<p>There are a lot of people who do not approve of the Nobel prize. I, personally, do not think that they are necessary, but if I won the nobel prize I wouldn’t reject it. Think of the grant money! And whether you like it or not, the quest for grant money really is a rat race and I would accept any award that helped in the process… </p>
<p>And although it may seem nice to think that titles don’t matter, in an academic setting where reputation seems to matter more than personality, titles really do matter. And the fact of the matter is that in many cases, academics with the best reputation tend to aggregate together, and often times its around nobel prize winners. So even if the nobel prize seems to be morally corrupt or useless or whatever.</p>
<p>And who rejected the fields medal? I had never heard of that (not that I know too much about the fields medal…)</p>