<p>This is quite a lot of debate about Nobel Prizes considering that it is unclear why the number of Nobels matters when discussing anything other than a university’s combined strength in Economics, Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine (not Literature, since Nobels are generally for writers, not scholars). Sort of an arbitrary characteristic, isn’t it? And in some ways it doesn’t even measure that, as even at a university with many winners, only a tiny fraction of even the faculty in those fields will have won one. And besides, most Nobel winners don’t teach undergrads. As an example, I searched Columbia’s online course listings for every single one of its recent Nobel winners, and not a single one showed up teaching a course in Columbia College in 2006-2007.</p>