Citation Records Underscore Nobel Winners' Long-Standing Influence On Lab Research

Influence On Lab Research Date: December 7, 1992 For the scientists who won this year's Nobel prizes in chemistry and in physiology or medicine, a commanding citation record, as determined by the Philadelphia-based Institute for Scientific Information, was a clear indication that they were in the running for this most coveted award. The prize in physics, however, went to a French physicist at CERN whose citation history, although impressive, has not been nearly as meteoric as the other recipients. The chemistry prize was awarded to California Institute of Technology's Rudolph A. Marcus for his work in divining the mechanisms of electron-transfer reactions. His first major paper on the topic was published in 1956, with refinements and extensions added over the next nine years. This seminal paper, entitled "Theory of oxidation-reduction reactions involving electron-transfer" (R.A. Marcus, Journal of Chemical Physics, 24:966, 1956), has garnered more than 1,100 citations since its appearance, but the importance of this work was slow to be recognized. It was cited five times in 1957 and only twice during the next year. However, the number of citations has climbed steadily over the ensuing years, and peaked more than three decades after publication--with nearly 120 citations--in 1991. His final paper in the series of work that led to the prize was published in 1965 and has so far been cited almost 1,000 times, and has had a similar slow and steady citational climb (R.A. Marcus, J. Chem. Phys., 43:679, 1965). "The field has been so much fun to work in. When I did the key paper, that was the most exciting moment in my scientific life," says Marcus. "I'm still as excited about my work now as I was then." Other researchers are also excited about his continuing strong record of achievements. Based on papers published between 1984 and 1990, the 69-year-old Marcus was recently ranked by ISI as 49th in terms of total citations out of the top 50 chemists in the world (Science Watch, 3[4]:8, 1992). Other Nobel laureates that were ranked in the top 50 chemists include Harvard University's Elias Corey, who received the prize in 1990, and Cornell University's Roald Hoffmann, a 1981 laureate. Marcus has been at Caltech since 1978 and is the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry. Caltech has been the home of 13 Nobelists, including renowned biochemist Linus Pauling, who received the prize in chemistry in 1954 and in peace in 1962. Marcus has garnered numerous awards leading up to the Nobel. For instance, he received the National Medal of Science in 1989 for his fundamental theories of unimolecular reactions and for his electron-transfer work. And in 1978, the American Chemical Society bestowed the Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics for his "contribution to completion of statistical theory of unimolecular reactions; for his theories of reactions of electron exchange in solution; and for his penetrating analyses of the details of chemical reactions." The publishing duo of Edwin G. Krebs and Edmond H. Fischer has capped a 37-year collaboration in protein phosphorylation research by taking the prize in physiology or medicine. While Fischer calls the prize "surprising" and modestly says he could think of "literally dozens of other people who deserve it," his work in association with Krebs has been both highly cited and often mentioned as deserving of a Nobel Prize. Krebs's citation record, coupled with his receipt of awards such as the Gairdner International Award in 1978 and the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation Medical Research Award in 1989, has fueled speculation in the past that he is a strong contender for this prize (Lisa Holland, The Scientist, Oct. 1, 1990, page 17). He was ranked as the 193rd most cited scientist for the period 1965 to 1978 and is still among the top 1,000. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute senior investigator, emeritus. Krebs is not related to biochemist Hans Krebs, a 1953 Nobel laureate for whom the Krebs cycle is named. Fischer and Edwin Krebs are currently professors, emeritus, of biochemistry at the University of Washington in Seattle, having joined the faculty in 1953 and 1948, respectively. Their first jointly written paper was "Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase from yeast" (E.G. Krebs, E.H. Fischer, Methods in Enzymology, 1:407, 1955), which has garnered a modest 156 citations since its publication. However, their citation classic- -"Purification and properties of rabbit skeletal muscle phosphorylase B kinase"--has been referenced more than 550 times (E.G. Krebs, E.H. Fischer, Biochemistry-U.S., 3:1022, 1964). And, reflecting the growth in this field, a 1979 review by Krebs, "Phosphorylation-dephosphorylation of enzymes," has been cited more than 1,500 times (E.G. Krebs, J.A. Beavo, Annual Review of Biochemistry, 48:923, 1979). Georges Charpak, a 68-year-old French physicist who has been at CERN since 1959, was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his development of particle detectors, in particular the 1968 invention of the multiwire proportional chamber, a device that gave rise to most of the detectors in use at accelerator facilities today. Carlo Rubbia, a 1984 Nobelist and director general of CERN, says, "I am absolutely delighted for Georges Charpak, a colleague and friend for many years. His work at CERN and breakthroughs in detector techniques have paved the way for the major discoveries in particle physics in the last decade." But, as is typical of the field of physics, his citation record is not nearly as showy as those of the other three scientific awardees. His seminal 1968 paper, "Multiwire proportional counters to select and localize charged particles" (G. Charpak, et al., Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics, 62:262, 1968), has been cited 122 times since its publication, with the number of annual citations peaking at 18 in 1971. A follow-up paper, "Some developments in operation of multiwire proportional chambers" (G. Charpak, et al., Nucl. Instrum. Methods, 80:13, 1970), did a bit better, with about 150 citations, and was the 30th most cited paper for the journal. All four researchers will be formally presented with their prizes by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, who left his fortune to establish the awards.

Citation Records Underscore Nobel Winners' Long-Standing Influence On Lab Research

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