<p>Dionysus,</p>
<p>You really don’t know what you are talking about, but that doesn’t stop you from stating it with absolute certainty. So very typical of many comments appearing on CC.</p>
<p>My assertion that academics are attracted to the presence of Nobel (or Fields) laureates is anything but ridiculous! Excellence attracts excellence. You may not believe it, but what academics want the most from a research-intensive university is an intellectually stimulating environment provided by other outstanding colleagues. And people at the very top of their field, such as Nobel laureates, help create this. They are the magnet. Their presence also attracts the very best graduate students and postdocs, essential ingredients for productive research. Finally, strong departments, and departments with several Nobel laureates usually are very strong, tend to pay their faculty extremely well - in order to attract and keep the academic stars. So it’s all connected.</p>
<p>Your other statement that undergraduates do not do high-level research is equally misguided and wrong. I don’t know which school you attend, but at NYU and other major research universities the undergraduates are regularly co-authors of papers published in top scientific journals, with stringent acceptance standards, especially in natural sciences and math. The best of them spend ~two years working intensely in the research groups lead by the faculty.</p>
<p>Please inform yourself before making another contribution.</p>