Between two stools? Pharmacologists nominated for Nobel prizes in “physiology or medicine” and “chemistry” 1901–1950 with a focus on John Jacob Abel (1857–1938)

Since the early stages of its academic professionalization, pharmacology has been an interdisciplinary field strongly influenced by the natural sciences. Using the Nobel Prize as a lens to study the history of pharmacology, this article analyzes nominations of pharmacologists for two Nobel Prize categories, namely “chemistry” and “physiology or medicine” from 1901 to 1950. Who were they? Why were they proposed, and what do the Nobel dossiers say about excellence in pharmacology and research trends? This paper highlights the evaluation of “shortlisted” candidates, i.e., those candidates who were of particular interest for the members of the Nobel Committee in physiology or medicine. We focus on the US scholar John Jacob Abel (1857–1938), repeatedly referred to as the “Founder of American Pharmacology.” Nominated 17 times in both categories, Abel was praised by his nominators for both basic research as well as for his influential positions as editor and his work as chair at Johns Hopkins University. The Abel nominations were evaluated for the Nobel Committee in chemistry by the Swedish professor of chemistry and pharmaceutics Einar Hammarsten (1889–1968), particularly interested in Abel’s work on hormones in the adrenal glands and in the pituitary gland. Eventually, Hammarsten did not view Abel’s work prizeworthy, partly because other scholars had done—according to Hammarsten—more important discoveries in the same fields. In conclusion, analyses of Nobel Prize nominations help us to better understand various meanings of excellence in pharmacology during the twentieth century and beyond.