AK wrote to me:
>Well, there are some pretty cracked pots with PhD’s, which is why I don’t regard them. However the links I found above show that his work was considered valuable by the general medical community.
That may be true: have you seen any signs that his work is valued among physicists?
I have a close family member who is a physician, and I have therefore had a chance to interact with a lot of physicians: most of them, I have found, have forgotten much even of their high-school math and physics — i.e., they are not in a position to judge work in physics, any more than I am in a position to judge work in molecular biology.
And FYI, the “Guenther Laukien Prize” is awarded by a relatively small (~6,000 enployees) private company, the Bruker Corporation, to honor the company’s founder, using whatever criteria suit their fancy.
I could, were I so inclined, fund a “Feynman Memorial Prize” to honor my mentor in physics, and be as arbitrary in awarding that prize as I chose: I can even afford to hand out the amount of money our friend received.
It is unwise to be impressed by that sort of thing.
There are in fact various social and professional circles in which the “in-crowd” award each other prizes because it looks nice on the resume. Meaningless. But it fools a surprising number of people.
Dave
