Who is who in cardiovascular research? What a review of Nobel Prize nominations reveals about scientific trends.

BACKGROUND: Since 1901, at least 15 scholars who contributed to cardiovascular research have received a Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. METHODS: Using the Nobel nomination database (nobelprize.org), which contains 5950 nominations in the accessible period from 1901 to 1953 in physiology or medicine, we listed all international nominees who contributed to cardiovascular research. We subsequently collected nomination letters and jury reports of the prime candidates from the archive of the Nobel Committee in Sweden to identify shortlisted candidates. RESULTS: The five most frequently nominated researchers with cardiovascular connections from 1901 to 1953 were, in descending order, the surgeon René Leriche (1879-1955) (FR) with a total of 79 nominations, the physiologist and 1924 Nobel laureate Willem Einthoven (1860-1927) (NL) (31 nominations), the surgeon Alfred Blalock (1899-1964) (US) (29 nominations), the pharmacologist and 1936 Nobel laureate Otto Loewi (1873-1961) (DE, AT, US) (27 nominations) and the paediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig (1898-1986) (US) (24 nominations). The research of these scholars merely hints at the width of topics brought up by nominators ranging from the physiological and pathological basics to the diagnosis and (surgical) interventions of diseases such as heart malformation or hypertension. CONCLUSION: We argue that an analysis of Nobel Prize nominations can reconstruct important scientific trends within cardiovascular research during the first half of the twentieth century.

Otorhinolaryngologists nominated for the Nobel Prize 1901-1940.

PURPOSE: Several scholars with links to ENT have received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. This overview takes into account ENT Nobel nominees, who never received the award. METHODS: Drawing a comparison on the nominations collected in the archive of the Nobel Committee for physiology or medicine in Stockholm, the Nobel archive database and secondary literature; the paper analyzes for the first time the nominations of Hans Schmid (Stettin), Hermann Gutzmann (Berlin), Karl Wittmaack (Hamburg), and Chevalier Jackson (Chicago). We also bring up nomination letters written by prominent German nominators such as Hermann Schwartze (one of the founders of this journal) and August Lucae. RESULTS: Hans Schmid was the first surgeon to be brought up in a Nobel Prize nomination for an ENT procedure (1901), but since he had passed away 5 years earlier he was not evaluated by the Nobel Committee. Hermann Gutzmann was a strong candidate in 1917 and reached the shortlist because of his pioneering work on stutter, but no Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded that year. In the 1930's, both Karl Wittmaack and Chevalier Jackson were repeatedly nominated for ENT research. CONCLUSION: Nobel Prize nominations are to date underused sources that shed new light on some scholars in ENT history.