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Nobel winner gets real prize: A special parking permit

October 4, 2011 1:51 pm by Tracey Taylor

The joy of receiving a special Nobel laureate parking permit for the Cal campus is clear on Perlmutter's face. Photo: LBNL

Saul Perlmutter received a coveted NL parking permit today. Photo: Roibín Ó hÉochaidh

When Berkeleyside spoke to newly anointed Nobel Prize winner Saul Perlmutter earlier today, he joked that the “only reason to win a Nobel Prize” was to receive the famous Nobel laureate (NL) parking permit, reserved for laureates on the Berkeley campus.

Today he was presented with the coveted permit which is a free lifetime pass to park in designated spaces near the central UC Berkeley campus.

Which prize is better we wonder?

10 Comments

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  • Jane Tierney

    This has been years coming. The Nobel is usually awarded for work that has stood the test of time, significant achievements that surpass others and persist in recognition and contribution to the field for years after being made. Dr. Perlmutter is certainly deserving of this recognition. Best wishes and congratulations.

  • John Holland

    I’m all for the prize, but a life long parking permit on campus?! It’s time we stop treating these admittedly brilliant people like Gods!

  • DC

    Really?  You’d begrudge him a parking pass?  It’s not like it’s useful anywhere off campus.  If the campus chooses to honor him this way, that’s a small gesture they choose to make and a very nice one.  I think he deserves all that and more.

  • John Holland

    it was a joke, playing of the scarcity of parking on campus. i think it’s great he has a place.

  • Seth Grimes

    They should give him a lifetime all-you-can-ride BART pass instead.

  • DC

    Oh – aha!  yes, parking is miserable there…

  • berkopinionator

    Even g-d doesn’t have a Cal parking permit!   Having the permit will allow him to spend more time doing brilliant work and educating.

  • http://www.facebook.com/tilo.lopez Tilo E. Lopez

    Oh yeah, a parking pass in the median of campus!!! Love it. If you ask me, the 1.5 mil is cool enough ;)

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ENYYAGETDFZLHIIJFHIBN2N6TM Meursault

    By how scarce these parking permits are I would have thought the UC would only bestow the parking permit after the presentation ceremony when the _alleged_ laureate has the medal in hand.

    I’m so terribly sorry if I gave someone at the UC any ideas.

  • Sr. Williamson III

    Irony really is a language best understood by those with higher intelligence. Sorry your post will be misinterpreted time and time again.