Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

NNadir

(34,755 posts)
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 07:03 PM Oct 2023

When was the last time a person with the title of "adjunct professor" won the Nobel Prize?

Oh, I know, yesterday.

Congrats to Katalin Karikó.

Penn, where she held that title after demoting her, now is claiming her as their own.

17 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

JudyM

(29,536 posts)
2. Lucky for the world that Dr Drew saw the value and partnered with her. Otherwise
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 07:24 PM
Oct 2023

who knows what would’ve happened with Covid…?

NNadir

(34,755 posts)
3. Well, at least she received the prize, unlike Lise Meitner, who discovered fission for which...
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 07:35 PM
Oct 2023

...the Nobel was given to Otto Hahn.

Personally, I think the whole pseudouridine business was hers and hers alone.

usonian

(14,352 posts)
4. I don't know his title other than department head when I met him
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 08:12 PM
Oct 2023

but I want to mention Alan Cormack, physicist at Tufts University who

with Godfrey Hounsfield, was awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work in developing the powerful new diagnostic technique of computerized axial tomography (CAT). Cormack was unusual in the field of Nobel laureates because he never earned a doctorate degree in medicine or any other field of science.
(Brittanica)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7900806/
THE MAN WITH THE SOLUTION
Computerised axial tomography (CAT), the ubiquitous CAT or computed tomography (CT) scan, was a landmark discovery that allowed clinicians to view the interior of the human body in three dimensions without using invasive means. The man with the solution was Allan MacLeod Cormack, a physicist with neither a Doctor of Philosophy nor Doctor of Medicine, who deservedly shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of CT.


How exciting for Dr. Katalin Karikó, and for my own physics advisor Alan Cormack, who won a Nobel without a PhD.

I want to emphasize that this not to diminish her wonderful accomplishment, but to share the story of another who broke a barrier. We should all strive to do break norms that hold us back.

IbogaProject

(3,712 posts)
5. I hope she switches Universities.
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 09:23 PM
Oct 2023

Schools have to learn that devaluating their main attraction isn't smart.

NNadir

(34,755 posts)
8. She's apparently moved to a University in Hungary.
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 09:30 PM
Oct 2023
University of Szeged in Hungary.

She's 65, probably near the end of her career, although as a Nobel Laureate she can probably work as long as she wishes to do so.

Grins

(7,921 posts)
9. HUNGARY???? Where the racist and anti-Semitic fascist Orban is president?
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 09:47 PM
Oct 2023

Good God, why?

NNadir

(34,755 posts)
10. Because she was born and raised there?
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 09:53 PM
Oct 2023

I lived in a country run by an ignorant racist neofascist relatively recently.

It doesn't mean I'm an ignorant neofascist.

usonian

(14,352 posts)
11. Nobel Prize winner for mRNA vaccines discusses being demoted by UPenn
Tue Oct 3, 2023, 11:25 AM
Oct 2023
https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4234061-nobel-prize-winner-for-mrna-vaccines-discusses-being-demoted-by-upenn/

Katalin Karikó, who is sharing the Nobel Prize in medicine for her work with mRNA vaccines, says she was previously demoted by the University of Pennsylvania for her research in that area.

“If you know about 10 years ago, I was here in October because I was kicked out from UPenn, was forced to retire,” Karikó told the Nobel Prize organization in an interview Monday.

...

In 1995, UPenn even demoted her because she could not get the financial support to continue her research.

The university is still celebrating her win Monday, with no mention of the demotion or her rocky history with the university.


I didn't see any link to her discussion in the article.

hunter

(39,007 posts)
13. The politics of academia can be a real shit show.
Tue Oct 3, 2023, 04:07 PM
Oct 2023

My wife has been a professor in her career, on and off, the off mostly being when she's refused to play the game, especially as it's expected of women.

eppur_se_muova

(37,578 posts)
14. Maria Goeppert-Meyer came pretty close ...
Wed Oct 4, 2023, 08:37 AM
Oct 2023

She was a voluntary associate professor of physics at the University of Chicago, where her husband worked, at the time she developed the nuclear shell model. By the time she received the Nobel in 1963, she had been hired as a full professor at UCSD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Goeppert_Mayer

She did a fair amount of other landmark work in physics as well, including predicting the transuranics would form a lanthanide-like series. I'm amazed at how much good physics is found in her bio.

(I know you're familiar with her history, but sharing with everyone.)

NNadir

(34,755 posts)
15. I certainly know who she was and referenced her work in a lecture I gave some months back, but...
Wed Oct 4, 2023, 10:42 AM
Oct 2023

...I didn't know about her academic rank at the time she did the Nobel quality work.

Thanks for the information.

Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»Science»When was the last time a ...