Each year, Thomson Reuters uses data from its research solution, Web of KnowledgeSM, to quantitatively determine the most influential researchers in the Nobel categories of Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Economics. Based on citations to their works, the company names these high-impact researchers as Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates and predicts them to be Nobel Prize winners, either this year or in the near future.
Thomson Reuters is the only organization to use quantitative data to make annual predictions of Nobel Prize winners. Since 2002, 19 Citation Laureates have gone on to win Nobel Prizes.
“We choose our Citation Laureates by assessing citation counts and the number of high-impact papers while identifying discoveries or themes that may be considered worthy of recognition by the Nobel Committee," said David Pendlebury, Citation Analyst, Research Services, Thomson Reuters. "A strong correlation exists between citations in literature and peer esteem. Professional awards, like the Nobel Prize, are a reflection of this peer esteem."
The Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates typically rank among the top one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of researchers in their fields, based on citations of their published papers over the last two decades.
This year, 15 of the 21 Citation Laureates hail from American universities; researchers from France, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom also appear among the 2010 picks.
For detailed information about each of the Citation Laureates, including information about their areas of study, and to read about previously named Citation Laureates who are still in the running for a Nobel Prize, visit the Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates website at science.thomsonreuters.com/nobel/. You can also sign up to receive up to the minute news about all things Nobel by following @nobelcitings on Twitter.com.
This year, Thomson Reuters is hosting a forum at science.thomsonreuters.com/nobel. The forum will feature a discussion among Nobel-watchers from all backgrounds about past and future Nobel Prize winners.
The 2010 Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates by Nobel Prize category are:
Chemistry
Patrick O. Brown
Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif., USA and Investigator,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Chevy Chase, Md.,USA
For the invention and application of DNA microarrays, a revolutionary tool in the study of variation in gene expression.
Susumu Kitagawa
Deputy Director, Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences and Professor, Department of Synthetic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
-and-
Omar M. Yaghi
Jean Stone Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif.,USA
For the design and development of porous metal-organic frameworks, whose applications include hydrogen and methane storage, gas purification, and gas separation, among others.
Stephen J. Lippard
Arthur Amos Noyes Professor, Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.,USA
For pioneering research in bioinorganic chemistry, including the discovery of metallointercalators to disrupt DNA replication, an important contribution to improved cancer therapy.
Physics
Charles L. Bennett
Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.,USA and Senior Scientist for Experimental Cosmology, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., USA
-and-
Lyman A. Page
Henry DeWolf Smyth Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ., USA
-and-
David N. Spergel
Charles Young Professor of the Class of 1897 Foundation and Chair, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., USA
For discoveries deriving from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), including the age of the universe, its topography, and its composition.
Thomas W. Ebbesen
Professor, University of Strasbourg, and Director, ISIS (Institute of Science and Supramolecular Engineering), Strasbourg, France
For observation and explanation of the transmission of light through subwavelength holes, which ignited the field of surface plasmon photonics.
Saul Perlmutter
Professor, Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, Calif., USA and Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif., USA
-and-
Adam G. Riess
Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., USA and Senior Member, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., USA
-and-
Brian P. Schmidt
Australian Research Council Federation Fellow, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Weston Creek, Australia
For discoveries of the accelerating rate of the expansion of the universe, and its implications for the existence of dark energy.
Physiology or Medicine
Douglas L. Coleman
Senior Staff Scientist Emeritus, Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine, USA
-and-
Jeffrey M. Friedman
Marilyn M. Simpson Professor, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Rockefeller University, New York, N.Y., USA and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Chevy Chase, Md., USA
For the discovery of leptin, a hormone regulating appetite and metabolism.
Ernest A. McCulloch
Senior Scientist, Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
-and-
James E. Till
Senior Scientist, Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
-and-
Shinya Yamanaka
Professor, Department of Stem Cell Biology, Institute of Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan and Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, San Franscisco, Calif., USA and Professor of Anatomy, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif., USA
For the discovery of stem cells and the development of induced pluripotent stem cells.
Ralph M. Steinman
Henry G. Kunkel Professor and Senior Physician, Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and Immunology, Rockefeller University, New York, N.Y., USA
For the discovery of dendritic cells, key regulators of immune response.
Economics
Albert Alesina
Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economics, Department of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., USA
For theoretical and empirical studies on the relationship between politics and macroeconomics, and specifically for research on politico-economic cycles
Nobuhiro Kiyotaki
Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Princeton University, Princeton N.J., USA
-and-
John H. Moore
George Watson’s and Daniel Stewart’s Professor of Political Economics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, and Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, London School of Economics, London, England
For formulation of the Kiyotaki-Moore model, which describes how small shocks to an economy may lead to a cycle of lower output resulting from a decline in collateral values that create a restrictive credit environment.
Kevin M. Murphy
George J. Stigler Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Chicago, Il., USA, and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif., USA
For pioneering empirical research in social economics, including wage inequality and labor demand, unemployment, addiction, and the economic return on investment in medical research among other topics
