The tally of Nobel Prize winners in each country or within an academic institution is slightly more than playful competition. The prize is still the most prestigious in many fields, and the award symbolizes that a significant research contribution has been made. The new figures relate to awards made since the year 2000.
The Nobel Prize is a set of international awards issued each year across several categories by Swedish and Norwegian committees. The prizes are given in recognition of academic, cultural and scientific advances. The first award was given in 1895.
In the academic top 10, eight U.S. universities are placed, according to The Independent. To place goes to Stanford. With the U.S. dominance, only two places are left I the upper echelons of the league table and these fall with Israel Institute of Technology, and Germany’s Max Planck Society.
The full list of universities is:
1. Stanford University
2. Columbia University
3. University of California, Berkeley
4. Princeton University
5. University of Chicago
6. Howard Hughes Medical Institute
7. University of California, Santa Barbara
8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
9. Technion Israel Institute of Technology
10. Max Planck Society
In terms of the citizenship of Nobel Prize winners the U.S., not surprisingly based on the academic list, comes first. More surprisingly, given the dearth of British universities in the top ten, is the U.K. This suggests that many top British academics take flight to the U.S. to conduct their research.
The league tables, which have been put together by the Times Higher Education magazine, indicate that 71 U.S. citizens have been awarded the prestigious honour, followed next — and someway behind — 12 British-born academics.
The top ten countries are:
1. U.S.
2. U.K.
3. Japan
4. Germany
5. Israel
6 (equal) France
6 (equal) Russia
8. Australia
9. Norway
10 (equal) Belgium
10 (equal) China
10 (equal) Italy
The British universities that played host the 12 U.K. winners are: Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Nottingham, University College London, and Manchester. With Manchester University, two researchers – Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov — won the prize for inventing the graphene. Graphene, as keen readers of Digital Journal will know, is a ‘super-material’ — strong, light-weight, transparent and highly conductive.
