The Super Achievers: The Remarkable Jewish Contribution to Science and Human Well-being Highlighted by Nobel Prize Winners

by Ronald Gerstl

Overview

"With only 0.2% of the world population, Jews have been awarded almost 24% of Nobel Prizes in medicine, physics and chemistry.
American Jews, accounting for 2% of all Americans, have received 37% of all U.S. awards. The vastly disproportionate award winners exemplifies Jewish exceptionalism."

The Super Achievers examines such topics as:
• The rarified world of Nobel Prizes
• What factors likely account for Jewish exceptionalism
• How America benefited from scientists who fled Nazism
• The rise of Israel as a science and technology powerhouse
• Lives and discoveries of groundbreaking Jewish laureates
• Prizewinners' origins, family and educational backgrounds
• Tectonic shifts: Where Jews live now and where they used to live
• Barriers to Breakthroughs: The Jewish American experience
• Nobel science award recipients worldwide
• Women who won Nobel Prizes in science
• Are science and religion compatible?

You'll also discover...
• The first American to receive a Nobel Prize in science-a Jewish Naval officer
• The German Jewish inventor of poisonous gas used in extermination camps
• Einstein's Nobel Prize was not for the Theory of Relativity
• Why Jonas Salk did not receive a Nobel Prize
• The 18-year-old Harvard student who was recruited to work on the atomic bomb project
• The Nobel physicist who solved the mystery of the Challenger space disaster
• The physician whose death was kept a secret so he could win a Nobel Prize
• An entrepreneurial laureate whose discoveries led to creating major pharmaceutical companies
• The oldest Nobel science prize winner-a ninety-six-year-old in 2018
• The Nobel physicists who had to wait fifty years to have their findings corroborated

. . . and much more

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780578629223
Publisher:	Ronald Gerstl
Publication date:	01/17/2020
Pages:	286
Sales rank:	415,700
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Ronald Gerstl has an international and multilingual background. He was born in Budapest to a Hungarian mother and a father born in Curacao, Netherlands West Indies. Shortly after his birth, his parents returned to their home in Curacao. He grew up speaking Dutch, Papiamentu (the native tongue), and English. Later he added Spanish and other languages to his linguistic ability.

His family moved to Caracas, Venezuela, and he went off to New England for his education. He attended prep school at The Taft School in Connecticut and, thereafter, Harvard where he received his bachelor degree. Later he obtained an MBA from Columbia University.

He lived off and on in Caracas for some thirty years. His early career experience was in marketing and advertising with leading consumer products companies. Subsequently, he founded Maxe­con Executive Search Consultants to assist multinational corporations with their executive requirements. He moved to Miami to expand the firm's reach throughout Latin America.

He is married to the former Suzanne Lesh from Indianapolis. Their children, Jennifer and Stephanie, and grandchildren live nearby. He has travelled extensively, plays lousy golf, and enjoys reading nonfiction. Ron is a geography whiz who rarely misses questions on related fields on television's Jeopardy.

Table of Contents

Preface: Travail & Elation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix

Readers Please Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi

I.The Super Achievers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

The overachievement and contributions of the Jews in relation to their minute number is reflected by the disproportionately large number of Jewish Nobel Prizewinners in medicine and science

Exhibit I. Jewish Nobel Prizewinners in Medicine, Physics, and Chemistry...... 10

Exhibit II. Nobel Science Prizewinners—American and Jewish Participation... 16

II. The Rarified World of the Nobel Prize. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .17

All you wanted to know about the Nobel Prizes. The unique prestige of the Nobel science awards.

Exhibit III. Jewish Nobel Prizewinners—Reason for Award by Category.......... 28

III. Who’s Counted? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Identifying who is Jewish among Nobel prize winners is not always evident and can turn up some surprises.

IV. Laureates’ National and Ethnic Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . .45

Examines Jewish Nobel prizewinners’ ethnic and national backgrounds. Scientific achievement around the world.

Exhibit IV. Jewish Nobel Prizewinners—Place of Birth and Nationality..... 55

V. Germany’s Loss, America’s Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

The large number of Jewish scientists who fled the Nazis was a boon to America’s scientific, medical, military and industrial preeminence.

VI. The Tectonic Shift. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71

The transformative changes in Jewish demographics came about as a consequence of World War II and the Holocaust. Where Jews live now and where they used to live.

VII. Women Nobelists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Spotlights the relatively few female Nobel prizewinners in the sciences. Challenges in their professional and personal lives.

VIII. Science and Religion ..................................................83

Religious backgrounds of science laureates. What they believe and do not believe. Is religion compatible with scientific achievement?

IX. Laureates’ University Affiliations .................................91

Where Jewish science laureates attended college and graduate schools, obtained Ph.D.’s and M.D.s.

The universities where they taught and conducted research.

Exhibit V. University Affiliations.............................................98

X. Barriers to Breakthroughs: The Jewish American Experience . . . . 103

How American Jews overcame long-standing obstacles to achieve success in the sciences and many other fields.

XI. Why the Exceptionalism? . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

What accounts for the Jews’ overachievement? Historical and cultural factors. Inherited characteristics and environment.

XII. The Outlook...........119

Can Jewish accomplishments keep pace in the future?

Appendix .............127

Israel: The new science and technologuy powehouse.