Sweden:
All eight winners of the 2021 Nobel Prizes in medicine, chemistry, physics and literature have been guys, re-igniting a recurring debate about diversity in the extremely coveted awards, especially these in science.
Ardem Patapoutian and David Julius received the Nobel for medicine on Monday. Giorgio Parisi, Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann won the physics gong for their work deciphering chaotic climate, though Benjamin List and David MacMillan received the chemistry accolade for creating a tool for molecule developing.
Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, 72, on Wednesday became only the second writer of colour in sub-Suharan Africa ever to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. The last Black recipient of the prize was Toni Morrison in 1993.
“Abdulrazak Gurnah meets at least one of the criterion of a writer from a non-traditional cultural circle – a non-European with a colonial background, but he’s no woman,” stated Anne-Marie Morhed, head of the Swedish Association of Female Academics.
“Two prizes remain, the Peace Prize and the Economy Prize. The (Norwegian) Nobel committee… still have a chance to honor a woman.”
Exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Greta Thunberg are at least two females seen to be in contention when the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Norway on Friday.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee is led by a lady and the majority of the members are females. Ditto the earlier committee: led by a lady and with a majority of females on it.
There has also been a genuine push in current years to not give the prize to only white guys from North America and Western Europe, as was the case in the earlier decades.
In comparison to the dozen Black peace laureates in the Nobel’s history, there has by no means been a Black recipient of the prizes for medicine, chemistry and physics, points out Professor Winston Morgan, a toxicologist at the University of East London who has looked at representation in the prizes as aspect of his analysis on inequality in the sciences.
“In terms of the gap between the world’s population and the winners – the biggest gap is a gender one,” Morgan stated. “The number of female prize winners is really, really tiny.”
Scientists of each genders have currently taken to social media to decry the lack of females recognized so far this year.
GenderAvenger, a non-profit group committed to advancing women’s voices in public dialog, stated the prizes have been “like a terrible mystery where you know the ending halfway through the book. 4 out of 6 categories announced and nary a woman in sight, @NobelPrize. Is the story of the 2021 Nobel Prize that the men did it? (Spoiler: Women are also doing amazing work).”
This is like a terrible mystery exactly where you know the ending halfway by means of the book. 4 out of 6 categories announced and nary a lady in sight, @NobelPrize. Is the story of the 2021 Nobel Prize that the guys did it? (Spoiler: Women are also performing awesome work) #GenderAvengerpic.twitter.com/ZQBotA9Hl0
— GenderAvenger (@GenderAvenger) October 7, 2021
Some, like Ellie Murray, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health, expressed disappointment that this year’s awards excluded the contributions of Katalin Kariko and Kizzmekia Corbett, essential scientists behind the development of mRNA vaccines that are altering the course of the pandemic.
Nobel watchers, having said that, stated it was completely most likely that Kariko and Corbett would be recognized in years to come. The committee, they stated, tended to reward recipients just after a period of time.
“The issue for the Nobel prize is it has a criteria and a tradition and it is hard for them to break away from that,” Morgan stated, adding that the committee would most likely respond to scientific innovation through the pandemic in 3 or 4 years.
He added that if you looked at the basic trajectory of Nobel prize winners, the quantity of females scientists was developing as have been these offered to guys from Japan and China.
“We are not seeing that same trajectory for Black scientists. That concerns me more,” he stated. “You need to ask are there enough black scientists in universities and are they being supported.”
Asked why there have been so couple of Black Nobel Prize winners for literature, Gurnah told Reuters the world was altering.
Jesper Haeggstrom, chairman of the Nobel Assembly that awarded the prize in Physiology or Medicine, stated there was no uncomplicated explanation for the lack of female prize winners, but that it reflected the representation of females in science.
“There has been an under-representation of women historically in science, so the further back in time you look, the fewer female candidates there are,” he stated.
Haeggstrom declined to say whether or not gender played a function in the committee’s choice procedure.
“I’m not at liberty to give you any details on this, but in general terms, I can say that scientific competence is the deciding factor,” he stated.
Critics, having said that, point to the makeup of the scientific choice committees. Only 25% of the 50 professors on the medicine choice committee are females.
The Committee for Physics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences consists of six members, of which one is a lady, and two co-opted members, each guys. The chemistry committee consists of six members, all male, and two co-opted members, each females.
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