Most Decorated Scientists in History — Records by Award Count

From Linus Pauling's dual Nobel to Terence Tao's Fields Medal — scientists ranked by cumulative awards.

1. Terence Chi-Shen Tao

   20 awards · IQ 220 · Australia
   20
2. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.

   14 awards · IQ 168 · United States
   14
3. Charles H. Townes

   13 awards · IQ 165 · United States
   13
4. Linus Pauling

   12 awards · IQ 190 · United States
   12
5. Francis Crick

   11 awards · IQ 173 · England
   11
6. Joseph John Thomson

   10 awards · IQ 180 · United Kingdom
   10
7. Niels Bohr

   10 awards · IQ 180 · Denmark
   10
8. Antoni Gaudí

   10 awards · IQ 165 · Spain
   10
9. Charles XIV John

   10 awards · IQ 140 · Sweden
   10
10. Claude Shannon

    9 awards · IQ 180 · United States
    9
11. John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh

    9 awards · IQ 180 · United Kingdom
    9
12. Robert Andrews Millikan

    9 awards · IQ 175 · United States
    9
13. Enrico Fermi

    8 awards · IQ 190 · Italy
    8
14. John Bardeen

    8 awards · IQ 180 · United States
    8
15. Louis Pasteur

    8 awards · IQ 175 · France
    8
16. Carl Jung

    8 awards · IQ 165 · Switzerland
    8
17. Albert Einstein

    8 awards · IQ 160 · Germany
    8
18. Marie Curie

    7 awards · IQ 180 · Poland
    7
19. Frederick Sanger

    7 awards · IQ 175 · United Kingdom
    7
20. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

    7 awards · IQ 170 · India
    7
21. Elon Musk

    7 awards · IQ 155 · ZA
    7
22. William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

    6 awards · IQ 185 · United Kingdom
    6
23. John Tukey

    6 awards · IQ 180 · United States
    6
24. Bill Gates

    6 awards · IQ 160 · United States
    6
25. Max Planck

    5 awards · IQ 190 · Germany
    5
26. James Clerk Maxwell

    5 awards · IQ 185 · Scotland
    5
27. Percy Williams Bridgman

    5 awards · IQ 185 · United States
    5
28. Charles Darwin

    5 awards · IQ 180 · United Kingdom
    5
29. Werner Heisenberg

    5 awards · IQ 180 · Germany
    5
30. Christopher Hitchens

    5 awards · IQ 170 · England
    5
31. Edwin Hubble

    5 awards · IQ 170 · United States
    5
32. Thomas Henry Huxley

    5 awards · IQ 170 · United Kingdom
    5
33. Guglielmo Marconi

    5 awards · IQ 165 · Italy
    5
34. Lise Meitner

    5 awards · IQ 165 · Austria
    5
35. Marvin Minsky

    5 awards · IQ 160 · United States
    5
36. John F. Kennedy

    5 awards · IQ 155 · United States
    5
37. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

    5 awards · IQ 145 · United Kingdom
    5
38. Henri Poincaré

    4 awards · IQ 190 · France
    4
39. Paul Dirac

    4 awards · IQ 190 · England
    4
40. Bertrand Russell

    4 awards · IQ 180 · United Kingdom
    4
41. Hendrik Lorentz

    4 awards · IQ 180 · Netherlands
    4
42. Louis de Broglie

    4 awards · IQ 180 · France
    4
43. Arnold Sommerfeld

    4 awards · IQ 175 · Germany
    4
44. Ludwig Wittgenstein

    4 awards · IQ 175 · Austria
    4
45. Salvador Dalí

    4 awards · IQ 175 · Spain
    4
46. William Shockley

    4 awards · IQ 175 · United States
    4
47. Wolfgang Pauli

    4 awards · IQ 175 · Austria
    4
48. Howard Robard Hughes

    4 awards · IQ 170 · United States
    4
49. Milton Friedman

    4 awards · IQ 155 · United States
    4
50. Chris Hirata

    3 awards · IQ 225 · United States
    3

How we ranked this list

Award counts come from each biography's awards list. Counts approximate the total number of distinct honors received (medals, prizes, fellowships).