The Nobel Prizes: That Winning American Style

1979 awards continue U.S. domination of the sciences

They are the most prestigious prizes in the world. Besides a hefty stipend (now $190,000) and a gold medal, they bring instant fame, flooding winners with speaking invitations, job offers, book contracts and honorary degrees. So heady is the honor that Physicist Tsung Dao Lee, who became a Nobel laureate at the precocious age of 31, wondered what he could do for the rest of his life. Indeed, as the time of the announcements approaches each fall, many contenders are so afflicted with Nobel fever they...

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