…we must sympathize with the problems of the successive Nobel Committees in Physiology or Medicine and Chemistry through the 20th century, who had to try to make their selections among many deserving people in so many different fields, among which nutritional science was only one, and “vitamins” just a portion of that.
They also had to limit their selections to those nominated in that particular year, and usually (though by no means always) it was only fairly recent research that was being considered, so that they did not always have the luxury of later commentators in a longer hindsight.
Those of us with a special interest in the subject can only be grateful, even though we may wonder at some decisions, that the importance of work involving vitamins was acknowledged in at least ten awards.
from: The Nobel Prize and the Discovery of Vitamins by Kenneth J. Carpenter (2004).
