Wolfgang Schoellhammer - Nobel Prize Survey 2003 |
| The Nobel Prize Survey 2003 | |||||
The Nobel Prize as an Indicator for the Quality of Research at Universities - by Wolfgang Schoellhammer, Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences, Germany, Summer 2003 |
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The nobel prize is one of the most famous awards for outstanding achievements in the following areas: Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, Economic Sciences, Literature and Peace. nobel prizes have been awarded since 1901, the nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was introduced in 1969. The nobel prize is awarded every year for six different disciplines/areas; it honors individual persons. The Prize Committees may split the nobel Prize either to different persons/researchers working in the same field or to different fields of research. The nobel Foundation lists all nobel prize laureates and nebst others the The nobel Prize Internet Archive provides information about the laureates. The nobel Prize Survey focuses on the home institutions (especially universities and countries) of the nobel prize laureates in the sciences (Chemistry, Economic Sciences, Physiology or Medicine and Physics). The actual issue of the survey includes the relevant data up to spring 2003. The survey is updated for the third time and this issue includes some tendencies for the disciplines in comparing the last 25 and the last 15 years. The first survey was published in 1997; it started to analyze the nobel Prize Laureates with a focus on "their" research institutions. The second survey was published in 1999 and introduced for the analysis of changes a category covering the last 25 years only. Developments had been described for a) the whole century b) the period after World War II and c) the last 25 years. The survey in 2003 has a stronger focus on the developments of the last years. It compares for the relevant disciplines, countries and institutions the awards of the last 25 years with those of the last 15 years. All trends of this comparison are - related to the small totals - more a "sketch of the scientfic landscape" than a statistical analysis (1). Some results of the nobel Prize Survey 2003 are - similiar to the last survey - described under the following questions: 1. Which institutions "supported" how often a nobel Prize Laureate? The 538 nobel Prize Laureates (in all fields of the sciences) are hosted by 213 institutions/ universities (2). Each institution/university that provided the facilities and created an intellectual surrounding to get a nobel Prize is excellent in research. Among the institutions/universities of the nobel prize laureates are quite a number of institutions / universities, that got a nobel Prize Laureate for several times (up to 28 times) and in different fields. Obviously some universities provide research facilities and an intellectual atmosphere, that "creates" in a certain way nobel Prize winners. Of course, you may find a kind self-fulfilling prophecy in a sense, that nobel Prize institutions will be able to attract outstanding researchers and will raise/provide the budgets for outstanding research work. But nevertheless, the list of these institutions / universities is also a ranking of excellence in research 48 institutions got three and more nobel prizes; these institutions cover about 2/3 of all nobel prizes ever awarded. 11 universities/institutions only got more than a third (34.2 %) of all nobel prizes; each of these institutions got in between 11 and 28 nobel prizes. As highlighted in chapter 3 of the last survey a relative small group of universities took a leading part in hosting nobel Prize Laureates. In the comparison of the last 25 and the last 15 years you will still find a concentration towards these relative small group of leading institution: in the last 25 year only 30 institutions out of 96 got about 2/3 of all nobel Prizes and in the last 15 years only 24 institutions out of 68 got about 2/3 of all prizes. In comparing the ratios you will find a tendency to concentrate the nobel Prize Laureates towards less and less institutions. Though the "big names" changed their ranks a little the dominance of a rather small group of universities is growing. This has to be considered in seeing the changes of rank positions. Here for example Harvard University lost some ranks and some others like the UC Santa Barbara, the UC San Francisco and the U of Colorado (but also Princeton U and the Max Planck Society) became a little bit stronger. And by the way: though we focus on universities and campuses it is evident, that the University of California System is definitly the most successful institution in hosting nobel Prize Laureates. The various campuses in the UC System (UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Francisco, UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles) got also in the last 15 years much more nobel Prizes Laureates than Stanford U or the MIT. 2. In which countries are the "nobel prize institutions"? The 538 nobel prize laureates came from institutions in 24 countries. 48.5 % of these institutions are in the United States, 14.7 % in Great Britain and 11.3 % in Germany. The distribution is dominated by the United States and the comparison of the last 25 and the last 15 years indicates a still growing dominance of the United States: in the last 25 years the United States got 68 % of all nobel Prizes and in the last 15 years about 72 % of all prizes went to US-institutions. With a tremendous gap to the United States the United Kingdom and Germany take the second and third place in this distribution. The comparison of the last 25 and 15 years shows: Switzerland and Sweden lost a place in the ranking of the nations and countries like Japan, France, Canada and Germany became a little bit stronger in the last 15 years.... not stronger related to the United States, but a little bit stronger compared to the other countries like Switzerland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
