Nobel Prize in Trial

2018/10/09 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika
• Fisika
• Berdintasuna
• Sariak
• Giza zientziak

Donna Strickland is surprised by the call of the Nobel Prize delegate. She couldn't believe it and was even more incredible that she was the third woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics throughout the history of the event. Apparently he was not very concerned about the Nobel laureates, which he did not know either.

However, in recent years the unfavorable opinion of the Nobel laureates is growing, among other things, by the exclusion of women. Because the numbers are clear: The Nobel prizes began to be distributed in 1901, and since then, including this year, only 17 women have been awarded in three categories of sciences: 12 in Physiology and Medicine, 3 in Physics (the last Donna Strickland) and 5 in Chemistry (the last this year: Frances Arnold).

It should be noted that there are actually 18 occasions when a woman has been awarded a prize, but one of them, Marie Curie, received two: Physics in 1903 and Chemistry in 1911.

Chemistry won alone. This is unusual, even when the winners are men. However, physics was not originally intended to deliver it to him, but to his husband Pierre and Henry Becquerel. Pierre Curie warned them that he would not receive the prize if they did not even give it to his wife, since Marie's work was fundamental in the research they rewarded. In this way, the Swedish Academy of Sciences also awarded Marie Curie with Pierre and Henry Becquerel.

The attitude of Pierre Curie is not common, since on more than one occasion it has been found that a man has been awarded when the woman he has worked with deserved the prize (or when both deserved it). There are many examples of this kind. If necessary, one of the best known is the physiaria Lise Meitner. Despite being an important member of the research team that discovered nuclear fission, his boss Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Donna Strickland has been more fortunate in this regard. In fact, she has been awarded together with the thesis supervisor for her research in the thesis. The former thesis director, Gerard Mourou, has received several prestigious appointments and awards in his career, while Strickland was a professor's assistant at the time of his reward and had no article on Wikipedia, which was in the drafts.

Very different is the case of this year's award-winning woman, Frances Arnoldena, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The daughter of a prestigious physicist, with great success and recognition, became the first woman to be awarded the Millennium Technology Award in 2016.

In fact, Nobel laureates are not the only ones who reject women: The Abel Prize is one of the most prestigious prizes awarded in mathematics and has not yet been received by a single woman. The Fields Award is another of the prestigious awards in the same field, and only one of them has been awarded: Maryam Mirzakhani.

Aside from discrimination against women, the Nobel Laureates also receive other criticisms. Among other reasons, why only these categories are recognized, and why up to three scientists receive the prize in each category instead of the work teams. It is not easy to recognize the work of current scientists with criteria over a hundred years ago.