Thomson Scientific Predicts Nobel Laureates

Thomson Scientific Predicts Nobel Laureates

September 06, 2006

Twenty-seven `Thomson Scientific Laureates' Recognized for Their Contributions to the Advancement of Science

    PHILADELPHIA, and LONDON, Sept. 6 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/
-- Thomson Scientific, part of The Thomson Corporation
(NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) and leading provider of information
solutions to the worldwide research and business
communities, today announced its 2006 Thomson Scientific
Laureates - researchers likely to contend for Nobel honors
- in anticipation of this year's Nobel Prize winners to be
announced in October.

    Each year, data from ISI Web of Knowledge(SM), a
Thomson Scientific research solution, is used to
quantitatively determine the most influential researchers
in the Nobel categories of chemistry, economics, physiology
or medicine, and physics.  Because of the total citations to
their works, these high-impact researchers are named Thomson
Scientific Laureates and predicted to be Nobel Prize
winners, either this year or in the near future.  Of the 27
Thomson Scientific Laureates named since 2002, four have
gone on to win Nobel honors -- an accurate-prediction
average of better than one in seven.

    "Citations are an acknowledgement of intellectual
debt -- a direct demonstration of influence in a given
subject area," said Henry Small, chief scientist at
Thomson Scientific.  "Over the past 30 years, our
studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between
journal article citations and peer esteem.  Researchers who
have accumulated such credits from their peers are also
often nominated for prizes and other honors, such as the
Nobel Prize." 

    Thomson Scientific is the only organization to use
quantitative data to make annual predictions of Nobel Prize
winners.  The Thomson Scientific Laureates typically rank
among the top one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of
researchers in their fields, based on citations of their
published papers over the last two decades. 

    To select the 2006 Thomson Scientific Laureates, total
citation counts and number of high-impact papers in the
Nobel science fields were examined.  These data were
applied to categories within those scientific fields
considered worthy of special recognition by the Nobel
Committee: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and
economics.  Based on these criteria, possible winners --
leaders within a particularly noteworthy area of study
within each field -- were selected.

    The 2006 Thomson Scientific Laureates in four Nobel
Prize categories are as follows:  

     Field          Researcher             Institution

     Physics        Emmanuel Desurvire     Alcatel
Technical Academy  
                                            (France)
                    Albert Fert            University of
Paris-Sud 
                                            (France)
                    Peter Gruenberg        Julich Research
Center 
                                            (Germany)
                    Alan H. Guth           Massachusetts
Inst. of Technology
                    Andrei Linde           Stanford
University School of Med.
                    Masataka Nakazawa      Tohoku
University (Japan)
                    David N. Payne         University of
Southampton (U.K.)
                    Paul J. Steinhardt     Princeton
University

     Chemistry      Gerald R. Crabtree     Stanford
University
                    David A. Evans         Harvard
University
                    Steven V. Ley          University of
Cambridge (U.K.)
                    Tobin J. Marks         Northwestern
University
                    Stuart L. Schreiber    Harvard
University

     Physiology or 
      Medicine      Mario R. Capecchi      University of
Utah
                    Pierre Chambon         Universite Louis
Pasteur (France)
                    Sir Martin Evans       Cardiff
University (U.K.)
                    Ronald M. Evans        Salk Inst. for
Biological Studies
                    Elwood V. Jensen       Univ. of
Cincinnati Medical Center
                    Sir Alec J. Jefferys   University of
Leicester (U.K.)
                    Oliver Smithies        Univ. North
Carolina School of Med.

     Economics      Jagdish N. Bhagwati    Columbia
University
                    Avinash K. Dixit       Princeton
University
                    Oliver D. Hart         Harvard
University
                    Bengt R. Holmstrom     Massachusetts
Inst. of Technology
                    Dale W. Jorgenson      Harvard
University
                    Paul Krugman           Princeton
University
                    Oliver E. Williamson   University of
California, Berkeley

    For detailed information about each of the Laureates,
including information about their areas of study, visit the
Thomson Scientific Laureates Website at
http://scientific.thomson.com/nobel .  Visitors also may
make their own Nobel Prize predications, read about
previously name laureates, and learn more about the Thomson
Scientific selection process. 

    About The Thomson Corporation and Thomson Scientific

    The Thomson Corporation ( http://www.thomson.com ),
with 2005 revenues of approximately US$8.40 billion, is a
global leader in providing integrated information solutions
to business and professional customers.  Thomson provides
value-added information, software tools and applications to
more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax,
accounting, financial services, higher education, reference
information, corporate e-learning and assessment, scientific
research and healthcare.  With operational headquarters in
Stamford, Conn., Thomson has approximately 40,500 employees
and provides services in approximately 130 countries.  The
Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and
Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).

    Thomson Scientific is a business of The Thomson
Corporation.  Its information solutions assist
professionals at every stage of research and development -
from discovery to analysis to product development and
distribution.  Thomson scientific information solutions can
be found at http://www.scientific.thomson.com .

    For more information, please contact:

     Rodney Yancey, 
     Manager, Marketing Communications, 
     Thomson Scientific
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

     Chris Lukach, 
     Anne Klein & Associates
     Tel:   [phone] x15
     Email: [e-mail]

SOURCE  Thomson Scientific