When 'superstar' scientists die
Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 15:35
in Mathematics & Economics
(PhysOrg.com) -- When "superstar" academic scientists die, their collaborators experience a significant and permanent decline in productivity, according to a recent paper coauthored by MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Pierre Azoulay. Studying the role of collaboration in spurring the creation of new scientific knowledge, he found that the more the collaborators' areas of study overlapped with the superstar, the sharper the decline in output.