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The selection of award winners is by no means as objective as one might think. That’s why there is always criticism.
Many scientists dream of a call from Stockholm with the news that they have won the Nobel Prize. But if you want to increase your chances of winning an award, you should take a few points into account. More about that later.
The Nobel Prize is intended to be awarded to people who have achieved something special that benefits humanity. The Nobel Prize has been around for over 120 years – and during this time it has been shown that being a good researcher does not in itself give you a Nobel Prize.
A Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize
Nils Hansson looked into who exactly gets an award and who doesn’t. He is a medical historian at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf and an expert when it comes to the subject of Nobel Prizes. Hansson is particularly interested in those who failed to win a Nobel Prize. He wrote a book about it.
First of all, you need friends – because you have to be recommended by others: “You need colleagues who keep recommending you for the Nobel Prize,” says Hansson.
Sometimes it takes decades for someone to win the Nobel Prize.
It’s not enough to be nominated once. “Sometimes it takes decades for someone to win the Nobel Prize – all the lobbying behind a candidate is sometimes just as important as the discovery itself,” says Hansson.
Suggestions from all over the world
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize, sends out invitations to around 3,000 scientific institutions every year. They can then suggest people and have to justify it.
Who ultimately awards the prize varies depending on the category. For the Nobel Prize in Medicine, for example, this is the Karolinska Institute in Sweden – it is a large medical university.
There is a Nobel Prize committee that looks at the nominees and makes a pre-selection. Ultimately, a larger meeting at the university decides who will receive the award.
Familiar faces preferred
In addition to friends, you should already have a name – newcomers have a hard time. Because: “The Nobel Prize Committee doesn’t want to make a mistake,” says Hansson. Nobody should be awarded at random, which is why older people are usually honored.
In addition, these are mostly men, from the USA and Europe, as the Nobel Prize statistics show. Many of them come from elite US universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale or Pennsylvania.
Only a few women
The selection of award winners and the selection process have caused criticism several times in the past. Above all, the fact that the majority of awards are given to men is criticized.
One of the reasons for this may be the fact that women are still underrepresented in science. In fact, only 60 women have received a Nobel Prize so far – that’s less than ten percent of all those honored with a Nobel Prize.