CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Three 1997 recipients of the Nobel Prize are among a list of 31 current or former faculty members, alumni and staff at MIT who have won the prestigious award.
Robert C. Merton, who earned his doctorate from MIT in 1970, was a member of the MIT faculty from 1970-88, and Myron S. Scholes taught at MIT from 1968-73. The two were co-recipients of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for developing a pioneering formula for the valuation of stock options, work they undertook while teaching at MIT.
William D. Phillips shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light. He received the Ph.D. from MIT in 1976.