[twitchyzero]

in one of the episodes i think walt mentioned the work that he did (I presume with Gretchen) ended up winning the nobel prize

from wiki

In his previous life, he was cautious and fearful, unwilling to take risks. After a promising youth, when he helped make discoveries in crystallography for a technology start-up called Gray Matter, he worked years as an overqualified high-school teacher. Meanwhile, his business partner at Gray Matter, Elliott Schwartz, married his then-girlfriend Gretchen, won the Nobel prize, and became rich.