Winning Nobel Prize Increases Lifespan by Two Years

Winning the Nobel Prize quite literally gives scientists a new lease of life. New research at the University of Warwick in central England shows that scientists who have won the prize for their work in chemistry and physics not only get cash and kudos but they live two years longer than colleagues who have only been nominated.

"Status seems to work a kind of health-giving magic. Once we do the statistical corrections, walking across that platform in Stockholm apparently adds about two years to a scientist's lifespan," Professor Andrew Oswald said.

"How status does this, we just don't know."

Oswald and government economist Matthew Rablen compared the lifespan of 524 scientists who had been nominated for the prize between 1901 and 1950, including 135 who had won it.

The average lifespan in the group was 76 years but winners lived on average 1.4 years longer than nominees. The gap widened another two-thirds of a year when winners and losers from the same country were compared, according to the study.

The amount of prize money given to winners has changed since Alfred Nobel established the Nobel Prize which was first awarded in 1901. But Oswald said the amount of prize money did not have an impact on lifespan, nor did being nominated more than once.