<p>Love all these Americans winning. And love the fact that 2 of the 4 Nobels so far are for professors in public universities. Yeay Cal, yeay UMass. Because news that Harvard and Stanford winning Nobels is beginning to make this public school grad yawn.</p>
<p>I keep expecting my brother to win. I guess we will have to wait another year.</p>
<p>I was happy to see that a Smoot won. Yea for MIT. I just love jogging across the Harvard Bridge and seeing all those smoot marks. The new physics co-Nobel laureate George Smoot is only a distant relative of the great 5’-7" Oliver Smoot, though, and will never be able to match his fame…big bang big schmang.</p>
<p>Yes, another big sweep for the US. And I’m sure this is especially sweet for UC Berkeley, which used to garner lots of physics Nobels back in the middle of the 20th century, but I think hadn’t won one since 1965. But if wins by HYPSM make you yawn, well you better keep yawning, because those schools are still very well represented too:</p>
<p>Scientist - Undergrad/Grad School/ Current Institution</p>
<p>Mello - Brown/Harvard/UMass
Fire - UCB/MIT/Stanford
Mather - Swarthmore/UCB/NASA
Smoot - MIT/MIT/UCB & Lawrence Labs
Kornberg - Harvard/Stanford/Stanford</p>
<p>Driver, the “great” Oliver Smoot was 5’7. The not-quite-so great George Smoot is 6’. It’s all relative(s). :)</p>
<p>George Smoot once wrote a very funny essay about the fact that he was not, in fact, “THE” Smoot.</p>
<p>coureur,
I was kidding about the yawning. With all their money and prestige Harvard, Stanford, et al., SHOULD garner the lion’s share of prizes. And in the end, it doesn’t really matter whether they’re public or private. In the end, it all adds up to this country’s world-class level of research and innovation of which Americans – public and private grads – should be proud. </p>
<p>It’s just that – well, it’s great to see the publics do well too. Berkeley is one thing, having had their share of Nobels. But to see UMass get such an honor is especially gratifying to those of us who are tireless supporters of public education.</p>
<p>There was an interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal by Michio Kaku. He talks about George Gamow, who was the principle architect of the “Big Bang Theory” in 1948, but whose work was never recognized by the Nobel Committee. It’s an interesting story, and I wish I could provide the link. But here is the final paragraph:
</p>
<p>The folks at UC Santa Barbara were bragging that UCSB faculty had the most Nobel Laureates since 1998 of any University in the world (5). But none this year. I wonder if this knocks them down a notch or two?</p>
<p>Really Berkeley was bragging until a recent death they had the most Nobels. I thought it was something like 8. Maybe I’m misremembering my tour?</p>
<p>Ah, but mathmom, you have to remember the three kinds of lies, ending with “statistics”. I think UCSB’s trick is the “since 1998” part. All of UCSB’s laureates won in the last 8 years. I think Stanford has at least a couple from the mid-90’s, etc.</p>
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<p>I agree. I am a public school grad myself (UC Davis). But Kluge is right, among public schools, UCSB has had an amazing run of Nobels in recent years. Berkeley got an Economics Nobel a few years ago, but they’ve had a long dry spell in science Nobels. Hopefully this year’s physics prize heralds a return to the glory days of Seaborg and Lawrence.</p>
<p>The question of who has the most Nobels gets debated in various threads here on CC. It mostly depends on how you count. There are at least four different ways a school can claim a Nobelist. </p>
<p>The laureate:
- Went undergrad there
- Went to grad/medical school there
- Is currently on the faculty
- Is now somewhere else but did their big research there</p>
<p>Based on various combinations and permutations of these four factors I’ve seen the top school be hailed as either Harvard, Chicago, Cambridge, and maybe others that I’m forgetting. And as UCSB has shown, if you ask the question narrowly enough some surprising schools can win too.</p>