<p>Even though the Stanford website lists 16 current faculty Nobels, only 4 are active and truly Stanford faculty. They are Robert Laughlin (Physics), Douglass Osheroff (Physics), Andrew Fire (Pathology and Genetics, who was actually denied admission to Stanford for undergraduate study, and forced to study in UCB, and recruited to Stanford after the award), Roger Kornberg (Biochemistry). </p>
<p>Many of the Nobel laureates slow down significantly after the award. Working with them is truly a mixed blessing because they always get most of the credits, and are usually too distracted to stay on top of the projects. But Nobel prize is a great for marketing a University and for job reference. Media loves to listen to their opinions. </p>
<p>For an undergraduate, it is a little far fetch to think about working with a Nobel laureate. They are not necessarily more effective teachers than other professors. If you plan to go to graduate school, working in a good lab in the field of interest and publishing a manuscript will get you there (you don’t even have to go to top notch schools to do this).</p>