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NOBEL PRIZE MEDAL DONATED TO CAMBRIDGELike many numismatists, I'm of two minds when it comes to museum donations. While it's nice in theory to have collections accessible to the general public, in practice it's difficult to attract and pay for the curatorial and security staff required to do a numismatic collection justice. Only the largest museums have those resources, and unless numismatics is their main focus, numismatic material can get neglected. But in the case of this Nobel Prize Medal donation to Cambridge, it feels like a perfect match. -Editor 
Prof David Thouless, who studied at Trinity Hall, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016, but died in 2019. His family said they wanted it to be on display at the college because of "the influence that Trinity Hall had on his life". The college's senior tutor, Michael Sutherland, said: "We hope that this generous gift inspires future generations of Trinity Hall physicists." Prof Thouless won the Nobel Prize "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter". Prof Thouless had worked in a number of academic institutions including Cambridge, Yale and, finally, the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. 
Speaking on Thursday night, Dr Helen Thouless said her father had very much enjoyed his time at Trinity Hall where he had made lifelong friendships. She added the family wanted the Prize to be shared and displayed and the college seemed the perfect place to do this. "Thinking about the friends he made and the influence that Trinity Hall had on his life, this is why we wanted to donate it to [them]," she said.
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Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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