The “Nobel Population” in Pharmacology: Nobel Prize laureates, nominees and nominators 1901–1953 with a focus on B. Naunyn and O. Schmiedeberg

Abstract

One way to investigate research trends in pharmacology over time is to study nominations for the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Going beyond the laureates with strong links to pharmacology, this article pinpoints pharmacologist Nobel Prize nominees during the first half of the twentieth century with a particular focus on two co-founders of this journal: Oswald Schmiedeberg and Bernhard Naunyn. Using the Nobel nomination database which contains more than 5000 nominations in the category physiology or medicine from 1901 to 1953, we listed all scholars (Nobel nominees or nominators) who worked in a pharmacological institute. In addition, we collected nomination letters of Schmiedeberg and Naunyn in the archive of the Nobel committee for physiology or medicine in Stockholm to explore nomination networks and motives. The most often nominated pharmacologists from 1901 to 1953 were Alfred Newton Richards with 57 nominations, Rudolf Magnus (31), Edward Calvin Kendall (28), Otto Loewi (27), Sir Henry Hallett Dale (21) and Oswald Schmiedeberg (18). Surprisingly, the lion’s share of the nominations was submitted by non-pharmacologists. We observed a decline in German nominations after World War II and an increase in US-American nominations, which indicates shifting centres and peripheries in pharmacological research. Furthermore, in our observed group of pharmacologists, there was no female nominee from 1901 to 1953. Nobel Prize nominations are to date an underused source to explore international scientific trends as well as scientific networks during the twentieth century.