"How to win a Nobel prize" (or a MacArthur Genius Grant)

I used to say "First off, you have to do something" but after President Barack Obama was awarded an "aspirational" Nobel Peace Prize ten months after taking office in 2009 I stopped saying that.

First up, from the journal Nature, October 3:

What subjects have past winners studied? What age were they when they won? Where do they live? Nature crunched the data on every science prizewinner to find out.

The Nobel prize has been awarded in three scientific fields — chemistry, physics and physiology or medicine — almost every year since 1901, barring some disruptions mostly due to wars.

Nature crunched the data on the 346 prizes and their 646 winners (Nobel prizes can be shared by up to three people) to work out which characteristics can be reliably linked to medals.

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Five people have gone on to win a second Nobel prize: Frederick Sanger, John Bardeen, K. Barry Sharpless, Linus Pauling (whose second medal was the peace prize) and Marie Curie. The circles here represent their first award.

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Your best chance of winning comes when you’re 54, the age of 24 recipients. The average age of all laureates is 58.

 

The youngest winner was Lawrence Bragg, who was 25 when he won the physics prize in 1915, together with his father, William Bragg, for their work analysing crystal structures using X-rays.

The oldest was John B. Goodenough, who won the chemistry prize in 2019 at the age of 97. It was awarded to him and two others for developing lithium-ion batteries.

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The data suggest that for the best chance of a prize, you should identify as a man.

 

....MUCH MORE

 

Oddly enough, though the science Nobels have been awarded for work on genes and for work on chromosomes and for work on DNA there has been no award in the field of gender studies, an egregious oversight I hope to see addressed within my lifetime.

   

And a repost from October 9, 2012:
The Secret Formula For Winning a Nobel Prize
Hot on the heels of my astounding lack of success winning a MacArthur 'Genius Grant'* we visit BBC-Future.

My advice is to stay away from the hard science prizes and shoot for something that can't be falsified, maybe a Peace or Economics Prize.

From the BBC:

We sift through the stats to discover the hidden factors behind capturing arguably the most prestigious prizes in the world.  

Genius, passion, hard work, and a little bit of luck – that’s what we are told sets Nobel prize recipients apart from us mere mortals. But could there be any secret, hidden factors that come into play?...MORE

 (click to enlarge)

HT: I Love Charts

On the other hand: "The Man Who Was Nominated for the Nobel Prize 84 Times, But Never Won"
*From "MacArthur Foundation Awards 2012 Genius Grants (and how to win one)":

...Warning: Spoilers

Rule No. 1: Live in New York or San Francisco.
Rule No. 2: Be a professor.
Rule No. 3: If you don't want to teach college, make art.
Rule No. 4: Do not, under any circumstances, work for the government or the private sector.
Rule No. 5: Upset conventional wisdom.
Rule No. 6: Be left wing.
Rule No. 7: Be slightly, but not dangerously, quirky....