Balzan Prize

The International Balzan Foundation awarded since 1961 world outstanding scholars from the humanities and the natural sciences as well as personalities in the field of art and culture, among others Paul Hindemith, György Ligeti, Jorge Luis Borges and Karlheinz Böhm.

The Foundation, based in Milan and Zurich is named after the Italian journalist Eugenio Balzan ( 1874-1953 ). His daughter Angela Balzan established the foundation in 1957 in Lugano, Switzerland from the inheritance of their father.

Eugenio Balzan initially began working as a journalist at Corriere della Sera, and then became its managing director and co-owner. In 1933 he left Italy as a resistance against fascist circles, which threatened the independence of the Corriere. Until his death in 1953, Eugenio Balzan lived in Switzerland.

1961, the first Balzan Prize was awarded - to the Nobel Foundation. Since 1979, four science prizes will be awarded annually. Every three to five years will be awarded equipped Balzan Prize for peace, humanity and brotherhood among peoples also a 2 million CHF (about 1.25 million euros ). First Balzan Peace Prize winner in 1978 was Mother Teresa, who received the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.

The winners, as well as the specialist areas of the prices are set by an international committee, currently the 19 members of prestigious natural and social scientists. In 2010 Balzan Prizes were awarded in the following divisions: in the history of theater in all its forms of expression, in the history of Europe ( 1400-1700 ), in the pure or applied mathematics as well as in biology and the potential applications of stem cells.

The awards ceremony takes place in annual change in the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome as well as in the Swiss Parliament in Bern. The Foundation's assets are managed in Zurich / Switzerland.

The Balzan Prize is thanks to its scientific seriousness and the amount of prize money - at any price is worth one million Swiss francs - the most important scientific awards in the world. Unlike other international awards, the Balzan prize is awarded annually changing subject areas.

• Number of rates: four annual awards
• Price Buzz: per 1 million Swiss francs; every 2 to 3 years, a peace prize of 2 million Swiss francs.
• Price areas: two in the humanities and social sciences and arts; two in the natural sciences, physics, mathematics and medicine.
• The Talent Development Since 2001, the winners have to let half of the prize money research projects of young scientists progress in their area of ​​expertise.

Award winners

1961

• Nobel Foundation (SE) - Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among Peoples

1962

• Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (SU ) - Mathematics
• Karl von Frisch (AT) - Biology
• John XXIII. (IT) - Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among Peoples
• Paul Hindemith (DE ) - Music
• Samuel Eliot Morison ( U.S.) - History

1978

• Mother Teresa (AL) - Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among Peoples

1979

• Ernest Labrousse (FR) and Giuseppe Tucci (IT) - History
• Jean Piaget (CH) - Social and Political Sciences
• Torbjörn Caspersson (SE) - Biology

1980

• Enrico Bombieri (IT) - Mathematics
• Hassan Fathy ( EC) - architecture and urban planning
• Jorge Luis Borges ( AR) - philology, linguistics and literary criticism

1981

• Dan McKenzie ( GB), Drummond Hoyle Matthews (GB) and Frederick Vine (GB) - Geology and Geophysics
• Josef Pieper (DE) - Philosophy
• Paul Reuter ( FR) - International Public Law

1982

• Jean -Baptiste Duroselle (FR) - Social Sciences
• Kenneth Vivian Thimann (GB / U.S.) - Pure and Applied Botany
• Massimo Pallottino (IT) - Ancient Studies

1983

• Edward Shils (U.S.) - Sociology
• Ernst Mayr ( DE / U.S.) - Zoology
• Francesco Gabrieli (IT) - Oriental

1984

• Jan Hendrik Oort (NL) - Astrophysics
• Jean Starobinski (CH) - Literary history and criticism
• Sewall Wright ( U.S.) - Genetics

1985

• Ernst Gombrich (AT / UK) - History of Art of the West
• Jean -Pierre Serre (FR) - Mathematics

1986

• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among Peoples
• Jean Rivero (FR) - Basic Human Rights
• Otto Neugebauer (AT / U.S.) - History of Science
• Roger Revelle (U.S.) - Oceanography / Climatology

1987

• Jerome Bruner (U.S.) - Human Psychology
• Phillip Tobias ( ZA) - Physical Anthropology
• Richard W. Southern ( GB) - History of the Middle Ages

1988

• Michael Evenari (IL ) and Otto Ludwig Lange (DE) - Applied Botany (including environmental aspects)
• René Etiemble (FR) - Comparative Literature
• Shmuel N. Eisenstadt (IL ) - Sociology

1989

• Emmanuel Levinas (FR / LT) - Philosophy
• Leo Pardi (IT) - Ethology
• Martin Rees ( GB) - High Energy Astrophysics

1990

• James Freeman Gilbert ( U.S.) - Geophysics ( solid earth )
• Pierre Lalive d' Epinay (CH) - Private International Law
• Walter Burkert (DE) - Ancient Studies

1991

• Abbé Pierre ( FR) - Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among Peoples
• György Ligeti (HU / AT ) - Music
• John Maynard Smith ( GB) - Genetics and Evolution
• Vitorino Magalhães Godinho ( PT) - History: rise of Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries

1992

• Armand Borel ( CH / U.S.) - Mathematics
• Ebrahim M. Samba (GM ) - Preventive Medicine
• Giovanni Macchia (IT) - Literary history and criticism

1993

• Jean Leclant (FR) - Art and Archaeology of Antiquity
• Lothar Gall ( DE) - History: Societies of the 19th and 20th centuries
• Wolfgang H. Berger ( DE / U.S.) - Paleontology with Special Reference to Oceanography

