NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS FROM NEW YORK CITY
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John Pazmino
NYSkies Astronomy Inc
nyskies@nyskies.org
www.nyskies.org
2001 October 22
Introduction
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New York City has long been a fount of Nobel Prize winners almost
from the its consolidation from the five boros in 1898. Its first
Nobel laureate was Theodore Roosevelt, for the prize in peace in 1906.
Since then laureates graced the City with their Nobel Prizes in every
decade except the 1920s.
'City' means here any where within the five boros, even tho a
person's first allegiance is to the boro more than to the City. I am a
Brooklynite, for example. New York maintained the same geographical
and political extent for the entire history of the Nobel Prizes. There
was no adjustment needed for changes of territory or jurisdiction.
The compilation is narrowly focused on the City. The NYSkies turf
around New York produced many Nobel Prize winners. A specific search
must be made to assemble a list comparable to the one here.
The table here is based on a compilation by the NY Times on 2009
May 29. I updated it for omissions and newer laureates. The amendments
come from other articles about City winners, lists from various City
schools, and biographies of winners.
The Times seems to include a laureate if he satisfies at least one
of the following criteria:
* born or raised within the City
* Graduated from high school or college within the City
* Did the Nobel-worthy work within the City
I add a fourth qualification:
* Continued Nobel-related work within the City since the award
A laureate may be claimed by many towns because he may pass thru
several towns during his life and career before earning the Nobel
Prize. Expect duplicated among laureates from other towns.
Here is the text of the Times article. It was written for the
dedication of the Nobel Monument at the American Museum of Natural
History. This granite pylon stands near the west entrance of the
Museum at where 80th St crosses the campus.
= = = = =
May 29, 2009, 10:13 am
New York and Its Nobel Laureates
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
Department of Parks and Recreation The Nobel Monument at Theodore
Roosevelt Park at 81st Street and Columbus Avenue.
Updated, 3:06 p.m.
The first American to win a Nobel Prize was a New Yorker, and many
of the subsequent ones were, too. Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his work in brokering the 1905 peace
treaty formally ending the Russo-Japanese War. It was the first Nobel
awarded to an American after the prizes were established in 1901. Thus
Theodore Roosevelt Park, a neighbor of the American Museum of Natural
History, was considered the natural home when the city's Parks
Department and the Swedish Embassy wanted to find a space for a
monument to American Nobel laureates. The Alfred Nobel monument, a
pink obelisk at 81st Street, was erected in 2003. Each year, the names
of the new American laureates are engraved on the stone. On Thursday,
a ceremony unveiled the names of four Americans who were awarded
Nobels in 2008: Roger Y. Tsien and Martin Chalfie for chemistry; Paul
R. Krugman (an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times) for economics;
and Yoichiro Nambu for physics. Americans make up fully one-third of
Nobel Prize laureates; no other country has as many. And as Adrian
Benepe, the parks commissioner, observed, "A large number of those
Americans are either those who came from New York, or spent their
educational or professional career in New York." Indeed, at least 60
have before being awarded the Nobel Prize. It is not just the
universities and research institutions - like Columbia, Rockefeller
and New York Universities - that can list their Nobel laureates. New
York City's public school system has produced more than 25, according
to data from the Board of Education. Bronx High School of Science has
produced at least six, while its rival, Stuyvesant High School, has
produced four. Far Rockaway High School, DeWitt Clinton and James
Madison and have produced two apiece. CUNY has 12 graduates who have
won the Nobel. Citing a widely circulated observation from John
Sexton, the president of N.Y.U., Mr. Benepe said that New York City is
often called a FIRE capital (for the financial, insurance and real
estate sectors of the economy), but it is also an ICE capital (for the
intellectual, cultural and educational sectors). "So you have fire and
ice," he said. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are produced by the
city's cultural, museums and research organizations, Mr. Benepe noted,
adding: "It's a very important part of the city's life and economy."
Mr. Benepe took special pride in the monument because it was dedicated
to collective intellectual achievement, which is rare as far as
monuments go. In contrast, he noted, many monuments celebrate military
and political achievements. One might muse whether New York is the
city that has produced the densest number of Nobel laureates per
square mile, but at the very least it is likely to be trumped by
Cambridge, Mass., which at just over 6.4 square miles has been home to
more than 40 laureates at Harvard and M.I.T. Nonetheless, Mr. Benepe
joked, "You can't go around New York City without bumping into a Nobel
laureate." Earlier in the week, he was at a gala conversing with a man
who was pleased with the renovation of Washington Square Park. It
turned out the man was Robert F. Engle III, an N.Y.U. professor who
was awarded the Nobel prize for economic science in 2003. There are
now 308 names on the obelisk, and Mr. Benepe estimated that at the
current pace of awards for Americans, there was room for at least 40
or 50, and perhaps 60 more years' worth of names. Below is a
noncomprehensive list of New Yorkers who have been awarded the Nobel
Prize. Unless otherwise indicated, institutions listed were the
affiliation at the time of the prize. More suggestions are welcome.
= = = = =
This is my list, banded by decades and probably still missing a
few laureates. In recent decades New York increased the rate of
earning Nobel Prizes. Readers are welcome to offer corrections.
