Letter: Nobel Contenders

As a physicist, I very much enjoyed reading the very speculative article Twelve Prolific Physicists: Likely 1990 Nobel Contenders [The Scientist, Sept. 3, 1990, page 16]. However, if the Nobel Prize Selection Committee uses citation indices as its primary gauge of excellence, then it seems to me they have cheapened the prize by resorting to such cold and shallow criteria. Moreover, they will have overlooked (again) the seminal contributions of the most profound and original physicist in the wo

Written byJim Bogan

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As a physicist, I very much enjoyed reading the very speculative article Twelve Prolific Physicists: Likely 1990 Nobel Contenders [The Scientist, Sept. 3, 1990, page 16]. However, if the Nobel Prize Selection Committee uses citation indices as its primary gauge of excellence, then it seems to me they have cheapened the prize by resorting to such cold and shallow criteria.

Moreover, they will have overlooked (again) the seminal contributions of the most profound and original physicist in the world: Stephen W. Hawking. Must we wait to bestow the prize posthumously?

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