4 ms·

Congratulations to Kip Thorne. I used to attend his lectures and sometimes greet him in the parking lot if I happen to come across at Caltech. Even though Calte

Congratulations to Kip Thorne. I used to attend his lectures and sometimes greet him in the parking lot if I happen to come across at Caltech. Even though Caltech is not far from Hollywood I always thought these people are the real super stars. Caltech has probably 20+ Nobel laureates.

KGIII 9y ago
Your post made me curious. I hit up Google and got a result that may turn into a bit of a time sink. If you're very busy, you may not want to click on this link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_university_affiliation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_u... I was a bit surprised by some of the results. I honestly wasn't expecting Harvard to be that high. MIT was right where I expected it to be. CalTech was lower than I expected, but your number is too low. Berkeley really surprised me.
- smeyer 9y ago
  Can I ask what surprised you about Harvard? It's been historically strong in the sciences, medicine, and economics, and produces lots of the sorts of politicians that frequently win the peace prize. Which sorts of other universities were you expecting to be higher?
  - KGIII 9y ago
    I'd expected more politicians and less science, and seeing as they give away more science awards... I was expecting them and Berkeley to be much lower on the list. Those where the two most striking.
    - dragonwriter 9y ago
      Harvard and Berkeley are huge schools compared to CalTech and MIT, which affects placement on lists that count number of affiliated people with some trait.
      - KGIII 9y ago
        True, but not something I'd considered until I'd read the list and saw the numbers.
- antognini 9y ago
  Caltech is still a relatively small school with about 300 professors, so it's not that surprising to me that it's down the list in raw numbers. In terms of Nobel laureates per capita it beats MIT and Harvard. If you ever visit the Berkeley campus you may notice that they have special parking spots reserved for Nobel laureates: http://cenblog.org/newscripts/files/2010/07/CIMG3733-compress.jpg http://cenblog.org/newscripts/files/2010/07/CIMG3733-compres...
  - scentoni 9y ago
    And given the difficulty of parking at Berkeley, that is probably lusted after more than the prize money.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > CalTech was lower than I expected, but your number is too low. CalTech has always been pretty tiny (MIT had about 3× the faculty, Harvard 15×; Berkeley has more than 5×, but possibly much more—I can find total faculty for all the rest, but only full-time count for Berkeley, which has nearly as many degree programs as CalTech has faculty; I think for most of those the student body multiples are much higher.)

KGIII 9y ago

Your post made me curious. I hit up Google and got a result that may turn into a bit of a time sink. If you're very busy, you may not want to click on this link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_university_affiliation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_u... I was a bit surprised by some of the results. I honestly wasn't expecting Harvard to be that high. MIT was right where I expected it to be. CalTech was lower than I expected, but your number is too low. Berkeley really surprised me.

smeyer 9y ago
Can I ask what surprised you about Harvard? It's been historically strong in the sciences, medicine, and economics, and produces lots of the sorts of politicians that frequently win the peace prize. Which sorts of other universities were you expecting to be higher?
- KGIII 9y ago
  I'd expected more politicians and less science, and seeing as they give away more science awards... I was expecting them and Berkeley to be much lower on the list. Those where the two most striking.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    Harvard and Berkeley are huge schools compared to CalTech and MIT, which affects placement on lists that count number of affiliated people with some trait.
    - KGIII 9y ago
      True, but not something I'd considered until I'd read the list and saw the numbers.
antognini 9y ago
Caltech is still a relatively small school with about 300 professors, so it's not that surprising to me that it's down the list in raw numbers. In terms of Nobel laureates per capita it beats MIT and Harvard. If you ever visit the Berkeley campus you may notice that they have special parking spots reserved for Nobel laureates: http://cenblog.org/newscripts/files/2010/07/CIMG3733-compress.jpg http://cenblog.org/newscripts/files/2010/07/CIMG3733-compres...
- scentoni 9y ago
  And given the difficulty of parking at Berkeley, that is probably lusted after more than the prize money.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> CalTech was lower than I expected, but your number is too low. CalTech has always been pretty tiny (MIT had about 3× the faculty, Harvard 15×; Berkeley has more than 5×, but possibly much more—I can find total faculty for all the rest, but only full-time count for Berkeley, which has nearly as many degree programs as CalTech has faculty; I think for most of those the student body multiples are much higher.)