A Nobel Prize for creativity

Counting Nobel Prizes is the ultimate academic sport. It is a no-holds-barred exercise in selective memory and fuzzy math.

Universities that normally pride themselves on academic virtues and scholastic precision can find themselves grasping for any plausible thread of affiliation with those anointed by Stockholm.

The University of Cambridge in Britain touts philosopher Bertrand Russell as its first Nobel laureate in literature, yet conveniently fails to mention that the 1950 winner was fired for his anti-war activities during WWI.

During the Depression, Johns Hopkins and Columbia universities refused to give Maria Goeppert Mayer a real job with pay she did research as a volunteer, but both were eager to claim credit for her 1963 Nobel Prize in physics.

The University of Chicago is widely viewed as having the most expansive method of counting Nobel laureates. 8220;There are some people on our list who were here only for a few years,8221; acknowledged Larry Arbeiter, who tracks the prizes for the university. 8220;I have often wondered: 8216;Is that the appropriate way to do that? Is there a better way to do it?8217; I haven8217;t been able to come up with one.8221;

Some schools have resisted the temptation to go Nobel-scrounging, using the strict criterion of only claiming laureates currently on their campuses. 8220;Some of them are really quite restrained,8221;8217; said sociologist Harriet Zuckerman, author of Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the US. 8220;But not many.8221;

Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who made his fortune from the invention and manufacture of dynamite, might take some pride in the extent to which the claiming of his awards have become an intercollegiate sport. He set forth in his will that his fortune be used to endow 8220;prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind8221;.

Each prize 8212; often split two or three ways 8212; includes a substantial cash award meant to give winners the financial freedom to focus entirely on their research. This year8217;s award is 1.3 million. In the early 1900s, most winners hailed from Europe.

After WWII, the American scientific and technical juggernaut that propelled the country to superpower status came to dominate the Nobels.

Predictably, competitive tallies soon followed. 8220;Although such competition seems trivial, it is serious business,8221; Zuckerman wrote.

Nobel Prizes make schools attractive to prospective students, faculty and donors, conferring the aura of a winner. A university8217;s roster of laureates is 8220;probably more significant than the college rankings in US News and World Report,8221; said F Sherwood Rowland, a University of California professor who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1995.

But the problem is that some universities can8217;t help engaging in a little Nobel Prize inflation. 8220;A university does many things,8221; said David J. Gross, a UC Santa Barbara, professor who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 2004. 8220;It teaches, so it8217;s proud of its students who went on to do good things. They8217;re proud of their researchers who worked at the institution who have done good things. And of course they8217;re proud of the people who are there now and their impact on current research and teaching.8221;

So one school might claim a Nobel laureate who was there as an undergraduate, another for graduate work, another for advanced research, and several for being on the faculty. Who can say which school is most worthy?

California Institute of Technology President David Baltimore, whose 1975 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine is claimed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rockefeller University and the California Institute of Technology, sees no need to attempt an answer.

8220;It is sort of a game, and you might as well play it by whatever rules you want, like solitaire,8221; he said.

Caltech, which touts 31 8220;recognized heroes8221; who have garnered 32 Nobel Prizes over the years Linus Pauling won for both chemistry and peace, gives itself credit for laureates among faculty and alumni.

Among the strictest counters is UC Santa Barbara. The official tally includes only the five professors who won Nobels while at UCSB, all of whom are still active members of the faculty. 8220;It8217;s logical,8221; said Chancellor Henry T. Yang. Counting any other way 8220;has never occurred8221; to her.

Although UCSB is still trying to repair the academic damage after being named Playboy8217;s No 22 party school in 2002, it has won so many Nobels recently that it can afford to be strict.

UC Santa Barbara even declined to claim 2004 physics Nobelist Frank Wilczek of MIT and three other laureates who spent time on campus but are no longer at the school.

8220;I8217;m disappointed,8221; Wilczek said. 8220;I spent several years there. I was one of the founding members of their Institute for Theoretical Physics. I thought they8217;d be proud to claim me.8221;

The University of Chicago, however, was happy to claim Wilczek by virtue of his 1970 bachelor8217;s degree in mathematics. Chicago counts anyone who has studied or worked there full time, including professors with temporary appointments and research associates who worked on campus as part of WWII8217;s Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb.

Wilczek, who is proud to be listed on Chicago8217;s Nobel honor roll, scoffs at the school8217;s practice of taking credit for prizes awarded to visiting faculty members. 8220;That8217;s pretty lame,8221; he said. 8220;Chicago has a lot to be proud of, but maybe it . . . makes them seem ridiculous to stretch it that much.8221;