"The war not only provided motivation for my field, but the G.I. Bill actually paid for my education after 1945," he adds. "I spent the ages between 18 and 21 in the Army. My character was formed during those years."

Of course, it wasn't just the national situation that pushed Solow toward his chosen field of economics.

"I had intended to major in biology, but I wasn't good enough. So I took a freshman economics course," Solow says.

Ironically, the other economics honoree also had initially intended another course.

"I majored in English at Harvard," Miller says, "[but] I think I was influenced a lot in economics by my undergraduate tutor, who steered me toward the economic department, and over toward the Business School. When I left Harvard, I had no doubt about economics."

Miller, now a professor at the University of Chicago, says a big attraction for him was the wealth of opportunities in the field.

"Economics was such a wide field back in the '40s," Miller says. "You could hope to cover a wide range of interests. But now it's becoming more specialized--which is an important part of progress."

Entering the army with a degree in physics, Anderson says he "was shuffled off into engineering physics for the military, in radar school."

Unexpected Prize

All three men, though, say they hardly expected to be heading to Stockholm one day to receive what is perhaps the world's highest academic honor.

On the contrary, they say they were hoping--like seniors of every time and place--to go out and get a job.

"Like most members of the graduating class, I was very much career-oriented," Miller says.

"I did not think of myself as a great scientist," Anderson says. "I was just scraping by freshman year."

And despite the worldwide ramifications of the development of the atomic bomb, "physics was not a hot topic even after the war," Anderson says.

He says that he "gravitated into the field" following his wartime radar work. "Even then, you had to be pretty sharp to realize that physics was the wave of the future."