Nobel Speculation Time

As we approach October, Nobel Speculation Season is upon us again. And Ash is right at Curious Wavefunction - making the predictions gets easier every year, because you get to keep the lists you had from before, with maybe a name or two removed because they actually won. Paul at Chembark usually does a long post on the subject this time of year, but he seems to have his hands full (understandably!) getting his academic lab set up and teaching his courses the first time through. The Thomson Reuters people have made their annual predictions, based on citation counts and such measures, and so far every other article I've seen in the press is based on their lists. Some years I speculate myself, so for what they're worth, here's my 2011 list, here's 2010, here's 2009, 2008, and 2006. What's the landscape like this year? Thomson/Reuters have made a bold case for Sharpless/Folkin/Finn for the Huisgen-style "click" chemistry. I know that the thought has crossed my mind before (and shown up in the comments here before as well, several times). A second Nobel for Sharpless would be quite a feat, and it really says something that people consider it a possibility. John Bardeen got Physics twice, and Sanger got Chemistry twice. Marie Curie's the only person to win in two different sciences. (And yes, there's Pauling, the only winner of two unshared prizes, but one of them was Peace, which has too often been a real eye-roller of an award). R. B. Woodward, had he lived, would certainly hav...
Source: In the Pipeline - Category: Chemists Tags: General Scientific News Source Type: blogs