When I received a New York Times email alert announcing that three people had won the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine, I was anxious to find out if they were American. When I read that they were, I was thrilled, but I had a feeling that they wouldn’t all be American-born.
Here’s the Associated Press article running in newspapers across America, with the headline “Three Americans Share 2009 Nobel Medicine Prize” (screen shot below).
The article says this about the winners:
Blackburn, who holds U.S. and Australian citizenship, is a professor of biology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Greider is a professor in the department of molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
London-born Szostak has been at Harvard Medical School since 1979 and is currently professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Only Blackburn is more than just a holder of Australian citizenship. Here’s the top story from The Australian (screen shot below).
The article in The Australian, which describes Blackburn as an “expatriate” – not an American citizen – notes:
Dr Blackburn, 60, a Hobart-born graduate of Melbourne University who has worked in the US for many years, was one of the favourites for the Nobel for physiology or medicine.
Yes, all three are Americans now, and I am happy to claim them. And I suppose the AP article at least mentions Blackburn’s dual citizenship, while The Australian does not. Still, the AP describing Blackburn as simply holding Australian citizenship feels unfair to me. They should fix that.
Congratulations to Australia, Great Britain and America for producing such a gifted group, whose research will benefit the world.
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