UNITED STATES

The U.S. has seven Nobel prize winners this year, and all but one are immigrants. (Minnesotan Bob Dylan is, not for the first time, a spoiler.) (Wall Street Journal)

Use our study guide to learn more about the Nobels—and some ignoble recipients.

Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers Toolkit.

Discussion Ideas

• Almost all the U.S. Nobel laureates this year are immigrants. So, what’s an immigrant?
  • An immigrant is simply a person who moves to a new country or region.
    • FYI: An emigrant is a person who moves from their existing country or region to a new country or region. All emigrants are immigrants, and immigrants are emigrants—it’s just a matter of the geographic perspective: whether you’re emphasizing where the person is going to (immigrant) or where they’re coming from (emigrant).

• Who are America’s Nobel laureates this year? From what countries did they immigrate?
  • J. Fraser Stoddart was awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry “for the design and synthesis of molecular machines.”
    • Stoddart is originally from Scotland, a part of the United Kingdom, and now teaches at Northwestern University in Illinois. “I think the United States is what it is today largely because of open borders,” he says.
  • David J. Thouless, F. Duncan M. Haldane, and J. Michael Kosterlitz were awarded the Nobel prize in physics “for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”
    • Thouless is, like Stoddart, originally from Scotland. He is now a professor emeritus with the University of Washington.
    • Haldane is originally from England, also a part of the United Kingdom, and now teaches at Princeton University in New Jersey.
    • Kosterlitz is originally from Scotland, and now teaches at Brown University in Rhode Island.
  • Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström were awarded the Nobel prize in economics “for their contributions to contract theory.”
    • Hart is originally from England, and now teaches at Harvard University in Massachusetts.
    • Holmström is the only non-British immigrant of the bunch. He is originally from Finland, and now teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
  • Robert Allen Zimmerman—Bob Dylan—was awarded the Nobel prize in literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
    • Bob Dylan is originally from Minnesota. He is the first American to win the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993. Dylan, at 50-to-1 odds, beat early favorites such as Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami and Syrian poet Adunis.

• What is a Nobel Prize?
  • Nobel Prizes are awarded every year by different Swedish and Norwegian committees. Nobel Prizes are considered the most prestigious professional honors in all categories in which they are awarded.
  • Nobel Prizes are awarded in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, and peace. The related Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics was established in 1968.
  • The awards are named after Alfred Nobel, the millionaire Swedish inventor perhaps most famous for his patent on dynamite. Nobel outlined the basic structure of the prizes in his will, and the first prizes were awarded in 1901.
  • Both Swedish and Norwegian committees participate in the annual awards, because at the time of Alfred Nobel’s death, the two kingdoms were part of a “personal union”—meaning they were basically discrete states but shared the same monarch.

• Why are Nobel Prize winners called “laureates”?
  • It’s a symbol of achievement. According to NobelPrize.org, “The word ‘laureate’ refers to being signified by the laurel wreath. In Ancient Greece, laurel wreaths were awarded to victors as a sign of honor—both in athletic competitions and in poetic meets.”

TEACHERS TOOLKIT

Wall Street Journal: Nobels Pouring Across the Border

Nat Geo: Nobel Laureates We’d Like to Forget