The 1981 nobel prize in physics.

The Nobel prize is a universal symbol of recognized excellence in science and literature. And although many other prestigious prizes are awarded in the sciences and the humanities each year, 1the Nobel awards are unique because they are so well known to the general public. For several years, we have commented on each new crop of Nobel pnzewinners.z-’l These essays included an analysis of each recipient’s most significant work. We performed these analyses to determine whether any of our earlier citation studies had anticipated or somehow confirmed the decisions of the Nobel committee. If not, we wanted to understand why. Trying to follow our own injunctions to perform indhidual evaluations in great depth,s we have incorporated ISI@’s research front data into our annual study of the Nobel prizes. To report on this requires more space. So this year we will cover the awards in several separate essays. The work of Kenneth G. Wilson, the 1982 laureate in physics, is discussed here. Future essays will cover the prizes in chemistry, physiology or medicine, economics, and literature. Incidentally, the 1983 Nobel prize in physics was shared equally by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, University of Chicago, Illinois, and William A. Fowler, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, for their work on what happens as stars age, consume their fuel, form new elements, and fiially colIapse.b Both men have appeared in a December 12,1983