The news reached him in Italy: Georg Nagel (73) has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. From 2004 to 2021, Nagel was Professor of Molecular Plant Physiology at the Chair of Botany I at the Julius von Sachs Institute of the Biocentre at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU). He subsequently continued his research and teaching as a senior professor at JMU’s Institute of Physiology until the end of June 2026.
He shares the prize, worth around one million euros, with his colleagues Karl Deisseroth (Stanford University) and Peter Hegemann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) for their joint discoveries concerning light-controlled ion channels and optogenetics.
The news was met with great enthusiasm at the University of Würzburg. “On behalf of JMU, I would like to congratulate our 15th Nobel laureate from the bottom of my heart on receiving this outstanding distinction,” says JMU President Paul Pauli. “Just two years ago, we awarded Georg Nagel the JMU Röntgen Medal in recognition of his outstanding scientific achievements. Even before that, he and his fellow researchers had received numerous internationally renowned awards.”
Professor Dirk Becker from the Chair of Botany I conducted research with Georg Nagel for more than 20 years. Optogenetics has its origins in plant cells – in algae. “It was recognised very early on that this system could be useful for studying the human brain. The work of Georg Nagel and his fellow researchers was truly groundbreaking in this respect,” says Dirk Becker. He describes Georg Nagel as “a very pleasant and approachable colleague with a wealth of ideas and scientific creativity. I am absolutely delighted for him!”
Bavarian Minister-President Dr. Markus Söder also expressed his pride in a press release: “What an honour! Warmest congratulations to Prof. Dr. Georg Nagel on receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It is the world’s most prestigious award in science. Professor Nagel’s research is helping people to live longer and better lives. That deserves the highest recognition and respect. Bavaria is extremely proud of this achievement!”

The Nobel Prize-winning research

Georg Nagel, Karl Deisseroth, and Peter Hegemann have enabled extraordinary advances in brain research: their discoveries make it possible to switch the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain on or off using light.
This method, known as optogenetics, is now used in laboratories around the world, according to the Nobel Committee in its announcement on 5 October 2026.
Thanks to the work of the three new Nobel laureates, researchers can now reactivate memories, generate emotions, control behaviour, and investigate the types of nerve cells involved in psychiatric and neurological disorders, the Committee said. Optogenetics has fundamentally changed our understanding of the brain. It has also provided important insights into how the nervous system interacts with cells in other parts of the body, including the heart and the gut.

Georg Nagel’s career

Georg Nagel was born in Weingarten on 24 August 1953 and began his academic career by studying biology and biophysics at the University of Konstanz. After a brief period working as a teacher at a Swiss secondary school, he began his doctoral studies at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1984, completing his doctorate in 1988.
Following five years of postdoctoral research in the United States at Yale University and Rockefeller University in New York, Nagel returned to his former institution, the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt am Main, as a research group leader in 1993. From 1995 to 2000, he additionally worked as a research assistant at Goethe University Frankfurt’s Institute of Biophysics, where he completed his habilitation in biophysical chemistry. As part of his habilitation research, he spent time at the University of Naples as a Marie Curie Fellow in 1999.
In 2004, Georg Nagel accepted an appointment at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, where he held the Professorship of Molecular Plant Physiology until 2021. From 2021 until the end of June 2026, he continued his work as a senior professor at JMU’s Institute of Physiology.

Numerous awards

Georg Nagel has already received numerous awards for his scientific achievements. Two of the most important are the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences and the Karl Heinz Beckurts Prize, both of which he received in 2010 together with Peter Hegemann and Ernst Bamberg.
Nagel has also been honoured with the International Prize for Translational Neuroscience (2012), the Louis-Jeantet Prize (2013), the Brain Prize (2013), election as a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (2015), the Rumford Prize (2019), and the Shaw Prize (2020). In 2024, the University of Würzburg awarded him the Röntgen Medal for his outstanding scientific achievements. The Nobel Prize now crowns this long list of distinctions.