3. Which are the leading institutions in the various disciplines? Also for the different disciplines, the all in all dominant institutions got nobel prizes in nearly all fields. This is a strong tendency, but there are some exemptions. If you consider only institutions, that got more than three nobel prize laureates (and these institutions cover in all disciplines about 50 % of all nobel prizes) you will find: In Chemistry the Max Planck Gesellschaft MPG (9), the University of Cambridge (6), the Harvard University (5) and the UC Berkeley (5) are all inall the institutions hosting most of the nobel Prize winners. In the last 25 and 15 years some universities became stronger in hosting nobel Prize Laureates: the California Institute of Technology, the ETH Zuerich, the RIce University Houston and the UC Santa Barbara appeared and stay rather strong behind the Max Planck Gesellschaft. The Harvard University lost some rank positions in this comparison. In chemistry we find - compared to the other disciplines - the broadest range of institutions hosting nobel Prize winners and it seems, that the concentration towards less and less universities not really continues in the last decades. The ratio of institutions and prizes is the same (relativly lowest) in the last 25 and the last 15 years. In Physics the concentration of nobel Prize Laureates towards less and less institutions is rather high and compared to the last 25 and 15 years it still continious. Stanford University (10), Harvard University (8), Princeton University (7) and the University of Cambridge (7) are the most succesfull institutions. In the last 25 years universities and institutions like the IBM Research Lab, the MIT and the CERN became relativly stronger and broadend the group of leading institutions. In the comparison of the last 25 and the last 15 years the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Cornell University became stronger and the Princeton University lost one rank. In Physiolgy and Medicine the Harvard University (11), the University of London (8), the Rockefeller University (6) and the University of Cambridge (6) are the most successful institutions in hosting nobel Prize Laureates. In the last 25 years the University of Washington, the MIT, the Max Planck Gesellschaft, the University of Basel, UC San Francisco and the UT Dallas become stronger and form together with the Harvard University the leading group. Comparing the last 25 and 15 years you will find the UC San Francisco getting stronger and having together with the University of Washington and the Max Planck Gesellschaft the first two ranks. But also the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, the Rockefeller University, the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Research Labs became (some of them again) relativly stronger in hosting nobel Prize winners. Also in Physiology and Medicine you will find - similiar to physics, but not that strong - a still growing concentration of institutions... over the times less institutions host more nobel Prize winners. In Economics the concentration of nobel Prize Laureates at relativly less universities is compared to other disciplines the highest. The University of Chicago (9) is definitly the leading institution in hosting nobel Prize Laureates; the Harvard University, the UC Berkeley and the University of Cambridge share the second rank. In the last 25 years the Columbia University, Princeton University and Standford Univ ersity became stronger and found together with the above named institutions then leading group. The comparison of the last 25 and the last 15 shows: the Stanford University and the Columbia University became relativly a little bit stronger and the Princeton University and the University of Cambridge lost two ranks in this comparison. Also the MIT lost its impetus in the last 15 years and couldn't host a nobel Prize winner. 4. Which are the leading countries in the various disciplines? In seeing the dominance of the univeristies and institutions of the United States in hosting nobel Prize Laureates we should expect also in the various disciplines the USA as the leading country. The more relevant aspects are therefore: how dominant are the US-institutions in the disciplines? In Chemistry the United States is with a ratio of 38.3 % of all nobel Prize Laureates the dominant country. Germany (20.6 %) and the United Kingdom (17.7 %) follow on rank 2 and 3. All other countries got less than 5 % of these nobel Prize Laureates. In the last 25 and also 15 years the dominance of the United States became much more stronger. About 62 % of all nobel Prize Laureates in Chemistry are hosted by US-institutions. The other side round: the ratio of the United Kingdom and Germany shrunk to less than 10 %. The comparison of the last 25 and the last 15 years shows: the dominance of the United States is not growing. Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and Switzerland could get about 5-10 % of the nobel Prize winners. The UK institutions "lost" two ranks in this comparison and stay on rank 4. In Physics the United States is with a ratio of 48.2 % of all nobel Prize Laureates also the dominant country. The United Kingdom (13.1 %), Germany (9.5 %) and France (7.1 %) follow on the next ranks. The focus on tne last 25 and 15 years shows: the dominance of the US institutions become much stronger and is still growing. In the last 25 years the United States hosted 66 % of all nobel Prize Laureates and in the last 15 years this ratio grow to 76 %. And therefore countries like Switzerland, Germany and Russia got a smaller ratio of nobel Prize winners; only France could keep/improve its role, Switzerland was obviously pretty strong in the years from 1978 - 1988 and got about 12 % of all nobel Prize Laureats in the last 25 years. France and Germany got rank 3 in this period. In the last 15 