Teaching focus, interdisciplinary study contribute to U. researchers winning Nobel prizes

There are 40 current and previous members of the University, including faculty, staff and alumni, that have won the Nobel Prize since the prize was founded in 1901, according to the University’s websiteon the Nobel Prize.

One University-affiliated individual has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, two in physiology or medicine, three in literature, four in chemistry, twelve in economics and eighteen in physics.

Three scholars associated with the University were awarded the Nobel Prize this year — former postdoctoral researcher Tomas Lindahl in chemistry, economics professor Angus Deaton in economics and former physics professor Arthur McDonald in physics.

A total of eleven laureates were granted the prize in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace this year.

Neither Harvard nor Yale had affiliated Nobel laureates this year.

Dean for Research Pablo Debenedetti noted how the University has traditionally been very strong in the quality of research it produces.

“Princeton has been prosperous and keeps on getting better,” he said.

While numbers show that the department with the most Nobel prizes is the physics department, Debenedetti said the University has top scholars and top researchers across the board. Although the Nobel Prize is an extremely distinguished award, he explained that there are entire disciplines where no Nobel prizes are awarded, such as mathematics or departments within the school of engineering.

“Of course, physics is a very strong department, and a department that we are very proud of, but that is based on a long tradition of excellence and not just based on the number of Nobel laureates,” he said.

Debenedetti added that what makes the University distinctive from other universities is that every professor teaches and is involved in undergraduate education.

“People who come to Princeton are committed to both excellence in research and excellence in teaching,” he explained.

To varying degrees, all of the University-affiliated Nobel laureates conducted research in the University that eventually aided them in their findings related to their Nobel Prize recognition.

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Deaton noted that he did most of his research in the University, unlike others who spend only part of their career at the University. He said that the University was of great help to him in terms of its resources, which meant that if he ever needed anything for his research, he would get it.

Deaton added that he also benefited from interacting with professors from various disciplines.

“One of the characteristics of top universities is that they have wonderful people in them,” he said.

He noted that the University’s focus on interdisciplinary programs, as evidenced by the Wilson School, which was integral in his research, allows researchers to simultaneously maintain a high level of academics and pursue public policy research.

McDonald, who taught in the University from 1982 to 1989, said that he first started his study on neutrinos, which ultimately led to him winning the Nobel Prize, while being a tenured professor at the University.

He noted that while at the University, teaching and working with undergraduate students was very valuable in both of his projects. He added that students were always a significant part of the research.

“It really is the quality of the faculty and students in the physics department that makes it a great place,” he said.

McDonald added that he loved working at the University, and that in fact, he is still part of the External Review Committee for the University’s physics department and recently returned to do work on a collaboration project with some University professors.

Lindahl, who did his postgraduate research at the University in the mid-1960s, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for mechanistic studies of DNA repair.

Chemistry department head Tom Muir noted that while Lindahl’s research on RNA at the University may not have directly contributed toward his research on DNA repair, which helped him win the prize, it “presumably led him to appreciate the fragility of nucleic acid,” noting that the papers he published during his time at the University formed the basis for his later works.

Lindahl did not respond to a request for comment.