The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics was shared by three people. Two researchers, one American and one Canadian at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, were awarded the prize for inventing the semiconductor sensor known as a charge-coupled device, or CCD. Researcher Charles K. Kao was awarded the prize for his insights into fiber optic cable possibilities.
The four stamps featured here showcase previous winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics that have been honored on American postage stamps.
The 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was also shared by three individuals. Two Americans, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz, were awarded the prize along with Israeli Ada E. Yonath. The Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded this trio of researchers the award “for having showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the atomic level.”
