Warburg’s dogs: Nobel laureates and scientific celebrity

Källstrand, Gustav

doi:10.1080/19392397.2020.1788402

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The Nobel Prize is the universal icon of extraordinary achievement in science. [1][2][3] According to the Nobel Prize website and archives, the first step in the selection process in the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (NPch) is the invitation to a carefully selected group of chemists to submit nominations. [4,5] Figure 1 illustrates the number of nominations received for the NPch from 1901-1970, the last year for which data is currently available for the NPch from the Nobel Prize Nomination Archive (as of December 2022), [6] a resource that is seeing more utility.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Uncertain Role of Nominations for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry^†

Seeman

Restrepo

2023

Chemistry A European J

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The solicitation of nominations for the Nobel Prizes in Chemistry (NPch) is and has been the first step in the selection process since the very first awards were made in 1901. The number of nominations solicited by and provided to the Nobel Committee for Chemistry supports the belief by the nominators that their nominations are meaningful. In this publication, we examine data culled from the Nobel Prize Nomination Archives for the period 1901–1970 of the variable role of nominations in the selection process for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The evidence is overwhelming that nominations, in general, during the 1901–1970 period have not been the deciding, overriding factor in the selection of the recipients of the NPch. Rather, we posit that nominations from the preselected nominator‐pool have been a source of information for the Committee, used to suggest future years’ contenders and possibly served as motivation for the Committee to seek nominations for specific nominees for future years. It is also clear that selections are often influenced by personal prejudices, for example, friendships, rivalries, and nationality.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Nobel Prize is the universal icon of extraordinary achievement in science [1–3] . According to the Nobel Prize website and archives, the first step in the selection process in the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (NPch) is the invitation to a carefully selected group of chemists to submit nominations [4,5] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Uncertain Role of Nominations for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry^†

Seeman

Restrepo

2023

Chemistry A European J

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Science by Nobel committee: decision making and norms of scientific practice in the early physics and chemistry prizes

Källstrand

2022

Br J Hist Sci

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This paper examines the early years of decision making in the award of the Nobel Prize in physics and chemistry, and shows how the prize became a tool in the boundary work which upheld the social demarcations between scientists and inventors, as well as promoting a particular normative view of individual scientific achievement. The Nobel committees were charged with rewarding scientific achievements that benefited humankind: their interpretation of that criterion, however, turned in the first instance on their assessment of the groundbreaking nature of the ‘science’, with the applied or practical ‘benefits’ of that discovery being treated as very much secondary factors in the award. Through an interrogation of the reports sent by the committees to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, this paper shows how committee members depended on a notion of ‘post-dated utilitarianism’ in reconciling potential tension between rewarding basic and applied science, and explores the ways in which the annual prize both shaped, and was shaped by, media perceptions of scientific virtue.

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