His greatest dream was "to have a prediction verified by experimentation." This, he explained, was how you win the Nobel as a theoretical particle physicist. "That would bring an enormous sense of fulfillment, quite apart from the Nobel Prize"
It's hard to tell from that statement if he puts more importance on the scientific achievement itself, or the Nobel prize awarded for the achievement.
You hit the nail on the head of the irony implicit in the hunt for the inherently material/prestige-granting awards in science where we're also meant to believe these individuals care only about a higher, non-trivial realm. Funny
"That would bring an enormous sense of fulfillment, quite apart from the Nobel Prize"
The part you are objecting to was definitely not part of the quote, it was added/paraphrased by the author, for the audience's sake.
From the wording, it seems clear that the author said something like "You could win a Nobel prize for something like that", and the professor retorted with "enormous fulfillment"
It's hard to tell from that statement if he puts more importance on the scientific achievement itself, or the Nobel prize awarded for the achievement.