The Nobel Prize system is dated and in desperate need of an overhaul, a group of top scientists and engineers said today (September 30) in a letter to the Nobel Foundation.

Alfred Nobel Image: Wikimedia Commons

In their letter, addressed to the foundation's executive director, Michael Sohlman, the researchers recommend that the awards should be broadened to include advancements in environmental issues, public health, and new fields of basic research such as neuroscience and ecology.

The researchers were assembled by New Scientist to discuss whether the scope of the prizes is still relevant to science and how the criteria for selection might be improved. Their letter, published online at New Scientist, argues that awards in Medicine, Physiology, and Chemistry are no longer enough to cover the wide spectrum of research happening today.

"When Alfred Nobel signed his will in 1895, he could not have anticipated threats such as climate change and HIV/AIDS," they write. "Nor could he have known of the new scientific disciplines that are generating results that will transform our world for the better."

The letter recommends that the foundation create two new Nobel Prizes, one for Global Environment and the other for Public Health. Both of these would focus on the application of science rather than on basic research, and should be open to both organizations and individuals. These prizes, the letter notes, could recognize climate change mitigation, sustainability, reducing biodiversity loss, and the reduction or eradication of disease.

The researchers are also calling for prizes in physiology and medicine to include research across life sciences, increasing the possibility of winning for work in fields they claim are typically overlooked, such as ecology, genetics, neuroscience, psychology, and cellular, molecular and evolutionary biology.

The letter's 10 signatories include Nobel Prize winner Tim Hunt, Pulitzer Prize winner EO Wilson, and noted scientists such as Sir David King, Lynn Margulis, Peter Raven, and Frans de Waal.


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