3 ms·
It makes me wonder of the 43 students who passed, how many achieved significant breakthroughs or Nobel prizes?
by elcritch 3y ago
It makes me wonder of the 43 students who passed, how many achieved significant breakthroughs or Nobel prizes?
- MontyCarloHall 3y agoHis students were successful enough that nine of them have their own articles on English Wikipedia. Many more (>20) have articles on Russian Wikipedia. Amongst the nine students who have English Wikipedia articles, one won a Nobel [0]. The others have all won highly prestigious physics prizes, and all appear to be major contributors to their subfields. One even has a class of subatomic particles named after him [1]. Was Landau's pedagogical approach optimal? Impossible to say. Was it extremely successful? Objectively, yes, without a doubt. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Abrikosov_(physicist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Abrikosov_(physicist) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomeron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomeron
- Panoramix 3y agoIs that not just selection bias? Makes sense that the most gifted students at the most prestigious school over a span of 30 years went on to have great careers.
- MontyCarloHall 3y agoOP was questioning whether Landau’s method of identifying the most gifted students actually selected for successful physicists: “It makes me wonder of the 43 students who passed, how many achieved significant breakthroughs or Nobel prizes?” So yes, it is selection bias by definition, but the point is that the method of selection worked. Most other professors at the most prestigious schools in the world could only dream of advising anything close to Landau’s academic descendants.
- lr1970 3y agoTo complete the analysis we should look at the achievements of those who failed the Theoretical Minimum.
- jojobas 3y agoWell how many Nobel prize winners did Feynmann bring up?
- mif 3y agoArnold Sommerfeld was supposedly a great educator and a likeable teacher. From Wikipedia: “ He invited collaboration from them, and their ideas often influenced his own views in physics. He entertained them in his home and met with them in cafes before and after seminars and colloquia. Sommerfeld owned an alpine ski hut to which students were often invited for discussions of physics as demanding as the sport.” [1] Four of his doctoral and three of his post-doctoral students went on to become Nobel prize winners. That’s a lot of Nobel prize winners. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Sommerfeld https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Sommerfeld
- defrost 3y agoThe important question here is how many went on to become gold medal winter olympians.
- varjag 3y agoAt least one has the prize and many others are internationally recognized for their contributions.
- belter 3y agoOne of them was Lex Fridman Father.
- zeroonetwothree 3y agoNobel prizes are highly political and random. It’s like judging programming skill by who won the startup lottery.
- hsjqllzlfkf 3y agoSay the bitter losers.
- MengerSponge 3y agoRarely does anybody credible say "It's bullshit that they won the prize. I should have won the prize!" Much more often people say "So that prize was bullshit... $OTHER should have won it instead." Lise Meitner is a classic example. Chien-Shiung Wu is another.
- wbl 3y agoThere is more work than can win the Nobel then prizes to hand out and some awards are mystifying like the one for the automatic navigation aid light.
- kelipso 3y ago[flagged]