1. Linus Pauling
Topping the list of the 15 most famous atheist Nobel Prize winners, Pauling dabbed in multiple professions throughout his life and was a chemist, peace activist, biochemist, educator and an author at different points in his life. You can understand the value of his contribution by the fact that he wrote over 1,200 papers during his career, with over 850 being related to scientific subjects. While you might consider winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry a crowning achievement, which Pauling managed in 1954, that was not enough for this man. In 1962, he earned himself a Nobel Peace Prize because of his work as a peace activist, thus making him the only person in history to have two unshared Nobel prizes in his name, and one of only two people to have two Nobel Prizes in different fields.
While he was initially a Christian, he became a staunch atheist later in his life.
