Higgs Boson scientist tipped to win Nobel Prize Also predicted to be in line for a prize is Professor Higgs" fellow University of Edinburgh scientist, Professor Adrian Bird for work he has done explaining gene expression. However, Professor Higgs may also face competition from Professor Didier Queloz, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge, for his role in the discovery of planets outside our own solar system. He is also being tipped as a potential winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. They also predict that Sir David Hendry, an economist at University of Oxford, and Professor Hashem Pesaran, from Cambridge University, may also be in line for the Prize in Economic Sciences. The predictions have been made by Thomson Reuters, which has analysed the number of scientific citations to identify the most influential researchers in the fields of chemistry, physics, medicine and economics. David Pendlebury, a citation analyst at Thomson Reuters, said: "We used our data to identify scientists who are Nobel-class. Professor Higgs has had to wait decades for his work to be validated while the fundamental work of Professor Bird and his colleagues also dates back to the 1980s. However, we believe the timing is right for the Nobel Committee to recognise the fundamental discoveries and work by these scientists. Professor Higgs has been extremely modest in the past when it has been suggested that he may be in line for a Nobel Prize for his work on the new particle. Instead he often prefers to pay tribute to other scientists who have picked up on his early work to conduct experiments at Cern to prove the particle's existence. He has also been keen to point out that he predicted the particle, which is thought to give other particles mass, along with Francois Englert and Robert Brout, both from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. Professor Englert is also predicted to win the prize alongside Professor Higgs. Professor Brout, however, died in 2011 and the Nobel Prize only recognises scientists who are still living. Others have speculated that the 3,000 plus scientists named on the scientific papers that revealed the detection of a new particle thought to be a Higgs Boson, should also take a share of the prize. Professor Higgs himself was not available to comment last night. However, a colleague at the university said: "If such an award is made, knowing Peter he will pay tribute to those other theoreticians who contributed in this area of physics. He will reserve most praise for all those many experimental particle physicists whose fantastic achievements in the half century since his papers have led to the recent discovery. Thomson Reuters' predictions place Professor Bird as a potential winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, alongside Howard Cedar and Aharn Razni from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Their work has helped geneticists unravel some of the mysteries that persisted following the publication of the human genome. They have found that genes can be switched on and off through a process known as DNA methylation. Professor Queloz, an astrophysicist, was part of the team that discovered the first planet outside of our solar system along with Professor Michael Mayor when they were both at the University of Geneva. In 1996 they found a giant planet orbiting the star 51 Pegasi. Their discovery challenged the conventional views of planet formation and marked a new era of astronomy that has since revealed 800 alien worlds outside our own solar system. Together with Professor Geoffrey Marcy, from the University of California, Berkley, they are also predicted to be potentially in line for the Nobel Prize in Physics. Professor Marcy is credited with discovering more extrasolar planets than anyone else - with 70 of the first 100 found to his name. Thomson Reuters began predicting the Nobel Prize winners using citation data in 2002 and since then has forecast 27 winners accurately. The Nobel Prizes for Physiology or Medicine is due to be announced on 7 October while the Prize in Physics will on 8 October and Chemistry will be on 9 October. Since they were established in 1901, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded 555 times to 838 Laureates and 24 Organisations. Each year the Nobel Committees in Sweden invite scientists and members of academies to nominate candidates for the prizes. The winners are then chosen by the committees based on the nominees contributions and achievements. This year has marked an increase in the numbr of people betting on the Nobel Prize, a high-brow departure from the usual bookies fare of horse racing and football matches. Here is Thomson Reuters list of predictions in full: Nobel Prize in Physics For their prediction of the Brout-Englert-Higgs boson François Englert, Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Visiting Professor in Residence, Chapman Institute for Quantum Studies, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium and Chapman University, Orange, California and Peter W. Higgs, Professor Emeritus, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK For his discovery of iron-based superconductors Hideo Hosono, Professor of Materials and Structures and Director of Materials Research Center for Element Strategy, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan For their discoveries of extrasolar planets Geoffrey W. Marcy, Professor of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley Michel Mayor, Emeritus Professor, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland Didier Queloz, Professor of Physics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK and University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland Nobel Prize in Chemistry For contributions to DNA nanotechnology A. Paul Alivisatos, Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering, and Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory University of California, Berkeley. Chad A. Mirkin, George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois Nadrian C. Seeman, Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor of Chemistry, New York University, New York For the invention of the Ames test of mutagenicity Bruce N. Ames, Senior Scientist and Professor Emeritus, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, Oakland, and University of California, Berkeley. For the development of modular click chemistry M.G. Finn, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Valery V. Fokin, Associate Professor of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California K. Barry Sharpless, W.M. Keck Professor of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine For their fundamental discoveries concerning DNA methylation and gene expression Adrian P. Bird, Buchanan Professor of Genetics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Howard Cedar, Edmond J. Safra Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel Aharon Razin, Professor of Biochemistry Emeritus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel For elucidating the molecular mechanisms and physiological function of autophagy Daniel J. Klionsky, Alexander G. Ruthven Professor of Life Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan Noboru Mizushima, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Yoshinori Ohsumi, Professor, Frontier Research Center, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan For his pioneering research identifying the HER-2/neu oncogene, leading to more effective cancer therapy Dennis J. Slamon, Professor and Executive Vice Chair for Research, Department of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology and Director of Revlon/UCLA Women's Cancer, Research Program, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences For their advancement of empirical microeconomics Joshua D. Angrist, Ford Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts David E. Card, Class of 1950 Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, California Alan B. Krueger, Bendheim Professor of Economics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey For their contributions to economic time-series, including modelling, testing and forecasting Sir David F. Hendry, Professor of Economics, University of Oxford Oxford M. Hashem Pesaran, John Elliot Distinguished Chair in Economics & Professor of Economics, and Emeritus Professor of Economics & Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA and University of Cambridge, Cambridge Peter C.B. Phillips, Sterling Professor of Economics and Professor of Statistics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut For extending economic theories of regulation Sam Peltzman, Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Chicago, Illinois Richard A. Posner, Judge, United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and Senior Lecturer, University of Chicago Law School, Chicago, Illinois