Nobel Prize Series Introduction: Pomp and Circumstance?

August 27, 2020

by Maria-Elizabeth Baeva, MSc Student, Jefferies Lab

Every December, people around the world stop and pay attention to what some might consider “the Oscars” of humanity: the Nobel Prize.

Considered to be one of the highest achievements that one can possibly obtain in their lifetime, the Nobel Prize seems larger than life, what Burton Feldman describes as “more than the sum of its six separate fields: it is a mysterious incarnation of power and authority, an anointed ritual whose claims are accepted as part of the order of things” in his book about the prize1.

But just like the Oscars (and basically every award), the Nobel Prize is not without its criticisms and controversies: from leaving out deserving potentials and awarding undeserving recipients, to the mysterious decision committee and their biases or to the recipients who may or may not be Nazis (spoilers, there was definitely more than one). I think it is healthy to step back and critically examine the origins of the prize, the context surrounding awarding the prize and the weight and power this prize delivers to its recipients.

This will be a four-part series examining the complicated story of the Nobel Prize. We begin with the man who started it all, Alfred Nobel, and events that led to the sudden decision to establish this award. Next, a discussion on how the prizes have historically and continue to be awarded and maybe some potential changes that may be welcome. Afterwards, we must address the issues of bias and diversity in the Nobel Prize. Finally, we will discuss the material, ethical and consequentialist implications of winning a prize.

Did you know? All Nobel Prize diplomas (except for the prize for Physiology or Medicine starting in 1965) have original works of art representing the achievement being highlighted. For example, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work elucidating the structure and function of the ribosome.

If you are at all interested in learning more about the Nobel Prize, stay tuned for more! And if you find this whole ordeal surrounding the prize to be too, “institutionalized” (famously said by the first person to ever decline a Nobel Prize: Jean Paul-Sartre2), then I would recommend to you the Ig Nobel Prize3. This is a satiric prize, presented by actual Nobel Laureates, which honours real research that “first make[s] people laugh, and then make[s] them think.” The award has gone to “behaviour of beer foam”, “training pigeons to discriminate between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet” and the three largest US tobacco companies “for their unshakeable discovery, as testified to the U.S. Congress, that nicotine is not addictive”. Click here to see the whole list of recipients and research. This year the Ig Nobel Prize is being webcast September 17, 2020.

 

This is the first article in the Nobel Prize blog series. Read the second article in the series here: “Nobel Prize Series Part 1: The Man, the Mystery and the Million-Dollar Question: Why?“

 

Citations:

  1. Feldman, Burton (2000). The Nobel Prize: A History of Genius, Controversy and Prestige. Arcade Publishing.
  2. “Jean-Paul Sartre Refuses Nobel Prize: from the Archive, 23 October 1964.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Oct. 2010, Retrieved July 23, 2020 from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/25/sartre-turns-down-nobel-1964
  3. “Ig Nobel Prizes.” Improbable Research, 20 May 2020, Retrieved July 23, 2020 from: https://www.improbable.com/ig-about/