I do understand your viewpoint. I doubt anyone will become an academic because of the prize but perhaps some school students out there will consider science/ac

I do understand your viewpoint. I doubt anyone will become an academic because of the prize but perhaps some school students out there will consider science/academia because they hear about the work of one of the winners of the prize. Public exposure of important works (and the labs that did them) is still a good thing. Academia would function fine without such prizes but even then, people within the research community would still want to recognise and celebrate important work/advances somehow.