Submit questions for the Nobel Prize Committee and Laureates
Anna Kushnir
Wednesday, 01 October 2008 20:58 UTC
I have a neat idea to propose for the upcoming Nobel Prize announcement week. The Nobel Organization hosts a Q&A after each Prize Announcement in which people can submit questions to heads of the Prize-Awarding Committees, and to newly minted Laureates. The questions are reviewed and a selected set is answered by the committee members, usually within 48 hours. The Nobel Laureates respond to the chosen questions sometime after the award ceremony in December. [I will post more details on this process as soon as I can]
I propose that we start collecting questions now and on into next week. We can then vote on the ones we would like to submit to the Nobel Committee. I have no doubt that with the diverse scientific minds here on NN, we will have no trouble coming up with insightful and interesting questions to present to the Nobel Committee heads and Laureates.
Let’s start with questions for heads of the Nobel Prize Committees, and I will post other topics for soliciting questions to the Laureates, once we find out who they are!
What question would you like to ask the heads of Nobel Prize Committees?
Updated 05 October 2008 15:28 UTC
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Replies
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The deadline for submitting questions to Professor Hans Jörnvall, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine is approaching! List your questions here, and submit them on the Nobel Prize site!
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An Update! Answers to questions submitted to the Nobel Committee in Chemistry have now been addressed by the Secretary of the Nobel Committee in Chemistry, Professor Astrid Gräslund, and the answers posted on NobelPrize.org.
One question in particular struck me in light of recent conversation on Eva Amsen’s blog regarding the number of women Nobel laureates.
Question: When is the prize in chemistry going to be awarded to a woman? The Nobel Prize committee has now established a 44 year long record of giving it to men. There have now been 83 men who have shared in the prize since the last time it was awarded to a woman.
Answer: This is a very difficult question to answer (of course I cannot give a precise prediction). According to the will of Alfred Nobel we cannot take into account nationality or other personal aspects, but only the results count. Today’s Nobel Prizes typically reflect work done perhaps 10-20 years ago, and very few women were leading chemical scientists in those days. Today the gender distribution among active scientists is somewhat more even, so my guess is that in the future we will see a (slowly) growing number of women awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Any thoughts?
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Today the gender distribution among active scientists is somewhat more even, so my guess is that in the future we will see a (slowly) growing number of women awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
My next question would be, is there gender equity among the estimable peers who are doing the nominations? That should be easier to obtain, given that there are twenty additional years of women (chemists) to add into the population.
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That’s a really good question, Heather. I did some digging, and here’s what I found on the sex breakdown of the Nobel Committee members.
Committee on Physiology has 6 members (I think) and none of them are women.
Chemistry: Total 7 Women 2
Physics: Total 8 Women 2
Economics: Total 8 women 1At least there are women somewhere in there. Whether these numbers are representative of the proportion of women in the sciences, I can’t say. For Professorships, it might actually be reflective.
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I have one question to the selection committe that they should include one more sector in Nobel Field Like people,who worked for the uplift and establish the supremacy of law in their country and access to justice,there are many persons who worked in this area but there is no encouragment thats why,in most countries there is no justice like south asia and african region.
My Question is why they are ignored?
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