Since the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, their name has been associated with scientists who changed our understanding of the world. But behind these scientists is another, less well-known story: the story of universities and research institutions that have repeatedly appeared in the history of the prize, to the point that some universities seem to have become like "Nobel factories."
So why do the names of these universities keep repeating themselves? Do they have a "secret formula" for producing Nobel laureates? Or is the story more complicated than that? the secret lies in what is called "institutional accumulation," a concept that can be simplified more clearly as a "scientific snowball."
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Scientific research is more than just the achievement of a single researcher (Shutterstock)
The most powerful example of a "scientific snowball" is embodied in the experiment of the American physicist Ernest Lawrence, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who won the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the "cyclotron".
The University of California, Berkeley, recognizes the importance of Lawrence's scientific legacy. In a 2001 ceremony honoring him, the university pointed to several Nobel laureates who came after him and were colleagues or students influenced by his work. Physicist Charles Townes said that at least eight of the university's Nobel laureates were directly influenced by Lawrence's work.
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