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‘The Only Reason to Win a Nobel’: Free Parking

October 4, 2011, 3:53 pm

Never mind the respect of one’s peers and the shared $1.5-million cash award.

Saul Perlmutter, the University of California scientist who was named today as one of three winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics, revealed the other great thing about the honor: one of the free parking spaces that Berkeley gives its Nobel laureates.

“Which of course is the only reason to win a Nobel Prize, to be able to park on campus,” Mr. Perlmutter joked in an interview with the Associated Press.

Mr. Perlmutter shared the Nobel with Brian P. Schmidt, of the Australian National University, and Adam G. Riess, of the Johns Hopkins University’s Space Telescope Science Institute, for their “discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations” of supernovas, according to a citation from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

No word yet on whether Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Riess will also receive a parking prize from their home universities.

Parking is a hassle at many colleges, and as an urban campus, the University of California at Berkeley feels the squeeze worse than most others. Thus the university fittingly honors its Nobel laureates by granting them free parking for life.

Kathleen Maclay, a spokeswoman for the university, says the idea of awarding free parking to its Nobelists started with Czeslaw Milosz, who received the literature award in 1980. “But the first free parking space was actually awarded to Gerard Debreu, who won the Nobel in 1983 for economics,” she said via e-mail last week.

Ms. Maclay said that Berkeley had seven free, marked reserved Nobel parking spaces on the campus. Mr. Perlmutter’s would make eight.

“The spaces are free for life and have a current value of $1,488 per year, the cost of a ‘C’ (Central Campus) permit,” Ms. Maclay said.

Congratulations to Mr. Perlmutter on the prize and the parking permit. The universe may be expanding, but the amount of campus parking is not.

—Don Troop

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  • josephmr

    I think you’re probably right – we can expect to see teams switching conferences as abruptly and in greater numbers, much like coaches now leave their current teams for bigger or more prestigious “programs” much more frequently, ala Brian Kelly. (Although obviously teams won’t be able to switch conferences mid-season, or right before a bowl game.)

    I was wondering though, if I’m naive for thinking that the Big 10 will remain relatively stable? Even with Big 10 teams’ tendency to lose bowl games in recent years, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to leave the conference. It seems to me that no one’s going to be looking to flee the SEC either, what with the sporting press telling us repeatedly and breathlessly that the SEC is the toughest conference in college football.

    Thoughts?

  • kurtosis

    Big 10 stable?  Let’s see, they brought in Nebraska because the conference has “high academic+research standards” and implies membership in the CIC (instead of letting CIC manage itself).  Nebraska promptly gets booted from the AAU after more than a decade of warnings that were unheeded.  Realignment makes Notre Dame look more alone… but the Big 10′s offer to ND was previously spurned.

    Tthe Big 10 will be stable for its long-time core members; but, a reckoning is coming.  The academics are getting tired of having the tail wag the dog.  I suspect we’ll see either (1) Nebraska go and Notre Dame ignored until they get into the AAU; or (2) complete separation of the CIC and the Big 10 with the Big 10 then having funding cut (“because CIC will need to manage themselves, ya know… no punitive in any way”).

  • andyj

    Is this guy out of touch or what? Of course it’s about money. He took this job not understanding that? Either he is a hypocrite or he is totally guileless.

  • goxewu

    Tiny question: Are ADs the ones who, unilaterally, make decisions for the school to leave one conference and join another?  If so, why bother having a President or a Board of Trustees?

    Another, tinier question: Did the faculty athletic representatives get to sit inside the meeting room while the meeting went on, or did they have to stand out in the hall and promise not to try to eavesdrop?

    It’s a cliché to use this cliché, but it’s all too apt: Mr. Emmert was, shocked, *shocked,* to find that big-time college athletic programs care mainly about money.

  • jeld56

    Three cheers for all of the above posts – you are “right on the money.”  Mark Emmert, previously Pres. of UW and the highest/one of the highest-paid university presidents in the USA, presided over football and basketball betting scandal at UW, then took another step up the big-time salary and power ladder, berating the ADs?  Hypocrisy, thy name is Emmert.

  • v8573254

    Now that our money and its value is always in doubt, this may be the most valuable reward for a Nobel by a US professor.

