Nominee and nominator, but never Nobel Laureate: Vincenz Czerny and the Nobel Prize.
OBJECTIVE
The Heidelberg surgeon Vincenz Czerny (1842-1916) is remembered as pioneer of innovative operations as well as entrepreneur of interdisciplinary cancer therapy. The purpose of this paper is to describe his role during the early history of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.


METHODS
Based on documents from the Nobel Archive, this paper investigates how Czerny contributed, both as nominee and nominator, in shaping the early years of Nobel Prize history.


RESULTS
Vincenz Czerny was nominated at least three times for the Nobel Prize, but he was never selected. Czerny's own nomination letters pinpoint important trends in medicine around the turn of the century. At least seven of the candidates he put forward, became Nobel Laureates.


CONCLUSIONS
Czerny-like many other internationally renowned surgeons during the first decades of the twentieth century-missed out on the Nobel Prize, partly because it is not a lifetime award and his work would have to have been more recent. However, with his nominations, Czerny helped to shape the Nobel Prize to become the most important scientific award worldwide.
Department for the History, Philosophy, and Ethics of Medicine, Heinrich-Heine-University Dusseldorf, Universitätsstr. 1, 40225, Dusseldorf, Germany. nils.hansson@hhu.de.
Nils
N
Hansson
Paracelsus Medical University, Prof.-Ernst-Nathan-Straße 1, D-90419, Nuremberg, Germany.
Annette
A
Tuffs
D013502:General Surgery / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009613:Nobel Prize; D010827:Physiology / Q000266:history*
History of surgery; Nobel Prize; Surgery; Vincenz Czerny
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