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year prize laureate NYC association
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1906 Peace Theodore Roosevelt Born in New York
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1912 Medicine Alexis Carrel Rockefeller Instt Medcl Resrch
1912 Medicine Elihu Root US Atty, So Dist of NY
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1920s [none]
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1930 Medicine Karl Landsteiner Rockefeller Instt Medcl Resrch
1931 Peace Nicholas M Butler Columbia University
1934 Chemistry Harold C Urey Columbia University
1936 Literature Eugene O'Neill Born in Times Square
1937 Physics Clinton Davisson Bell Telephone Labs
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1944 Physics Isidor I Rabi Columbia Univ. John Jay HS grad
1944 Medicine Herbert S Gasser Rockefeller Instt Medcl Resrch
1946 Medicine Hermann Muller Dewitt Clinton HS grad
1949 Physics Hideki Yukawa Columbia University
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1955 Physics Polykarp Kusch Columbia University
1956 Medicine Andr F Cournand Bellevue Hospital
1956 Medicine Dickinson Richards Columbia University
1957 Physics Tsung-Dao Lee Columbia University
1958 Medicine Joshua Lederberg Stuyvesant HS grad
1958 Medicine Edward Tatum Rockefeller Instt Medcl Resrch
1959 Medicine Arthur Kornberg Lincoln HS & CCNY grad
1959 Medicine Severo Ochoa New York University
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1961 Physics Robert Hofstadter Dewitt Clinton HS & CCNY grad
1965 Physics Richard Feynman Far Rockaway HS grad
1965 Physics Julian Schwinger Townsend Harris HS grad
1966 Medicine Peyton Rous Rockefeller University
1967 Medicine Haldan K Hartline Rockefeller University
1967 Physics George Brooklyn Brooklyn Tech HS grad
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1970 Medicine Julius Axelrod Seward Park HS & CCNY grad
1972 Physics Leon N Cooper Bronx HS of Science grad
1972 Medicine Gerald M Edelman Rockefeller University
1972 Economics Kenneth Arrow Townsend Harris HS & CCNY grad
1972 Chemistry William H Stein Rockefeller University
1972 Chemistry Stanford Moore Rockefeller University
1974 Medicine Christian de Duve Rockefeller University
1975 Physics Leo J Rainwater Columbia University
1976 Medicine Baruch Blumberg Far Rockaway HS grad
1977 Medicine Rosalyn S Yalow Bx VA. Walton HS, Hunter C grad
1978 Physics Arno A Penzias Brooklyn Tech HS & CCNY grad
1979 Physics Seldon L Glashow Bronx HS of Science grad
1979 Physics Steven Weinberg Bronx HS of Science grad
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1980 Chemistry Paul Berg Lincoln HS grad
1981 Chemistry Roald Hoffmann Stuyvesant HS grad
1984 Chemistry Robert B Merrifield Rockefeller University
1985 Chemistry Herbert A Hauptman Townsend Harris HS & CCNY grad
1985 Chemistry Jerome Karle Lincoln HS & CCNY grad
1986 Medicine Stanley Cohen James Madison HS & Bklyn C grad
1987 Economics Robert Solow James Madison HS grad
1988 Physics Melvin Schwartz Bronx HS of Science grad
1988 Medicine Gertrude B Elion Walton HS & Hunter C grad
1988 Peace Peacekwwping Forces United Nations
1988 Physics Leon M Lederman Bronx HS of Science & CCNY grad
1989 Medicine Harold E Varmus Memorial SLoan-Kettering
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1990 Economics Harry M Markowitz City University of New York
1992 Economics Gary Becker Raised in Brooklyn
1993 Economics Robert Fogel Stuyvesant HS grad
1993 Physics Russell A Hulse Bronx HS of Sci & Cooper Unn grad
1996 Economics William Vickrey Columbia University
1998 Medicine Robert F Furchgott SUNY Brooklyn Health Sci Ctr
1998 Physics Horst L Strmer Columbia University
1998 Medicine Loius J Ignarro Born in New York
1999 Medicine Gnter Blobel Rockefeller University
1999 Economics Robert A Mundell Columbia University
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2000 Medicine Paul Greengard Rockefeller University
2000 Medicine Eric R Kandel Columbia University
2001 Economics Joseph E Stiglitz Columbia University
2001 Medicine Paul M Nurse Rockefeller University
2003 Chemistry Roderick MacKinnon Rockefeller University
2003 Economics Robert F Engle III New York University
2004 Medicine Richard Axel Columbia U, Stuyvesant HS grad
2004 Physics H Davis Politzer Bronx HS of Science grad
2004 Physics Frank Wilczek Martin Van Buren HS grad
2005 Economics Robert Aumann Rabbi Joseph yeshiva & CCNY grad
2005 Physics "Roy J Glauber Bronx HS of Science grad
2006 Economics Edmund S Phelps Columbia University
2008 Chemistry Martin Chalfie Columbia University
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2010 Economics Peter A Diamond Born in New York
2010 Literature Mario Vargas Llosa Lives in New York
2011 Economics Thomas J Sargent New York University
2011 Medicine Ralph M Steinman Rockefeller University
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