  • mgrimaldi

    Wow. If he really feels that way, he’s welcome to forward his prize winnings to me, and I’ll be pleased to pay his parking fees for life.

    (Winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics can explain this better than I can.)

    Seriously, congratulations, Dr. Perlmutter.

  • mkt42

    I’ve been told that a parking permit at Berkeley doesn’t actually mean you get to park there; it merely means that you get to look for a parking space.  (If you find one, great.  If the parking lot’s full, tough luck.)  And this is even true for the Nobel Laureates.  Mr. Perlmutter doesn’t actually get his own parking space, he merely gets to look for a space marked “NL” (for Nobel Laureate).  If some other laureate’s taken the space that he wanted, tough luck.

  • mister_anthony

    I feel really sad for him.  Is he serious?

  • 11272784

    That would be illegal on our campus. Campus interprets state law as meaning that we can’t offer a benefit to any employee that’s not available to other employees.  Somehow this doesn’t apply to parking spots for the President and a few VPs.

  • bigjoe

    Get a grip.  Not everything has to be serious.

  • tee_bee

    But the benefit is available to other employees. They first have to win a Nobel Prize. (Or a Nobel Memorial prize for Econ, if we want to get picky.) What, your discipline doesn’t have a Nobel Prize associated with it? You can still win, as Elinor Ostrom did for Econ a couple of years ago. She’s a political scientist, but she was a co-laureate in Econ. Just find the right discipline, win the prize, and savor the free parking.

  • 11272784

    That would be cool if it were the case – but that argument doesn’t work. The staff and employees like the physical plant carpenters aren’t eligible for a Nobel. Nice thought, though.

  • 22079340

    I believe it may have been Clark Kerr, a former UC Berkeley Chancellor, who once commented:  A university must be more than a collection of people brought together around concerns related to the lack of parking… Congrats to Professor Perlmutter on earning that free parking space AND the Nobel Prize!

  • dtroop

    Berkeley says the NL spots are “designated.” No battles between Nobel laureates.

  • 22079340

    Yes, but can’t anyone can earn an IgNobel Prize?? http://www.ignobel.com/

  • mkt42

    Designated for “Nobel laureates,” not designated for any particular Nobel laureate.  E.g. see the photo accompanying the wikipedia article about Berkeley laureates:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_affiliated_with_the_University_of_California,_Berkeley

    Battle on, laureates.

  • 11272784

    Now that would make interesting reality TV!  “Battle of the Nobels!”

  • dtroop

    mkt42, you’re the snapping turtle of commenters. 

    Berkeley has published a list of Nobel Prize winners at http://berkeley.edu/news/features/nobel/ . Counting Saul Perlmutter, there are now nine living laureates at UCB. Donald Glaser, who won in 1960, is emeritus. Kathleen Maclay told me last week (during the reporting for this story: http://chronicle.com/article/Parking-on-Campus-a-Vanishing/129232/ ) that Berkeley had seven spaces for its Nobelists. Presumably they’ll add an eighth space for Mr. Perlmutter when he gets his permit. Berkeley’s Nobelists are required to reapply for their free permits annually. I have no idea whether Mr. Glaser has done that, but given those numbers it’s a pretty safe bet that Nobelists aren’t yanking out their thinning hair looking for spaces.

    What I personally found amazing in the course of researching this question is that Berkeley’s physics department has 12 people with the surname “Lee.”

  • mbelvadi

    Just a reminder that the so-called Nobel prize in economics is not a true Nobel prize, not part of the original set, but a separate award made by a bank who chose to name its award in honor of Nobel and has convinced the mass media to ignore the distinction.

  • dcwhitney

    If I recall correctly from my time in the UC (not Berkeley) state law mandates that campus parking at UC is a cost-neutral, revenue-neutral system, meaning that perhaps the Nobelists aren’t paying for their parking permit / hunting license, but somebody else on the campus has to.

  • bookwomanca

    Those who take this perk lightly have never had to park at Cal. 

  • rightwingprofessor

    Unfortunately Berkeley will have to report the value of this perk to the IRS as taxable income, and Barack Obama will happily confiscate 35% of it while California will grab another 10. Saul your tax bill just went up by about $700/year. Hopefully your Nobel winnings will cover it.

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