It's not a coincidence
The Nobel Prizes are awarded in December. In total, seven are this year’s winners in Medicine, Physics and Chemistry, and seven are men, all white, and from the United States or the United Kingdom. The announcement made a few days earlier by the journal Nature has been completely fulfilled. Based on the profiles of the winners of previous years, he made the following portrait: a 58-year-old man, American or otherwise European, white and belonging to a particular academic family. So this year is no coincidence.
Scientists have previously denounced that the portrayal of Nobel laureates does not correspond to the diversity that exists today in the world of research and that the Academy should update the criteria of the award to overcome the exclusion that has historically existed and adapt it to the reality of scientific activity.
In recent years, there were those who said that the Nobel Academy was changing, with the following example: During the entire twentieth century, only 11 women were awarded in the science categories, compared to 15 between 2000-2023. The trend seemed to be changing until 2024.
Even in relation to the origin of researchers, the Nobel Prizes do not reflect the current reality, the journal Nature has highlighted in an editorial. Take the example of China. According to the Nature Index database, seven of the world’s ten largest contributors to the natural and health sciences are from China. Only 10 scientists from China have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
And the same goes for the social class. Looking at the parents of the Nobel laureates, it has been observed that the parents of half of them belong to the group of 5% of those with the most money. Equality of opportunity is far from being achieved in many respects.
That’s what Jim Allison (the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine and married to immunologist Padmanee Sharma) said: “I’m aware that since I’m older, and especially since I won the Nobel Prize, people are more likely to give me credit for the projects my wife has led.”
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