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ernment’s Daresbury Laboratory as of modern contraception to semantic computer vision mucins’ degradation Nature of the electronic ground t a science and technology innova - tion park is now coming to fruition. NOBEL PRIZE PREDICTIONS, 2002-09 The laboratory, which is run by SOURCE: Thomson Reuters, Research Services Group, 2002 -09 the Science and Technology Facili- ties Council, is renting space on the Year Medicine Chemistry Physics Economics site to UK companies that wish to 2009 l E. H. Blackburn, C. W Greider, l M. Grätzel (solar cells) l Y. Aharonov, M. V. Berry (Aharonov- l E. Fehr, M. Rabin (fairness) use its resources. J. W Szostak (telomeres) l J. K. Barton, B. Giese, G. B. Schuster Bohm effect and Berry phase) l W. D. Nordhaus, M. L. Weitzman More than £3 million in equip - l J. E Rothman, R. Schekman (charge transfer in DNA) l J. I. Cirac, P. Zoller (quantum optics) (environmental economics) ment from Daresbury’s Synchrotron (vesicle transport) l B. List (organic asymmetric l J. B. Pendry, S. Shultz, D. R. Smith l J. B. Taylor, J. Gali, M. L. Gertler Radiation Source – the main large l S. Ogawa (fMRI) catalysis) (negative refraction) (monetary policy) facility on the site, which was re - cently decommissioned – is to be 2008 l S. Akira, B. A. Beutler, J. Hoffmann l Roger Y. Tsien (green fluorescent l A. K. Geim, K. Novoselov (graphene) l L. P. Hansen, T. J. Sargent, C. A. Sims made available to businesses via the (toll-like receptors) protein) l V. C. Rubin (dark matter) (dynamic modelling) new Innovations Technology Ac - l V. R. Ambros, G. Ruvkun (miRNAs) l C. M. Lieber (nanomaterials) l R. Penrose, D. Schechtman l M. S. Feldstein (public economics) cess Centre. l R. Collins, R. Peto (meta-analysis) l K. Matyjaszewski (ATRP) (Penrose tilings, quasicrystals) l A. A. Alchian, H. Demsetz The centre will offer 16 high-tech (property rights) spaces, which will give businesses the chance to work alongside both the 2007 l F. H. Gage (neurogenesis) l S. J. Danishefsky (epothilones) l S. Iijima (nanotubes) l E. Helpman, G. M. Grossman STFC’s own scientists and staff from l R. J. Ellis, F. U. Hartl, A. Horwich l D. Seebach (synthetic organic l A. B. McDonald (neutrino mass) (international trade) the universities of Lancaster, Liver - (chaperones) methods) l M. J. Rees (cosmology) l J. Tirole (industrial organisation) pool and Manchester, the academic l J. Massague (TGF-beta) l B. M. Trost (organometallic l R. B. Wilson, P. R. Milgrom (auctions) institutions that are already involved Deep impact the Daresbury centre will stimulate the local economy, the STFC says and bio-organic chemistry) with the Daresbury Science and In - novation Campus. business opportunities, said that to create a “dipole model” of two The lack of government funding 2006 l Mario Capecchi, Martin J. Evans l G. R. Crabtree, S. L. Schreiber l Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg l Paul Krugman ( trade ) This follows an announcement fostering collaborations between sci - international-calibre centres of sci - aimed at supporting such an initia - and Oliver Smithies (gene (small molecule chembio) (GMR) (won in 2007) (won in 2008) in July, which called for a private- ence and industry could prove to entific excellence by developing both tive at Daresbury worries him all targeting) (won in 2007) l T. J. Marks (organometallic) l A. H. Guth, A. Linde, P. J. Steinhardt l J. N. Bhagwati, A. K. Dixit (int’l trade) sector partner to further develop be very fruitful. the STFC’s Harwell site in Oxford - the more. l P. Chambon, R. M. Evans, E. V. Jensen l D. A. Evans, S. V. Ley (natural (inflation) l D. W. Jorgenson (econometrics) the Daresbury site, which is locat - “The aim is for this to be an inno- shire (which incorporates the “The fact that funding is unlikely (hormone receptors) products) l E. Desurvire, M. Nakazawa, D. N. l O. D. Hart, B. R. Holmstrom, O. E. ed in Cheshire. vation melting pot, where people Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to exist makes me very nervous l A. J. Jeffreys (DNA profiling) Payne (erbium-doped fibre amplifiers) Williamson (corporate governance) Keith Mason, chief executive of with the same goals can work side and the Diamond synchrotron) and about the future,” he said. the STFC, said the centre was good by side. Hopefully, this will lead to Daresbury Laboratory. But he did see that there could be news for the local area. great successes in generating new Some academics, however, are benefits to the Innovations Tech - 2002- l M. J. Berridge l Robert H. Grubbs (metathesis l M. B. Green, J. H. Schwarz, E. Witten l Robert F. Engle, Clive W. J. Granger “I am delighted that we are able ideas and growth,” he said. uneasy about the plans, fearing that nology Access Centre. 