The Nobel Prize for Technology

We usually think of Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, and medicine as celebrations of scientific discovery, yet prizes are often awarded not for discovery, but for technological innovation. This is entirely proper, as you can perhaps see from the above excerpt of Alfred Nobel’s will.

I surveyed the awards since 2000 to see which were granted for the invention of new instruments and methods. Here‘s what I found, and the message for science administrators and ambitious young scientists. First, the list:

Nobel Prize awards
for technological innovation, 2000–2008

Year	Laureate	Nature of achievement	How the achievement was described
2000	Zhores I. Alferov	techniques for producing semiconductor devices	developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics
2008	Martin Chalfie	molecular tool for biological studies	discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP
2005	Yves Chauvin	techniques for producing molecules	development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis
2001	Eric A. Cornell	techniques for producing a new state of matter	achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates
2002	John B. Fenn	techniques for biomolecular analysis	development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules
2005	Robert H. Grubbs	techniques for producing molecules	development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis
2005	John L. Hall	optical instrumentation and techniques	contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique
2005	Theodor W. Hänsch	optical instrumentation and techniques	contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique
2000	Alan J. Heeger	techniques for producing materials	discovery and development of conductive polymers
2001	Wolfgang Ketterle	techniques for producing a new state of matter	achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates
2000	Jack S. Kilby	techniques for producing semiconductor devices	his part in the invention of the integrated circuit
2001	William S. Knowles	techniques for producing molecules	work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions
2000	Herbert Kroemer	techniques for producing semiconductor devices	developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics
2008	Paul Lauterbur	instrumentation for biomedical studies	discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging
2000	Alan G. MacDiarmid	techniques for producing materials	discovery and development of conductive polymers
2008	Peter Mansfield	instrumentation for biomedical studies	discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging
2001	Ryoji Noyorii	techniques for producing molecules	work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions
2005	Richard R. Schrock	techniques for producing molecules	development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis
2001	K. Barry Sharpless	techniques for producing molecules	work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions
2008	Osamu Shimomura	molecular tool for biological studies	discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP
2000	Hideki Shirakawa	techniques for producing materials	discovery and development of conductive polymers
2002	Koichi Tanaka	techniques for biomolecular analysis	development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules
2008	Roger Y. Tsien	molecular tool for biological studies	discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP
2001	Carl E. Wieman	techniques for producing a new state of matter	achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates
2002	Kurt Wüthrich	instruments and techniques for biomolecular characterization	development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution

I’d like to see more Nobel Prizes granted for technological innovations.

As as I’ve noted, technological innovations in science — new instruments, new methods — drive the advance of science at least as much as does scientific discovery. It is often these technological innovations that make discovery even possible: consider the advances in scientific knowledge that have been enabled by advances in the technologies of microscopes, telescopes, chemical synthesis, and gene sequencing.

Scientific discoveries help experimentalists chiefly by helping them decide what to investigate next. Yet in more and more areas, advances in instrumentation enable a mode of science that, in effect, looks at everything, on the very basic theory that enormous masses of data will aid discovery.

A focus on methods and instruments is consistent with the will that established the prize. In the excerpt above, Alfred Nobel states his intention that his prize reward “discovery or invention” in physics, and “discovery or improvement” in chemistry — and further, that these be the advances that have “conferred the greatest benefit on mankind”.

Advances in technologies that serve science often receive the reward of extensive citation. They are worthy of greater funding and more widespread personal ambition. Nobel would approve: science-enabling technologies often serve both science and practical human ends — this is true even of improvements in instruments intended to capture the faintest signals from furthest realms cosmology.

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Update, 2009: Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith received this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics: Kao “for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication”; Boyle and Smith for “for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor”. Both are technologies of great importance.

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