Collaborating with a Nobel laureate may actually hinder chances of winning a Nobel prize
By 
Mason Wakley2026-02-10T14:00:00
Research suggest that those who work alongside laureates may not be seen as original thinkers
Working with a Nobel laureate may actually lower a researcher’s chances of winning a Nobel prize. This challenges the idea that having a laureate as a scientific peer increases the likelihood of receiving a call from Stockholm.
Many laureates sit within an academic family tree where past supervisors and PhD students have also won a Nobel prize. For example, John Clarke – who won the 2025 Nobel prize in physics for his work on macroscopic quantum tunnelling – mentored his fellow winners Michel Devoret and John Martinis. Clarke’s academic ‘grandfathers’ were also laureates, including Pyotr Kapitsa (1978 physics) and Ernest Rutherford (1908 physics).