2005 (cell signalling) method) (predicted and won in (string theory) (time series, ARCH and cointegra- to keep this high-end equipment in Daresbury has no future unless it can “The UK has never been good at l A. G. Knudson, B. Vogelstein, R. A. 2005) l Y. Tokura (condensed matter) tion) (predicted and won in 2003) the North West and create a facil- Question marks attract a large facility to continue exploiting the many scientific suc - Weinberg (tumour suppressor genes) l A. Bax (NMR and proteins) l S. Nakamura (gallium nitride-based l Daniel Kahneman (decision under ity that will stimulate the local There have been uncertainties over making big breakthroughs. cesses it has had… the centre is a l F. S. Collins, E. S. Lander, J. C. Venter l K. C. Nicolaou LEDs) uncertainty) (predicted and won economy,” he said. the future of the Daresbury Labo - This concern is expressed by John very positive thing in that it will (gene sequencing) (total synthesis, taxol) in 2002) The centre is expected to cater for ratory since the Synchrotron Dainton, professor of physics at bring together businesses incen - l G. M. Whitesides, S. Shinkai, l R. J. Barro (growth) businesses working in the biological, Radiation Source reached the end of the University of Liverpool, and tivised to exploit new technologies J. F. Stoddart (nano self-assembly) l E. F. Fama, K. R. French (EMH) imaging, materials and physical sci - its life in 2008 after 28 years of serv - founding director of Daresbury’s with the scientists who can create l P. M. Romer (growth) ences fields. ice. The Government’s decision not Cockcroft Institute of Accelerator them,” he said. l R. H. Thaler (behavioural) Companies can rent space on the to build a fourth-generation light Science and Technology. Companies interested in using Thomson Reuters has a long history of using citation data to study the characteristics of the research The record of successful forecasting indicates that citation profiles provide a powerful indicator of peer site for their exclusive use, or can source – a potentially revolution - “At present, there is no key sci - the equipment available in the In - records of Nobel prizewinners, dating back to studies by Eugene Garfield in the 1960s. Since 2002, esteem. Take chemistry. Reviewing just the top one tenth of 1 per cent still leaves 700 names to review. share premises with others by pay - ary facility to study molecules and ence driver on the campus – no novations Technology Access Centre predictions of future winners have appeared on the web pages of Thomson Reuters. The table above Using a variety of citation measures, Thomson Reuters focuses on researchers who rank, typically, in the summarises the predictions, and the emboldened entries highlight the successful ones to date. It also top one hundredth of 1 per cent. Other factors are then considered, including the receipt of prestigious ing an hourly rate. chemical reactions – at the site raised major cutting-edge scientific proj - should contact the STFC. provides those names newly chosen for 2009. It should be emphasised that individuals selected in prizes in the past. Add a pinch of intuition, and potential winners bubble to the surface. STFC Innovations oversees the concerns about the future of the ect at Daresbury that will attract [email protected] previous years are still considered contenders for a Nobel prize. For more information, see: http://scientific.thomson.com/nobel/ council’s technology transfer activ - centre and science in the region. other scientists to the site,” he told l http://www.scitech.ac.uk/PMC/ To present the Nobel predictions, the table Nature vs Science – research impact, field by field, 1999-2009, will be printed next week. ities. Paul Vernon, its head of new The Government has ambitions Times Higher Education . PRel/STFC/AccCent.aspx 22 Times Higher Education 24 September 2009 24 September 2009 Times Higher Education 23