The question of nepotism in the award of Nobel prizes: a critique of the view of Hans Krebs

Abstract

While reviewing his development as a scientist, in 1967, Hans Krebs traced his scientific geneology to the von Baeyer 'family'. Almost every other member of this scientific family became a Nobel laureate. Krebs was of the opinion that there was no nepotism in the selection of the Nobel awards. This paper presents evidence, based on the recently released census of Nobel nominees and nominators for the chemistry prize between 1901 and 1937, that the von Baeyer 'family' of scientists had in fact practised a sort of 'nomination-nepotism'.