Nobel de Física (1915), Medalha Matteucci (1915), Medalha Hughes (1931), Medalha Real (1946), Guthrie Lecture (1952), Plaqueta Röntgen (1955), Medalha Copley (1966), Medalha August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1967)
Bragg nasceu em North Adelaide, sul da Austrália.[3] Ele demonstrou um interesse precoce em ciências e matemática. Seu pai, William Henry Bragg, era Professor de Matemática e Física na Universidade de Adelaide. Pouco depois de começar a escola aos 5 anos, William Lawrence Bragg caiu de seu triciclo e quebrou o braço. Seu pai, que tinha lido sobre os experimentos de Röntgen na Europa e estava realizando seus próprios experimentos, utilizou os recém-descobertos raios-X e seu equipamento experimental para examinar o braço quebrado. Este é o primeiro registro gravado de uma cirúrgica de raios-X, na Austrália.
Conferência de Solvay sobre física em Bruxelas, 1951. Da esquerda para a direita, sentados: Crussaro, Norman Percy Allen, Yvette Cauchois, Borelius, William Lawrence Bragg, Christian Møller, Sietz, John Herbert Hollomon, Frank; fila do meio: Gerhart Rathenau,(nl) Koster, Erik Rudberg,(sv), Flamache, Goche, Groven, Egon Orowan, Jan Burgers, William Bradford Shockley, André Guinier, C.S. Smith, Ulrich Dehlinger, Laval, Émile Henriot; fila superior: Gaspart, Lomer, Alan Cottrell, Georges Homes, Hubert Curien
Recebeu em 1915, juntamente com seu pai William Henry Bragg, o Nobel de Física, por trabalhos na análise da estrutura cristalina através da difração de raios-X. É, até a data, a pessoa mais jovem a ter sido contemplada com um prêmio Nobel de Física: tinha, na época, apenas 25 anos de idade.[4]
Participou da 2ª, 3ª, 4ª e 5ª Conferência de Solvay, e foi presidente das conferências 8ª a 12ª.
1902: Joseph John Thomson1903: Johann Wilhelm Hittorf 1904: Joseph Wilson Swan 1905: Augusto Righi 1906: Hertha Marks Ayrton 1907: Ernest Howard Griffiths 1908: Eugen Goldstein 1909: Richard Glazebrook 1910: John Ambrose Fleming 1911: Charles Thomson Rees Wilson1912: William Duddell 1913: Alexander Graham Bell1914: John Sealy Townsend 1915: Paul Langevin1916: Elihu Thomson 1917: Charles Glover Barkla 1918: Irving Langmuir1919: Charles Chree 1920: Owen Willans Richardson1921: Niels Bohr1922: Francis William Aston1923: Robert Andrews Millikan1924: — 1925: Frank Edward Smith 1926: Henry Bradwardine Jackson 1927: William David Coolidge 1928: Maurice de Broglie 1929: Hans Geiger 1930: Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman1931: William Lawrence Bragg1932: James Chadwick1933: Edward Appleton1934: Karl Siegbahn1935: Clinton Davisson1936: Walter Hermann Schottky 1937: Ernest Lawrence1938: John Cockcroft e Ernest Walton1939: George Paget Thomson1940: Arthur Holly Compton1941: Nevill Francis Mott 1942: Enrico Fermi1943: Marcus Oliphant 1944: George Finch 1945: Basil Schonland 1946: John Randall 1947: Frédéric Joliot-Curie1948: Robert Watson-Watt 1949: Cecil Powell1950: Max Born1951: Hendrik Anthony Kramers 1952: Philip Dee 1953: Edward Bullard 1954: Martin Ryle1955: Harrie Massey 1956: Frederick Lindemann 1957: Joseph Proudman 1958: Edward Andrade 1959: Brian Pippard 1960: Joseph Pawsey 1961: Alan Cottrell 1962: Brebis Bleaney 1963: Frederic Calland Williams 1964: Abdus Salam1965: Denys Wilkinson 1966: Nicholas Kemmer 1967: Kurt Mendelssohn 1968: Freeman Dyson1969: Nicholas Kurti 1970: David Bates 1971: Robert Hanbury Brown 1972: Brian David Josephson1973: