Which countries breed Nobel laureates, and which import them?

Poland is the biggest loser from this scientific migration: 19 laureates were born in what is now Poland yet none received their prize for research done there

THIS YEAR’S Nobel prizes in science have been announced. Of the nine researchers who will head to Stockholm for the awards ceremony in December, six made their discoveries at American institutions. They include a Briton, a Frenchman and a Jordanian. In fact, roughly half of this year’s laureates carried out their prize-winning work outside their country of birth. Science has always been an international endeavour, but the share of top researchers who are also immigrants is higher than ever.

(FILES) The entrance of the Alfred Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.(Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)(AFP)

Since the first awards in 1901, about 30% of Nobel laureates had emigrated before they made their big discovery, according to data gathered by Max von Zedtwitz, of the University of St. Gallen, and colleagues at Germany’s EBS University for Business and Law. The share dipped between the first and second world wars, when movement slowed, but it has climbed again in recent decades. In the 1990s and early 2000s there was a rise in the number of American-born Nobelists who did their work at home. Since then the share of foreign-born scientists has increased.

Poland is the biggest loser from this scientific migration: 19 laureates were born in what is now Poland, including Marie Curie, yet none received their prize for research done there. America has been the chief beneficiary. Discoveries made on its soil have earned 304 scientific Nobels—far more than for any other country. But only about 70% of those prizes went to American-born scientists, and just eight Americans have won for work done abroad. Stricter immigration rules and cuts to research funding could slow that inflow of global talent.

chart

America dominates in part because it is big. As a proportion of population, the number of medal winners is higher in European countries such as Britain, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. Also adjusting for population, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Norway outperform America in terms of the number of prizes won by researchers born in those countries.

Nobels are often awarded for discoveries made decades before the decision, not for contemporary breakthroughs. The experiments on macroscopic quantum-mechanical tunnelling, which won this year’s physics award, took place in the mid-1980s. That lag helps explain why more than four-fifths of prize-winning discoveries come from five scientific powers: America, Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland.

China, despite its vast scientific workforce, has won only one Nobel for research conducted on the mainland (although six Chinese-born laureates have won for research in America, and one for research in Britain). As science globalises and other countries attract more talent, America’s dominance is bound to wane.

chart

chart