![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
06-10-2023, 09:13 AM
By C. Brandon Ogbunu on October 5, 2023
......
the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, given to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, for their discoveries that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID.
Reactions to the announcement erupted moments after the prize was announced, much of it focusing on the story behind Karikó’s dismissal from the University of Pennsylvania in 2013. This response highlights how criticisms of the Nobel Prize continue to miss the mark, and are often obscured by scapegoating, moral superiority, and public posturing. What we need instead are deeper, more uncomfortable conversations about innovation, inclusion, and merit.
......
the 2023 Medicine and Physiology prize has received near universal applause: the science that it rewards has already saved the lives of many millions, and (maybe most importantly) has transformed how we think about emerging infectious diseases and other diseases. But the real intrigue surrounds its backstory. Karikó was forced to retire from her position at the University of Pennsylvania in 2013. The much-discussed reasons are familiar villains: the inability to secure major grant funding from the large agencies, and other markers of success in the biomedicine machine.
......
Some suggest that our instruments for evaluating science are hopelessly broken in academia. Relatedly, those in biotech emphasize that the work demonstrates how private industry can deliver important discovery at a speed that academia cannot. Others highlight the role of sexism, where women in science are rarely respected when it comes to intrepid ideas.
......
some suggest specific interventions: that the University of Pennsylvania should apologize, or at least not take credit for the achievement, as “they” (the school or it’s officials) devalued her work.
......
First, there is the notion that the Nobel Prize equals vindication. Consider the contradiction. We are frustrated that Karikó was misjudged by a room full of people at a prestigious institution, the University of Pennsylvania. And yet, we celebrate her receiving a positive judgement from a room full of people at a prestigious institution, the Nobel Committee (notably, few know how either works). This cognitive dissonance tells us to like the subjective processes that give us the outcome that we want, and to dislike the equally subjective ones that don’t. Instead, we could be equally critical of both.
This relates to the second problem: we ignore our collective complicity in a system that offers rewards based on dubious standards. For example, in identifying suitable graduate students or faculty, we have all almost surely missed out on worthy job candidates based on our own (even benign) preferences. One reason that we haven’t been held accountable for our poor decisions is that the people we denied haven’t (yet) won a Nobel Prize. The reality is even worse: our decisions probably prevented deserving scientists from ever having the chance.
Full article at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...fic-merit/
......
the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, given to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, for their discoveries that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID.
Reactions to the announcement erupted moments after the prize was announced, much of it focusing on the story behind Karikó’s dismissal from the University of Pennsylvania in 2013. This response highlights how criticisms of the Nobel Prize continue to miss the mark, and are often obscured by scapegoating, moral superiority, and public posturing. What we need instead are deeper, more uncomfortable conversations about innovation, inclusion, and merit.
......
the 2023 Medicine and Physiology prize has received near universal applause: the science that it rewards has already saved the lives of many millions, and (maybe most importantly) has transformed how we think about emerging infectious diseases and other diseases. But the real intrigue surrounds its backstory. Karikó was forced to retire from her position at the University of Pennsylvania in 2013. The much-discussed reasons are familiar villains: the inability to secure major grant funding from the large agencies, and other markers of success in the biomedicine machine.
......
Some suggest that our instruments for evaluating science are hopelessly broken in academia. Relatedly, those in biotech emphasize that the work demonstrates how private industry can deliver important discovery at a speed that academia cannot. Others highlight the role of sexism, where women in science are rarely respected when it comes to intrepid ideas.
......
some suggest specific interventions: that the University of Pennsylvania should apologize, or at least not take credit for the achievement, as “they” (the school or it’s officials) devalued her work.
......
First, there is the notion that the Nobel Prize equals vindication. Consider the contradiction. We are frustrated that Karikó was misjudged by a room full of people at a prestigious institution, the University of Pennsylvania. And yet, we celebrate her receiving a positive judgement from a room full of people at a prestigious institution, the Nobel Committee (notably, few know how either works). This cognitive dissonance tells us to like the subjective processes that give us the outcome that we want, and to dislike the equally subjective ones that don’t. Instead, we could be equally critical of both.
This relates to the second problem: we ignore our collective complicity in a system that offers rewards based on dubious standards. For example, in identifying suitable graduate students or faculty, we have all almost surely missed out on worthy job candidates based on our own (even benign) preferences. One reason that we haven’t been held accountable for our poor decisions is that the people we denied haven’t (yet) won a Nobel Prize. The reality is even worse: our decisions probably prevented deserving scientists from ever having the chance.
Full article at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...fic-merit/
