Since 1901, when the Nobel Prize was first awarded, the United States has had more nobelists in physics than any other country, although initially it took six years before a U.S. citizen won a Nobel Prize in physics.

In 1907, for the development of extremely precise measurements for the velocity of light and his work on optical instruments, German-born Albert A. Michelson—a naturalized U.S. citizen—won the Nobel Prize in physics.