Nobelitis

Relations between research labs in Cambridge England and Cambridge Massachusetts have been under considerable strain during the past few months. The strain has been said to derive from Nobelitis, a disease common in high-powered academic circles during the summer months. And the point at issue concerns who first solved the correct structure of transfer RNA (see this week's Monitor, p 709) – Aaron Klug and his colleagues in England, or Alexander Rich at MIT?

Source: wiktionary

Privately, many scientists were critical. "Hill has 'Nobel[-]itis,'" said an astronomer who prefered^([sic]) to remain anonymous. "He wants the Nobel so badly that he is jumping the gun."

Source: wiktionary

The Nobel looms like a coronation -- a personal and professional validation (to say nothing of the prize money itself, usually $1 million or more, and the potential for future financial gain). Symptoms of Nobelitis have been spotted even among fledgling scientists still in school.

Source: wiktionary

But I certainly don't agree with critics of the late Faulkner who implicitly side with Phil Stone's comment that Faulkner got "Nobelitis in the head," and that his public life in the fifties is a direct expression of an inflated and preening sense of himself as having been certified Wise and so competent to speak on all things.

Source: wiktionary