BOSTON (Diya TV) — Immigrants have received 40% of the Nobel Prizes in medicine, chemistry, and physics awarded to the United States between 2000 and 2023, according to a recent review, with their impressive contribution towards American scientific success.
Four of the six U.S. recipients in these categories in 2023 were immigrants. One of them, Hungarian-born Katalin Karikó, co-won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with her American colleague Drew Weissman for their pioneering research on mRNA vaccines that played a crucial role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
French-born Moungi G. Bawendi and Russian-born Alexei I. Ekimov, together with American Louis E. Brus, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together for having invented quantum dots—tiny particles with far-reaching applications from novel display technologies to medical imaging.
These statistics highlight a persistent pattern: since 1901, immigrants have received around 36% of the Nobel Prizes awarded to Americans in these scientific categories. This lasting contribution highlights the significance of immigration policies that recruit and retain talent from around the world.
Legislative efforts such as the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which ended national origin discriminatory quotas, and the Immigration Act of 1990, which expanded employment-based green cards, have helped to attract international scholars to America.
