HOW EINSTEIN GOT THE NOBEL PRIZE 505
chat with Einstein afterward [HI]. Einstein later gave a second, more technical
lecture at Chalmers Technical Institute for about fifty members of the Science
Society.
I turn next to the labors of the Committee.
The records of the Committee show that Einstein received nominations for the
physics prize for each of the years 1910 through 1922 except for 1911 and 1915.
In order to facilitate its task, the Committee often divides the nominees into more
specialized categories, the purpose being to identify the leading candidate for each
category and then to compare these leading candidates only. For each year in the
following synopsis, I give the name of the category that Einstein was included in,
the company joining him in that category, and, in parentheses, the winner of the
year.
- Investigations of a theoretical or mathematical-physical character.
Gullstrand, Planck, Poincare; (Van der Waals).
(Poincare had been nominated on several earlier occasions. The exceptionally
high number (thirty-four) of signatories to letters nominating Poincare in 1910
was the result of a campaign mounted by Mittag Leffler. Some physicists also
signed: M. Brillouin, M. Curie, Lorentz, Michelson, and Zeeman. In its Report,
the Committee noted that neither Poincare's brilliant mathematical contributions
nor his mathematical-philosophical essays (especially mentioned by many nomi-
nators) could be designated discoveries or inventions within physics 'unless one
gives these concepts an especially broad interpretation.') - Einstein is not nominated; (Wien).
- Theoretical physics. Heaviside, Lorentz, Mach, Planck; (Dalen).
(Lorentz, who shared the 1902 prize with Zeeman, was nominated by Wien for
a prize to be shared with Einstein. Mach was nominated by Ferdinand Braun,
who shared the 1909 prize with Marconi for his practical contributions to wireless
telegraphy. Poincare, now in another category, was nominated only by Darboux.) - Theoretical physics. Lorentz, Nernst, Planck; (Kamerlingh Onnes).
(Count Zeppelin and the Wright brothers were nominated in other categories.) - Work of a more speculative nature, theoretical physics. Eotvos, Mach,
Planck; (von Laue).
(Mach was nominated by Ostwald.) - Einstein is not nominated; (father and son Bragg share the prize).
- Molecular physics. Debye, Knudsen, Lehmann, Nernst. The 1916
physics prize was never awarded. - Investigations connected with Planck's extremely fruitful researches
concerning the quantum hypothesis. Bohr, Debye, Nernst, Planck, Sommerfeld;
(prize deferred).
(Bohr appears for the first time, nominated by Chwolson from Petrograd for a
prize to be shared with Knudsen.)