Katalin Karikó, status in academia and the lost scientific discoveries

The 2 October 2023, Katalin Karikó received a (well-deserved) Nobel Prize in Medicine for her work on mRNA. Despite the scientific importance of her work, she was demoted in 1995 and forced to retire from UPenn in 2013 because, and I quote, she “was not of faculty quality”. UPenn trying to take credit for her award is not going well on social media.

In a recent podcast interview shared by @pengzell.bsky.social on Bluesky, she explains how her lack of status made it harder for her to get funding and institutional support for her research.

The horrendous experience of Katalin Karikó makes me wonder how many major scientific discoveries we have lost because of this status game in academia. Probably a lot, if I had to guess. Including in economics.