word: panjandrum

panjandrum

one claiming great authority or influence.

Even when scientists who receive the Nobel Prize resist the temptation to become panjandrums like Heisenberg, issuing judgments about what others should be doing, there is a tendency for laureates to feel that one should stop doing the ordinary hard work of science, and instead go only for the next Big Thing. I take pride in the fact that I have continued working hard on minor problems and have written a large number-literally hundreds-of unimportant papers, both before and after the Nobel Prize. 

 - Steven Weinberg