# Did anyone ever win a Nobel Prize for a theory that later turned out to be wrong? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 3, 2006, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-win-a-nobel-prize-for-a-theory-that-later-turned-out-to-be-wrong/375116 "2006-10-03T16:02:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-win-a-nobel-prize-for-a-theory-that-later-turned-out-to-be-wrong/375116/21 "2006-10-04T17:03:25Z")
[QUOTE=Typo Knig] Continuing the hijack - the shortest time between discovery and Nobel award probablybelongs to [Klaus von Klitzing](http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1985/klitzing-cv.html) - publication in 1980, Nobel awarded in 1985. He also has a solo award in physics, which is rare these days. [/QUOTE] I disagree. [William Lawrence Bragg](http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1915/wl-bragg-bio.html) won it in 1915 - three years after his cited work! ---
**Author:** ![M.Meursault](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@M.Meursault](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/M.Meursault)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-win-a-nobel-prize-for-a-theory-that-later-turned-out-to-be-wrong/375116/22 "2006-10-04T17:58:51Z")
[QUOTE=Carnac the Magnificent!] Interesting Awardees: 1973 Peace Prize HENRY A. KISSINGER , Secretary of State, State Department, Washington. LE DUC THO , Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. (Declined the prize.) for jointly negotiating the Vietnam peace accord in 1973. [/QUOTE] To underscore what another poster said about the Nobel Committee awarding peace _efforts_ as opposed to results, Le Duc Tho declined the prize because his country wasn’t yet actually at peace and he thought it a bit premature to be accoladed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-win-a-nobel-prize-for-a-theory-that-later-turned-out-to-be-wrong/375116.md?page=1)