1994

• Fred Hoyle (UK) and Martin Schwarzschild ( DE / U.S.) - Astrophysics ( evolution of stars)
• Norberto Bobbio (IT) - Law and Policy ( governability of democracies )
• René Couteaux (FR) - Biology ( structure of the cell, with special reference to the nervous system )

1995

• Alan J. Heeger (U.S.) - Materials Science
• Carlo Maria Cipolla (IT) - Economic History
• Yves Bonnefoy (FR) - History and criticism of Fine Arts in Europe ( from the Middle Ages up to the present days )

1996

• Arno Borst ( DE) - History: Medieval Cultures
• Arnt Eliassen (NO) - Meteorology
• International Committee of the Red Cross - Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among Peoples
• Stanley Hoffmann (AT / U.S. / FR) - Political Science: the latest international relations

1997

• Charles Gillispie (U.S.) - History and philosophy
• Stanley Tambiah Jeyaraja (SC / U.S.) - Social Sciences: Social Anthropology
• Thomas Meade Wilson (GB) - Epidemiology

1998

• Andrzej Walicki (PL / U.S.) - History: Cultural and Social History of the Slavic world of Catherine the Great to the Russian revolutions of 1917
• Harmon Craig (U.S.) - Geochemistry
• Robert May (UK / AU ) - Biodiversity

1999

• John Huxtable Elliott ( UK) - History from the 16th to 18th century
• Luigi Luca Cavalli - Sforza (IT / U.S.) - Scientific research into the origin of man
• Mikhail Gromov (RU / FR ) - Mathematics
• Paul Ricoeur ( FR) - Philosophy

2000

• Abdul Sattar Edhi (PK) - Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among Peoples
• Ilkka Hanski (FI) - Environmental Science
• Martin Litchfield West ( GB) - Classical Antiquity
• Michael Stolleis ( DE) - Right Modern History
• Michel Mayor ( CH) - Instrumentation and Techniques in Astronomy and Astrophysics

2001

• Claude Lorius (FR) - Climatology
• James Sloss Ackerman (U.S.) - History of Architecture ( including town planning and landscape design )
• Jean -Pierre Changeux (FR) - Cognitive Neuroscience
• Marc Fumaroli (FR ) - Literature History and Criticism from 1500

2002

• Anthony Grafton ( U.S.) - History of the Humanities
• Dominique Schnapper (FR) - Sociology
• Walter Gehring (CH) - Developmental Biology
• Xavier Le Pichon (FR) - Geology

2003

• Eric Hobsbawm (GB ) - European History since 1900
• Reinhard Genzel (DE) - Infrared Astronomy
• Serge Moscovici (FR) - Social Psychology
• Wen- Hsiung Li ( TW / U.S.) - Genetics and Evolution

2004

• Colin Renfrew (GB) - Prehistoric Archaeology
• Community of Sant'Egidio (IT) - Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among Peoples
• Michael Marmot (GB) - Epidemiology
• Nikki R. Keddie (U.S.) - The Islamic World from the late 19th to the late 20th century
• Pierre Deligne (BE) - Mathematics

2005

• Lothar Ledderose ( DE) - Art History of Asia
• Peter Hall ( GB) - Social and cultural history of the city since the early 16th century
• Peter R. Grant and Rosemary Grant (GB) - Population Biology
• Russell J. Hemley (U.S.) and Ho - kwang Mao (U.S. / China) - Mineral Physics

2006

• Ludwig Finscher (DE) - History of Western Music since 1600
• Quentin Skinner ( UK) - History and theory of political thought
• Paolo de Bernardis (IT) and Andrew E. Lange ( U.S.) - Observational Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Elliot Meyerowitz (U.S.) and Christopher R. Somerville (U.S.) - Plant Molecular Genetics

2007

• Rosalyn Higgins (UK ) - International Law since 1945
• Sumio Iijima (JP) - Nanosciences
• Michel Zink (FR) - European Literature ( 1000-1500 )
• Jules Hoffmann ( FR) and Bruce Beutler (U.S.) - Innate Immunity
• Karlheinz Böhm ( AT) - Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among Peoples

2008

• Maurizio Calvesi (IT) - History of Fine Arts since 1700
• Thomas Nagel (U.S.) - Practical Philosophy
• Ian H. Frazer (AUS) - Preventive medicine, including vaccination
• Wallace S. Broecker (U.S.) - Climate Science: Climate Change

2009

• Terence Cave (GB ) - Literature since 1500
• Michael Grätzel ( DE / CH) - Materials Science
• Brenda Milner (GB / CAN) - Cognitive Neuroscience
• Paolo Rossi Monti (IT) - History of Science

2010

• Manfred Brauneck ( DE) - History of the Theatre in all its forms
• Carlo Ginzburg (IT) - History of Europe ( 1400-1700 )
• Jacob Palis (BRA ) - Pure or Applied Mathematics
• Shinya Yamanaka (JP) - Biology and Potential Applications of Stem Cells

2011

• Peter Brown ( IRL) - History of the Greco- Roman World
• Bronislaw Baczko (PL) - The Age of Enlightenment
• Russell Scott country (U.S.) - Theoretical Biology or Bioinformatics
• Joseph Silk ( GB / U.S.) - The Early Universe ( From the Planck Time to the First Galaxies ).

2012

• Ronald Dworkin (U.S.) - Theory and Philosophy of Law
• Reinhard Strohm (DE) - Musicology
• Kurt Lambeck (AUS) - solid earth science, with special consideration of interdisciplinary research contributions
• David Baulcombe (GB) - Epigenetics

2013

• Alain Aspect (F) - Quantum Mechanics
• Manuel Castells (E) - Sociology modern communication technologies
• Pascale Cossart (F) - Molecular biology of pathogenic bacteria
• André Vauchez (F) - History of the Middle Ages