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Balzan Prize
 
 
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The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organisations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the brotherhood of man.

Each year the foundation chooses the fields eligible for the next year's prizes, and determines the prize amount. These are generally announced in May, with the winners announced the September the following year.






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The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organisations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the brotherhood of man.

Each year the foundation chooses the fields eligible for the next year's prizes, and determines the prize amount. These are generally announced in May, with the winners announced the September the following year. Since 2001 the prize money has increased to 1 million Swiss Franc
Swiss franc

The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian Enclave and exclave Campione d'Italia....
s per prize, on condition that half the money is used for projects involving young researchers.

The Balzan Prize committee comprises twenty members of the prestigious learned societies of Europe. The Prize ranks close to the Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize , established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel Prize in Literature, and Nobel Peace Prize in 1901....
 and is one of the highest awards for science, culture and humanitarian achievement, but is less well known, despite Balzan's prize money for 2004 of 3 million US dollars exceeding Nobel's of 1.3 million (at 2004 exchange rates).

The assets behind the foundation were established by the Italian
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 Eugenio Balzan (1874–1953), a part-owner of Corriere della Sera
Corriere della Sera

Corriere della Sera is an Italy daily newspaper , published in Milan.It is the most famous Italian national newspaper, and among the oldest, founded on Sunday, March 5 1876 by Eugenio Torelli Viollier....
 who had invested his assets in Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 and in 1933 had left Italy in protest against fascism
Fascism

Fascism is a Political radicalism, Authoritarianism Nationalism ideology that aims to create a single-party state with a government led by a dictator who seeks national unity and development by requiring individuals to subordinate self-interest to the collective interest of the nation or Race ....
. He left a substantial inheritance to his daughter Angela Lina Balzan (1892–1956), who at the time was suffering an incurable disease. Before her death, she left instructions for the foundation and since then it has two headquarters, the Prize administered from Milan, the Fund from Zurich.

The first award was in fact 1 million Swiss Francs to the Nobel foundation
Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize , established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel Prize in Literature, and Nobel Peace Prize in 1901....
 in 1961. After 1962 a gap of 16 years followed when prizes recommenced with an award of half a million Swiss Francs to Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa , born Agnes? Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, was an Albanian people Roman Catholic Church nun with Indian citizenship who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata , India in 1950....
. Award ceremonies alternate between Bern and the Accademia dei Lincei
Accademia dei Lincei

The Accademia dei Lincei, , is an italy science academy, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy.Founded in 1603 by Federico Cesi, it was the first academy of sciences to persist in Italy, and a locus for the incipient scientific revolution....
 in Rome, and frequently winners have later won a Nobel Prize.

Four prizes have been awarded annually since 1978 for achievements in the categories:

  • Humanities
    Humanities

    The humanities are academic disciplines which study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural science and social sciences....
    , Social Sciences
    Social sciences

    The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including anthropology, communication studies, economics, human geography, history, political science, psychology and sociology....
     and the Arts
    ARts

    aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is most famous for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
  • Physics
    Physics

    Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
    , Mathematics
    Mathematics

    Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
    , Natural Sciences and Medicine
    Medicine

    Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....


Every 3 to 5 years the foundation also awards the Prize for humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples. It has last been awarded in 2005 to the Community of Sant'Egidio
Community of Sant'Egidio

The Community of Sant'Egidio is a Christian community that is officially recognized by the Catholic Church as a "Church public lay association"....
.

Other noted recipients are Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII

Blessed Pope John XXIII , born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli , known as Blessed John XXIII since his beatification, was elected as the 261st Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and monarch of Vatican City on 28 October 1958....
 (1962), Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and Conducting....
 (1962), Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget was a Switzerland philosophy and natural science,well known for his work studying children, his theory of cognitive development and for his epistemological view called "genetic epistemology."...
 (1979), Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges was an Argentina writer born in Buenos Aires. He was brought up bilingual in Spanish and English. In 1914, his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, then traveled around Spain....
 (1980), Edward Shils
Edward Shils

Edward Shils was a Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and in Sociology at the University of Chicago and one of the world's most influential sociologists....
 (1983), Jan Hendrik Oort (1984), Emmanuel Levinas
Emmanuel Lévinas

Emmanuel Levinas was a France philosopher and Talmudic commentator....
 (1989), Paul Ricoeur
Paul Ricoeur

Paul Ric?ur was a French people Philosophy best known for combining Phenomenology description with Hermeneutics interpretation. As such, he is connected to two other major hermeneutic phenomenologists, Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer....
 (1999), Abdul Sattar Edhi
Abdul Sattar Edhi

Abdul Sattar Edhi, Nishan-e-Imtiaz , or Edhi, as he is often known, is one of the most active philanthropy in Pakistan. He is head of the Edhi Foundation in Pakistan....
 (2000), Eric Hobsbawm
Eric Hobsbawm

Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm Companion of Honour, FBA, is a United Kingdom historical materialism and author....
 (2003) and Bruce A. Beutler
Bruce A. Beutler

Bruce A. Beutler, an immunologist and geneticist, was born in Chicago, Illinois on 29 December, 1957, and is a US citizen. He is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Genetics at The Scripps Research Institute, in La Jolla, California, USA....
 (2007).

All awards are decided by a single committee.

See also

  • Prizes named after people
    Prizes named after people

    This is a list of prizes that are named after people.For other lists of eponyms see Lists of etymologies.*Abel Prize - Niels Henrik Abel...
  • List of Balzan Prize recipients
    List of Balzan Prize recipients

    List of recipients of the Balzan Prize, one of the world's most prestigious academic awards....


External links


  • - Official site