What is the formula to win a Nobel prize?

What is the formula to win a Nobel prize?
Tharman: Curiosity, concern for society are some of the elements - but not glory seeking
By Shobana Kesava

MANY elements go into the formula that creates Nobel laureates, but seeking glory is not among them.
Instead, Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and three laureates agree, the potent mix includes intense curiosity, wide interests, years of devotion and a concern for society.

Mr Tharman was opening the first Molecular Frontiers Forum yesterday at the Biopolis. The two-day event drew local and overseas award-winning scientists, researchers and students.

Mr Tharman, who is also Finance Minister, urged the youth present - from 14-year-olds to young adults - and their teachers, to follow their hearts and not be too concerned about seeking out the best route to success.

He cited numerous examples of laureates who had taken unusual paths. Several found the sciences only in adulthood.

Among them: Anthony J. Legget (Nobel prize in physics in 2003) first studied the classics at Oxford. Eric R. Kandell (medicine in 2000) majored in 19th and 20th century European history and literature at Harvard.

What it takes to be a winner
YEARS of scrutiny precede the granting of each $2.25 million Nobel Prize. Professor Bengt Norden (below) of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Sweden chairs a committee that picks each year's winner in chemistry. He lists the panel's criteria:





The discovery has to open the door to changing the way we think. It could be original, or the serendipity of what the scientist makes of a discovery.
... more
Not all started with sterling academic records. 'Some couldn't get into university,' he noted.

'Do what you want and what you love at every stage of your life and you usually do well as a result of it. Not because you want achievement or to show results but because you love it,' he said.

The three Nobel laureates in chemistry who spoke to the more than 300 students in the audience agreed that they had always been open to delving into wide interests - from baseball and fishing to carpentry. Read widely, they urged.

'You need to know what's going on in the world in order to make a difference to it,' said American professor Barry Sharpless, who won the prize in chemistry in 2001.

He said 20 per cent of his reading is unrelated to science.

Connections are important too. Japanese laureate Ryoji Noyori, who also won the award the same year, noted that he had met Prof Sharpless and Prof Richard Schrock in 1969 in Harvard.

An American, Prof Schrock won the prize in 2005.

'When you keep connecting with scientists in different labs, each may uncover an invisible spot in the other's work because everyone has a different approach,' said Prof Sharpless.

All agreed that one 'winning' factor perhaps stood out: society's needs.

'The only research I wanted to do was that which makes a difference in society,' said Prof Schrock, whose work is used in global pharmaceutical companies today.

The laureates are here as part of a drive by the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and the Sweden-based Molecular Frontiers Foundation to promote appreciation of molecular science as well as entice youth to pursue scientific inquiry.

Singapore is trying to nurture a new generation of scientists and engineers to fuel the multibillion- dollar science and technology industry.

Yishun Junior College (JC) teacher Jacky Wong, who was at the forum, said molecular sciences like nanotechnology are not yet taught at the JC level, but the forum equips him to encourage students about the possibilities that lie ahead of them.

'Even if they don't end up choosing it as a career, science teaches lifelong skills, logic and systematic thinking,' he said.

Finding the sessions interesting, too, was university student Chin Sau Yin, 23, who was thrilled to meet the world-renowned scientists.

Said Miss Chin: 'They are real people who even took breaks from academia, which led them to ideas on what could help meet society's needs.'

skesava@sph.com.sg