years Switzerland "lost" a little the relative important role and countries like Canda, Japan, the Netherlands and Russia got relative better ranks. The french universities could get rank 2 after the US-institutions and got about 8 % of the nobel Prize Laureates. In Physiology or Medicine also the United States (50 %) is the most successful country in hosting nobel Prize winners. The United Kingdom (15.2 %) and Germany (7.8 %) got rank 2 and 3. All other countries got less than 5 % of the nobel Prize Laureates. And - like in physics - the dominance of the US-institutions is growing in seeing the last 25 and 15 years. In the last 15 years the United States hosted 71 % of all nobel Prize Laureates in Physiology or Medicine. But though the growing dominance of the United States the United Kingdom and Germany kept "their" ration of nobel Prize winners also in the last 25 and the last 15 years. And similiar to the situation in physics Switzerland was rather strong from 1978 to 1988 (rank 3 in the last 25 years) and lost a little this impetus in the last 15 years. In the Economic Sciences (the prize was introduced 1969) the situation is rather simple and stable: The United States are the dominating country and got about 73 % of all nobel Prize laureates. In the last 25 or 15 years the dominance of the US-institutions became a little stronger and is above 80 %. The United Kingdom got in all periods rank 2 and is the only country that got more than 5 % of nobel Prize winners in this discipline. Some conclusions Also the basic results of this third survey are more or less well known within the academic world. The importance and increasing dominance of the American universities is nearly common sense and the fact, that only a few institutions play a major role in the research world, will not really surprise most academics. This dominance of some handful of universities and research institutions shows - like in the other surveys - again: don't underestimate the wellknown "big names" like Stanford, Harvard, MIT, UC, Princeton etc.. Therefore maybe the more relevant question is: In how far is this group of dominating universities in the various discliplines homogenious and stable over the years? This issue of the survey compared the last 25 years and the last 15 years for the institutions hosting nobel Prize Laureates. In this comparison we found for the disciplines physics and medicine still a concentration in a sense that less institutions are hosting more nobel Prize winners. But in chemistry and economics this concentration obviously came to an end (3). Also we found that in the last 25 and 15 years some of the already strong universities and research institutions succeeded to enter and to stay in the group of leading institutions. Some others lost a little their leading position. For example the compared with Harvard, Stanford and the MIT not so wellknown institutions like the University of Washington, the UC Santa Barbara, the UC San Francisco, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the Rice University Houston and the Cornell University could find and keep their places under the leading research universities. Also outside the United States the Max Planck Gesellschaft in Germany, the University of Cambridge and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in the United Kingdom to stayed within the leading groups of institutions. Remarkable also that obviously the institutions in Switzerland couldn't keep the rather strong position they got in the time from 1978 - 1988 (though the University of Basel and the ETH Zurich are still strong and in leading positions). And also the Harvard University was in the last 25 and 15 years not so successful in hosting nobel Prize Laureates than in the years before. But though the Harvard University lost some ranks, it is still one of the leading institutions and it hosts also in the last years various nobel Prize winners. Harvards lost its outstanding role and became a top research institution like some other too. Again the results and rankings of this third survey are a special kind of indicator for the quality of research in a broader sense: all institutions hosting one or more nobel Prize Laureates are pretty strong in the respective field of research. And for all these universities one should expect also a rather strong research orientation and quality in other disciplines too (4). Personal remark
(1) Data of the survey are kept in a Filemaker database and for the analysis of the data I use DataDeskPro (both on Apple Computers). (2) Schools, Institutes, Labs etc. are assigned to the respective institution or university (affiliated institution of the research work). In this survey we considered all institutions with a nobel Prize laureat as the winner of one nobel Prize. Though in the last decades more and more prizes had been split to various persons, we counted each institution as a "nobel Prize winning institution". The splitting of nobel Prizes is also a "Marketing instrument" of the nobel Prize Foundation and for the institutions (and the public) the difference of getting a nobel Prize or the half of it is not really relevant. (3) Because the nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was introduced rather late, the situation is a little bit different: the concentration towards a few institutions (and the dominance of the University of Chicago) was much stronger than in other disciplines (4) This, because those institutions/universities that provide facilities and the intellectual environment for a nobel prize laureate will have also excellent facilities in other areas for a simple reason: as a side effect of the internal competition (ressources, reputation etc.) a university normally can't handle totally different levels of quality. Of course nothing is said about efficiency, transfer to industry and business and many more criteria related to the evaluation of research. |
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