LEADING SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION PROVIDER PREDICTS NOBEL LAUREATES

Philadelphia, PA, USA-London, UK - August 31, 2005 —

October 2005 update: We are pleased to congratulate one of our Laureates — Robert H Grubbs — who has been awarded The Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with Yves Chauvin and Richard R Shrock.

Each year, data from ISI Web of KnowledgeSM, a Thomson Scientific research solution, is used to quantitatively determine the most influential researchers in the Nobel categories of chemistry, economics, physiology or medicine, and physics. Because of the total citations to their works, these high-impact researchers are named Thomson Scientific Laureates and predicted to be Nobel Prize contenders, either this year or in the near future.

“Citations are an acknowledgement of intellectual debt — a direct demonstration of influence in a given subject area,” said Henry Small, chief scientist of Thomson Scientific. “Researchers who have accumulated such credits from their peers are also often nominated for prizes and other honors, such as the Nobel Prize.”

Thomson Scientific is the only organization to use quantitative data to make regular predictions of Nobel Prize winners.

“Over the past 30 years, our studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between journal article citations and peer esteem, and this is reflected in professional awards like the Nobel Prize,” said Small.

The Thomson Scientific Laureates typically rank among the top one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of researchers in their fields, based on citations of their published papers over the last two decades.

To select the 2005 Thomson Scientific Laureates, total citation counts and number of high-impact papers in the Nobel science fields were examined. These data were applied to categories within those fields considered worthy of special recognition by the Nobel Committee. Based on these criteria, three possible winners were selected in each field.

The following lists the 2005 Thomson Scientific Laureates in four Nobel Prize categories:

Chemistry

J. Fraser Stoddart
Saul Winstein Professor of Organic Chemistry

University of California at Los Angeles
Los Angeles , Calif. , USA

-and-

George M. Whitesides
Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry

Harvard University
Cambridge , Mass. , USA

-and-

Seiji Shinkai
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Kyushu University
Graduate School of Engineering
Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka Prefecture , Japan

For pioneering research in molecular self-assembly, which promises great advances in the fabrication of nanoscale machinery and microelectronics.

K.C. Nicolaou
Chairman, Department of Chemistry

Aline W. and L.S. Skaggs Professor in Chemical Biology and Darlene Shiley Chair in Chemistry
The Scripps Research Institute
La Jolla , Calif. , USA

Professor of Chemistry

University of California , San Diego
San Diego , Calif. , USA

For research in organic and natural product synthesis, especially for achieving the total synthesis of Taxol TM in 1994 and vancomycin in 1998-1999.

 

Robert H. Grubbs
Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry

Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena , Calif. , USA

For breakthrough research in the design and synthesis of complexes with useful catalytic actions, especially in polymerization (the creation of so-called living polymers).

 

Economics

Eugene F. Fama
Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance

Graduate School of Business
University of Chicago
Chicago , Ill. , USA

-and-

Kenneth R. French
Carl E. and Catherine M. Heidt Professor of Finance

Tuck School of Business
Dartmouth College
Hanover , N.H. , USA

For their seminal contributions to understanding the relationship of stock returns and business fluctuations.

 

Paul Michael Romer
Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and Hoover Institution

Stanford , CA USA

For his development of ‘new growth theory,’ which addresses a fundamental question in economics: what sustains economic growth in a world characterized by diminishing returns and scarcity.

 

Robert J. Barro

Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics

Harvard University
Cambridge , Mass.

Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution

Stanford , Calif. , USA

For his pioneering contributions in empirical macroeconomics, ranging over many fields, but especially for work in public debt in the 1970s.

 

 

Physiology or Medicine

Alfred G. Knudson Jr.
Senior Advisor to the President and Fox Distinguished Scientist

Fox Chase Cancer Center Philadelphia , Pa. , USA

-and-

Bert Vogelstein
Professor of Oncology and Pathology with a Joint Appointment in Molecular Biology and Genetics

The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore , Md. , USA

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator

-and-

Robert A. Weinberg
Daniel K. Ludwig and American Cancer Society Professor for Cancer Research

MIT
Cambridge , Mass. , USA

Member

Whitehead Institute
Cambridge , Mass. , USA

For the discovery and elucidation of the role of tumor suppressor genes in oncogenesis.

Sir Michael J. Berridge, FRS
Deputy Scientific Director and Head, Molecular Signaling

The Babraham Institute
Babraham
Cambridge , United Kingdom

Honorary Professor of Department of Zoology

University of Cambridge
Cambridge , United Kingdom

For breakthrough contributions in cell signaling, including research on the second messenger inositol triphosphate.

 

Francis S. Collins
Director, National Human Genome Research Institute

Senior Investigator

Genome Technology Branch
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda , Md. , USA

Eric S. Lander
Professor of Biology

MIT
Cambridge , Mass.

Director of the Whitehead Institute / MIT Center for Genome Research

Whitehead Institute
Cambridge , Mass. , USA

J. Craig Venter
President

The Center for Advancement of Genomics
Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives, and Venter Science Foundation
Rockville , Md. , USA
For contributions to mapping the human genome.

Physics

Michael B. Green, FRS
John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Theoretical Physics

Theoretical High Energy Particle Physics Group
University of Cambridge
Cambridge , United Kingdom

-and-

John H. Schwarz
Harold Brown Professor of Theoretical Physics

Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena , Calif. , USA

-and-

Edward Witten
Charles Simonyi Professor

School of Natural Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton , N.J. , USA

For contributions in string theory
and M theory.

Shuji Nakamura
Professor, Materials Department

Director of the Center for Solid State Lighting and Displays

University of California , Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara , Calif. , USA

For his invention of the blue laser and blue, green and white light-emitting diodes (LEDs), through the use of gallium nitride based semiconductors – a great leap forward in data storage technology, lighting devices and other realms.

 

Yoshinori Tokura
Professor, Department of Applied Physics

University of Tokyo
Tokyo , Japan

For outstanding research in correlated-electron oxide materials, including discoveries in superconducting compounds, and for work on the phenomenon of giant magnetoresistance. 

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