Physics has some history of PhD work being recognized. Abrikosov won for his very first paper, if I recall correctly. Wilczek also won for a paper he publishe

Physics has some history of PhD work being recognized. Abrikosov won for his very first paper, if I recall correctly. Wilczek also won for a paper he published as a grad student (albeit with his advisor). And de Broglie essentially won for his thesis, which was only a few pages long. On the other hand, one need only think of Jocelyn Bell-Burnell to find an instance where a grad student got totally screwed.