worked at the Center for the Study of Public Choice
in Fairfax, Virginia. The laureates’ areas of achieve-
ment were creation and applications of econometric
models (Lawrence R. Klein), analysis of financial
markets (James Tobin), industrial structures and
public regulation (George Stigler), reformulation
of the general theory of equilibrium and developing
new analytical methods (Gerard Debreu), saving
and financial markets (Franco Modigliani), eco-
nomic and political decision making (James Bu-
chanan), and the theory of economic growth (Rob-
ert Solow).
Literature and Peace The American literature and
peace laureates of the 1980’s were all of foreign ori-
gin. Poet, playwright, and essayist Joseph Brodsky
wrote first in the Russian language and later in En-
glish. Czesuaw Miuosz wrote in Polish. His essayThe
Captive Mind(1953) concerned the effects of totali-
tarianism on independent thinkers. Both Brodsky
and Miuosz were naturalized American citizens, as
was Holocaust survivor and peace laureate Elie Wie-
sel. Similarly, the International Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) was founded in
Geneva in 1980, but it moved to Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts, where it organized conferences and spon-
sored educational activities on the horrors of nu-
clear war.
Physics Discoveries in particle physics led to a No-
bel Prize for James Watson Cronin and Val Logsdon
Fitch in 1980. The team had studied the violation
of symmetry principles for K-mesons. Leon M.
Lederman, Melvin Schwartz, and Jack Steinberger,
also particle physicists, won the prize in 1988 for
their work on the neutrino beam method and for
discovering the mu-meson. Kenneth G. Wilson was
awarded the 1982 prize for formulating a complete
theory of critical phenomena in phase transitions.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar became a laureate
in 1983 for studies of stellar evolution and shared
the honor with William Alfred Fowler, who studied
the nuclear reactions leading to the formation of
chemical elements in the universe. Nicolaas Bloem-
bergen and Arthur L. Schawlow were prize recipi-
ents with Sweden’s Kai Siegbahn in 1981 for their
work on laser spectroscopy, while Norman F. Ramsey
was honored in 1989 for his oscillating fields method
and its use in the hydrogen maser. Hans G. Dehmelt
shared the 1989 prize with Germany’s Wolfgang
Paul for developing the ion-trap method.
Physiology or Medicine Baruj Benacerraf and
George D. Snell were honored with France’s Jean
Dausset for their studies of the histocompatibility
complex genes in 1980. Other prize-winning work on
genes was done by Barbara McClintock, who won the
1983 award for studying mobile genetic elements
called transposons, and by J. Michael Bishop and
Harold E. Varmus, who won in 1989 for discovering
oncogenes. Brain research and studies of visual in-
formation processing led to awards for Roger W.
Sperry and David H. Hubel in 1981. Hubel shared
his award with Sweden’s Torsten Wiesel. Michael S.
Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein elucidated the regu-
lation of cholesterol metabolism and shared the
1985 prize. Stanley Cohen and Rita Levi-Montalcini
discovered growth factors and shared the 1986 prize.
The 1988 prize was shared by George H. Hitchings,
Gertrude B. Elion, and Scotland’s James W. Black,
who developed new drugs for treating leukemia,
herpes, gout, and other diseases.
Impact The 1980’s saw more women winning the
scientific awards than had in the past; overall, four
women became Nobel laureates during the decade.
The prizes also brought increased fame for some lit-
erature laureates: Brodsky was only forty-seven years
old when he won the prize in 1987; he served as poet
laureate of the United States in 1991-1992. Miuosz,
little known in America in 1980, toured Poland to
great acclaim after winning the prize.
Further Reading
Bishop, J. M.How to Win a Nobel Prize. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003. Discussion
of the prizes, how they are awarded, and the expe-
riences of the author in winning a share of the
1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Chivian, E., ed.Last Aid: The Medical Dimensions of
Nuclear War. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1982.
Essays largely taken from the first international
conference organized by the IPPNW, the corpo-
rate winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985, pro-
ject the overwhelming stress placed on medical
resources in the event of a nuclear war.
Feldman, B.The Nobel Prize. New York: Arcade, 2000.
Relates some of the controversies that have arisen
regarding awards of Nobel Prizes. Laureates are
listed by nationality.
James, L. K.Nobel Laureates in Chemistr y, 1901-1993.
Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society/
Chemical Heritage, 1993. Biographical materialThe Eighties in America Nobel Prizes 713