Peter Hirsch 1974: Peter Fowler 1975: Richard Dalitz 1976: Stephen Hawking1977: Antony Hewish 1978: William Cochran 1979: Robert Williams 1980: Francis Farley 1981: Peter Higgs, Tom Kibble 1982: Drummond Hoyle Matthews e Frederick Vine 1983: John Clive Ward 1984: Roy Kerr 1985: Tony Skyrme 1986: Michael Woolfson 1987: Michael Pepper 1988: Archibald Howie e Michael John Whelan 1989: John Stewart Bell1990: Thomas George Cowling 1991: Philip Burton Moon 1992: Michael Seaton 1993: George Isaak 1994: Robert G. Chambers 1995: David Shoenberg 1996: Amyand Buckingham 1997: Andrew Lang 1998: Raymond Hide 1999: Alexander Boksenberg 2000: Chintamani Rao 2001: John Pethica 2002: Alexander Dalgarno 2003: Peter Edwards 2004: John Clarke 2005: Keith Moffatt 2006: Michael Kelly 2007: Artur Ekert 2008: Michele Dougherty 2010: Andre Geim2011: Matthew Rosseinsky 2013: Henning Sirringhaus 2015: George Efstathiou 2017: Peter Bruce 2018: James Durrant 2019: Andrew Cooper 2020: Clare Grey
1901: William Edward Ayrton e William Thomas Blanford • 1902: Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer e Horace Lamb • 1903: David Gill e Horace Brown • 1904: David Bruce e William Burnside • 1905: Charles Scott Sherrington e John Henry Poynting • 1906: Alfred George Greenhill e Dukinfield Henry Scott • 1907: Ernest William Hobson e Ramsay Heatley Traquair • 1908: Henry Head e John Milne • 1909: Augustus Edward Hough Love e Ronald Ross • 1910: Frederick Orpen Bower e John Joly • 1911: George Chrystal e William Bayliss • 1912: Grafton Elliot Smith e William Mitchinson Hicks • 1913: Ernest Starling e Harold Baily Dixon • 1914: Ernest William Brown e William Johnson Sollas • 1915: Joseph Larmor e William Halse Rivers Rivers • 1916: Hector Munro Macdonald e John Scott Haldane • 1917: Arthur Smith Woodward e John Aitken • 1918: Alfred Fowler e Frederick Gowland Hopkins • 1919: James Hopwood Jeans e John Bretland Farmer • 1920: Godfrey Harold Hardy e William Bateson • 1921: Frank Dyson e Frederick Frost Blackman • 1922: Charles Thomson Rees Wilson e Joseph Barcroft • 1923: Charles James Martin e Napier Shaw • 1924: Dugald Clerk e Henry Dale • 1925: Albert Charles Seward e William Henry Perkin, Jr. • 1926: Archibald Vivian Hill e William Bate Hardy • 1927: John Cunningham McLennan e Thomas Lewis • 1928: Arthur Stanley Eddington e Robert Broom • 1929: John Edensor Littlewood e Robert Muir • 1930: John Edward Marr e Owen Willans Richardson • 1931: Richard Glazebrook e William Henry Lang • 1932: Edward Mellanby e Robert Robinson • 1933: Geoffrey Ingram Taylor e Patrick Laidlaw • 1934: Edgar Douglas Adrian e Sydney Chapman • 1935: Alfred Harker e Charles Galton Darwin • 1936: Edwin Stephen Goodrich e Ralph Howard Fowler • 1937: Arthur Henry Reginald Buller e Nevil Sidgwick • 1938: Francis William Aston e Ronald Fisher • 1939: David Keilin e Paul Dirac • 1940: Francis Marshall e Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett • 1941: Ernest Kennaway e Edward Arthur Milne • 1942: William Whiteman Carlton Topley e Walter Norman Haworth • 1943: Edward Battersby Bailey e Harold Spencer Jones • 1944: Charles Robert Harington e David Brunt • 1945: Edward James Salisbury e John Desmond Bernal • 1946: Cyril Dean Darlington e William Lawrence Bragg • 1947: Frank Burnet e Cyril Norman Hinshelwood • 1948: James Gray e Harold Jeffreys • 1949: Rudolph Peters e George Paget Thomson • 1950: Carl Pantin e Edward Appleton