bacteria and viruses; James Rainwater in 1975 for physics for research leading to a new theory of atomic nuclear structure; George J. Stigler in 1982 for economics for research on industrial structures and the government's role in economic regulation; Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger in 1988 for physics, for studies of neutrinos that led to the now accepted view that elementary particles are grouped in pairs; E. Donnall Thomas, who shared the 1990 prize in physiology or medicine for pioneering organ transplant operations; Gary S. Becker in 1992 for economics for his application of microeconomic theory to other social sciences; and William S. Vickrey in 1996 for economics for his studies of incentives under conditions in which decision-makers have different information.

Sixteen present or former Columbia faculty members have won the Nobel Prize for work done elsewhere: Enrico Fermi in 1938 for physics for experiments with radioactivity; Hermann J. Muller in 1946 for physiology or medicine for the discovery of the production of mutations by means of X-ray irradiation; Hideki Yukawa in 1949 for physics for predicting the existence of the meson; Joshua Lederberg, who shared the 1958 prize for physiology or medicine for discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of bacteria's genetic material; Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963 for physics for work on atomic structure; Aage Bohr in 1975 for physics with Dr. Rainwater; Samuel C.C. Ting in 1976 for physics for the discovery of the sub-atomic "charmed quark" particle; Milton Friedman in 1976 for economics for work in the field of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for demonstrating the complexity of stabilization policy; Steven Weinberg in 1979 for physics for a theory regarded as a major step toward a grand synthesis of nature's four fundamental forces; Val L. Fitch in 1980 for physics for research helping to explain the "big bang" theory of the universe's origins; Arthur L. Schawlow in 1981 for physics for his contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy; Joseph Brodsky in 1987 for literature; Norman F. Ramsey, who shared the 1989 prize for physics for devising measurement techniques that led to the cesium atomic clock as the international time standard; Nadine Gordimer in 1991 and Derek Walcott in 1992, for literature, and Horst L. Störmer, who shared the 1998 prize in physics for showing that electrons can appear to have fractional charges, a phenomenon known as the fractional quantum Hall effect.

Thirty-six Nobel laureates are Columbia alumni: Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 (peace); Robert A. Millikan in 1923 (physics); Nicholas Murray Butler in 1931 (peace); Irving Langmuir in 1932 (chemistry); I.I. Rabi in 1944 (physics); Hermann J. Muller in 1946 (physiology or medicine); John Howard Northrop in 1946 (chemistry); Edward C. Kendall in 1950 (physiology or medicine); Dickinson W. Richards in 1956 (physiology or medicine); Joshua Lederberg in 1958 (physiology or medicine); Konrad E. Bloch in 1964 (physiology or medicine); Julian S. Schwinger in 1965 (physics); George Wald in 1967 (physiology or medicine); Simon Smith Kuznets in 1971 (economics); Kenneth J. Arrow (economics); Leon N. Cooper (physics) and William H. Stein (chemistry) in 1972; Konrad Lorenz in 1973 (physiology or medicine); James Rainwater in 1975 (physics); Milton Friedman in 1976 (economics); Baruch S. Blumberg in 1976 (physiology or medicine); Arno A. Penzias in 1978 (physics); Baruj Benacerraf in 1980 (medicine); Val L. Fitch in 1980 (physics); Roald Hoffman in 1981 (chemistry), Herbert A. Hauptman in 1985 (chemistry); Leon M. Lederman and Melvin Schwartz in 1988 (physics), Sidney Altman in 1989 (chemistry), Norman F. Ramsey in 1989 (physics), Harold E. Varmus in 1989 (physiology or medicine), Robert W. Fogel in 1993 (economics), Martin L. Perl in 1995 (physics), William S. Vickrey in 1996 (economics), Robert C. Merton in 1997 (economics) and Louis J. Ignarro in 1998 (physiology or medicine).

Columbia currently has five Nobel laureates on its faculty: Joshua Lederberg, adjunct professor of biological sciences; Tsung-Dao Lee, University Professor; Melvin Schwartz, I.I. Rabi Professor of Physics; Jack Steinberger, adjunct professor of physics, and Horst L. Stormer, professor of physics and applied physics.