December 11, 2024
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A quiet bias is preventing black scientists from winning Nobel Prizes
The way scientists recognize each other’s work ignores the major contributions of black scientists. The Nobel Committees must recognize how black scientists are excluded from the prizes
The 2024 Nobel Prize Ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall on December 10, 2024 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
Marie Maynard Daly should have received the Nobel Prize. She was the first black woman in the country to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry, and the 1950s and the 1960s discovered the critical relationship between high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and blocked arteries, and how this can lead to heart attacks, strokes, and other medical problems. This was a tremendous discovery in medicine, paving the way for the development of statins, which millions of Americans are still prescribed each year to reduce the risk of heart attacks.
Such a discovery facilitates Alfred Nobel’s legacy of awarding Nobel Prizes.”he gave the greatest benefit to mankind“. And then several other scientists won Nobel Prizes for their research on cholesterol metabolism and regulation. So why didn’t Daly, who made the initial connections, win this prestigious award in his lifetime?
We believe that the Nobel Committees, whose selection process is highly secretive, emphasize the way scientists refer to each other’s work as a basis for the importance of that work. Usually, it’s Nobel Prize-winning research Cited over 1,000 times scientists did that research before they won. These references, known as citations, are indicative of scientific relevance, but leave room for bias.
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Although his own findings are heavily based on Daly’s early findings, not those of Konrad Bloch and Feodor Lyne, who won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. 1964neither did Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein who won that award 1985they mentioned in their awards the lectures. As these researchers and others made discoveries and published their findings, they rarely referred to his work. Without these well-deserved citations and credits, Daly and other black scientists have not been awarded the Nobel Prizes they rightfully deserved, and have instead been erased, even erased, from the historical record of science.
We believe that Nobel Committees should recognize that, overtly or subconsciously, scientists can and do exhibit gender and racial bias when they recognize people as leaders in their fields. While they have been 17 black Nobel laureates in peace, literature, and economics, a black scientist has yet to win a Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine, physics, or chemistry. “Why have black scientists not been rewarded?” asking the question it is the first step in recognizing the contributions of black scientists throughout history.
As current and future black doctors and scientists, we are disappointed The published research of Black scientists is cited far less often than that of their white counterparts. In the publication hierarchy, the first author of an article is usually the scientist who did most of the experimental work it describes, while the last author is the scientist who supervised the individual research program or project, usually very senior. the scientist When looking at who mentions neuroscience research, neuroscientist Maxwell A. Bertolero and others found that papers with white first and last authors were cited 5.4 percent more than expectedwhile papers with first and last authors of color were cited 9.3 percent less than expected. Inspired by this research, Fengyuan Liu, Talal Rahwan and Bedoor AlShebli, at Abu Dhabi University in New York, asked a similar question, but looked more deeply. four racial categories and various scientific fields. They found that research by black scientists is significantly underrepresented compared to similar research published by scientists of other races.
Because research like this shows that the research of Black scientists is often overlooked, we’ve been carefully investigating how this disparity in citation numbers can diminish paradigm-shifting discoveries made by Black scientists. It’s clear number of times a the scientistis the research of referencedit is important to the Nobel Committees that select each prize. The more you mention, the better Your work seems to be more influential in your field. But how can it be an objective measure when citations cause these underlying biases? Summarizing everything we’ve read, it’s also clear that using citations as a proxy for the importance of a scientific discovery inadvertently ignores the contributions of black scientists, who are already less likely to be cited regardless of their actual impact. research And this emphasis on citations rather than actual impact explains scenarios like that of Marie Maynard Daly, whose research was central to the work that won her two Nobel Prizes, but whose name didn’t deserve that recognition. It also explains why major scientific discoveries made by other black scientists, for example Percy Lavon Julian, Katherine Johnson and Charles Drewto name a few, they have been rejected by awarding bodies and entire fields. This is a further reflection of systemic inequalities education, tutoring, financing and recognition, all of which have been described and analyzed, not only in the US, but around the world.
Recognizing the biases in the criteria used by Nobel Committees and the broader trends woven into academic circles when it comes to emphasizing black scientists is the first step toward creating more equal measures of scientific impact. Addressing this underlying bias in the Nobel Committee selection process and beyond will not help the work of black scientists gain the recognition it deserves; it will also enrich science and society as a whole. This is not a representation; it is mainly about innovation and scientific progress Research shows that minority scientists are highly innovativee.
Other prestigious award committees, such as the MacArthur Foundation, have shown that it is possible to address such bias and underrecognition; the awarding body has specifically done a commitment to recognize the significant contributions of scholars of color, and the foundation has honored a small number of black scientists with its MacArthur Genius Grant. But scientists themselves also have a role to play in correcting the historical record, ensuring that black scientists are properly cited and receive the proper credit they deserve.
When the significant contributions of Black scientists are ignored, we all lose. A world without the influential research of Daly, Julian, Johnson or Drew would look very different. Therefore, it is high time that the prize committee and the rest of us finally start recognizing the significant discoveries of black scientists for the benefit of humanity and start giving them the proper recognition they deserve.
This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author(s) are not necessarily their own. American scientific.
