In Review

鈥淚t seems as if everyone thinks of the Nobel Prize as being something very special,鈥 Nobel laureate Masatoshi Koshiba 鈥55 (PhD) told Rochester Review with unironic understatement in fall 2002, when he was named a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. 鈥淸In 2000] I got the Wolf Prize, and I thought this would be same kind of thing鈥攋ust another award.鈥
He soon realized that Japanese citizens, scientists, and media had a different impression, treating him as a national hero, one whose social calendar became filled with invitations to receptions featuring the nation鈥檚 leaders.
Koshiba shared one half of the prize with two American scientists for work to detect the subatomic particles known as neutrinos. When he received the prize, Koshiba was a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, where he鈥檚 still a member of the faculty.
He and others in Rochester鈥檚 Nobel club added a new member this fall, when economist Richard Thaler 鈥74 (PhD) was selected to receive this year鈥檚 Nobel Prize in economics (see page 6).
Altogether, a total of nine people with ties to Rochester have received Nobel Prizes, including six alumni. 鈥擲cott Hauser