Crafoord Prize

The Crafoord Prize is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger and Anna-Greta Crafoord. It is administered by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The prize is for "international basic research in the disciplines Astronomy, Mathematics, Geosciences, and Biosciences, with particular emphasis on ecology, and rheumatoid arthritis" (the disease from which Holger severely suffered in his last years). According to the Academy, "these disciplines are chosen so as to complement those for which the Nobel Prizes are awarded."[1]

Only one award is given each year, according to a rotating scheme – astronomy and mathematics; then geosciences; then biosciences.[1] A Crafoord Prize is only awarded for arthritis when a committee decides that substantial progress in the field has been made.[1] On Crafoord Day in April, the prize is presented by the King of Sweden, who also presents the Nobel Prize Awards at the ceremony in December.[1][2] The prize is to fund further research by the prize winner. In 2012 it is US$600,000.

Winners

Year Category Image Laureate Nationality Work[3]
1982 Mathematics   Vladimir Arnold   Soviet Union Theory of non-linear differential equations
  Louis Nirenberg   United States[A]
1983 Geosciences Edward Lorenz   United States Geophysical hydrodynamics
Henry Stommel   United States
1984 Biosciences Daniel Janzen   United States Co-evolution
1985 Astronomy Lyman Spitzer   United States Studies of the interstellar medium
1986 Geosciences Claude Allègre   France Isotope geochemical relations
Gerald J. Wasserburg   United States
1987 Biosciences Eugene P. Odum   United States Ecosystem ecology
Howard T. Odum   United States
1988 Mathematics   Pierre Deligne   Belgium
  United States
Algebraic geometry
  Alexander Grothendieck[B] None
1989 Geosciences   James Van Allen   United States Exploration of space, the discovery the Van Allen belts
1990 Biosciences   Paul R. Ehrlich   United States Dynamics and genetics of fragmented populations
  E.O. Wilson   United States Theory of island biogeography
1991 Astronomy Allan Rex Sandage   United States Study of galaxies
1992 Geosciences Adolf Seilacher   Germany Research into evolution of life
1993 Biosciences W.D. Hamilton   United Kingdom Theories of kin selection and genetic relationship
  Seymour Benzer   United States Genetical and neurophysiological studies of fruit flies
1994 Mathematics Simon Donaldson   United Kingdom Four-dimensional geometry
  Shing-Tung Yau   United States[C] Non-linear techniques in differential geometry
1995 Geosciences Willi Dansgaard   Denmark Development of isotope geological analysis methods
Nicholas Shackleton   United Kingdom
1996 Biosciences   Robert M. May   Australia Ecological research
1997 Astronomy Fred Hoyle   United Kingdom Study of nuclear processes in stars, stellar evolution
Edwin Salpeter   United States
1998 Geosciences Don L. Anderson   United States Study of the structures and processes in the interior of the Earth
Adam M. Dziewonski   United States[D]
1999 Biosciences   Ernst Mayr   United States Developing the concept of evolutionary biology
John Maynard Smith   United Kingdom
George C. Williams   United States
2000 Polyarthritis Marc Feldmann   United Kingdom Definition of TNF-alpha
Ravinder N. Maini   United Kingdom
2001 Mathematics   Alain Connes   France Theory of operator algebras, founder of the non-commutative geometry
2002 Geosciences Dan P. McKenzie   United Kingdom Dynamics of the lithosphere
2003 Biosciences Carl Woese   United States Third domain of life
2004 Polyarthritis Eugene C. Butcher   United States Study of molecular mechanisms concerning white blood cells
Timothy A. Springer   United States
2005 Astronomy James E. Gunn   United States Understanding the large-scale structure of the Universe
James Peebles   United States
  Martin Rees   United Kingdom
2006 Geosciences Wallace S. Broecker   United States Research into the global carbon cycle
2007 Biosciences Robert Trivers   United States Analysis of social evolution
2008 Astronomy   Rashid Alievich Sunyaev   Russia Contributions to high-energy astrophysics and cosmology
Mathematics   Maxim Kontsevich   Russia[E] Contributions to mathematics from modern theoretical physics
  Edward Witten   United States
2009 Polyarthritis   Charles Dinarello   United States Isolation of interleukins, understanding their role in the onset of inflammatory diseases
  Tadamitsu Kishimoto   Japan
  Toshio Hirano   Japan
2010 Geosciences   Walter Munk   United States “for his pioneering and fundamental contributions to our understanding of ocean circulation, tides and waves, and their role in the Earth’s dynamics”.
2011 Biosciences   Ilkka Hanski   Finland “for his pioneering studies on how spatial variation affects the dynamics of animal and plant populations”.
2012 Astronomy Reinhard Genzel   Germany "for their observations of the stars orbiting the galactic centre, indicating the presence of a supermassive black hole".
Andrea M. Ghez   United States
Mathematics Jean Bourgain   Belgium “for their brilliant and groundbreaking work in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, ergodic theory, number theory, combinatorics, functional analysis and theoretical computer science".
  Terence Tao   Australia
  United States
2013 Polyarthritis   Peter K. Gregersen   United States "for their discoveries concerning the role of different genetic factors and their interactions with environmental factors in the pathogenesis, diagnosis and clinical management of rheumatoid arthritis". [4][5]
  Lars Klareskog   Sweden
  Robert J. Winchester   United States
2014 Geosciences Peter Molnar   United States "for his ground-breaking contribution to the understanding of global tectonics, in particular the deformation of continents and the structure and evolution of mountain ranges, as well as the impact of tectonic processes on ocean-atmosphere circulation and climate". [4][6]
2015 Biosciences Richard Lewontin   United States "for their pioneering analyses and fundamental contributions to the understanding of genetic polymorphism". [4][7]
Tomoko Ohta   Japan
2016 Astronomy   Roy Kerr   New Zealand "for fundamental work concerning rotating black holes and their astrophysical consequences" [8][9]
  Roger Blandford   United States
Mathematics   Yakov Eliashberg   United States[F] "for the development of contact and symplectic topology and groundbreaking discoveries of rigidity and flexibility phenomena"
2017 Polyarthritis   Shimon Sakaguchi   Japan "for their discoveries relating to regulatory T cells, which counteract harmful immune reactions in arthritis and other autoimmune diseases." [10]
Fred Ramsdell   United States
  Alexander Rudensky   United States[G]
2018 Geosciences Syukuro Manabe   Japan /   United States "for fundamental contributions to understanding the role of atmospheric trace gases in Earth’s climate system." [11]
Susan Solomon   United States
2019 Biosciences Sallie W. Chisholm   United States "for the discovery and pioneering studies of the most abundant photosynthesising organism on Earth, Prochlorococcus". [12]
2020 Astronomy   Eugene Parker   United States "for pioneering and fundamental studies of the solar wind and magnetic fields from stellar to galactic scales". [13]
Mathematics   Enrico Bombieri   Italy /   United States "for outstanding and influential contributions in all the major areas of mathematics, particularly number theory, analysis and algebraic geometry".
2021 Polyarthritis   Daniel L. Kastner   United States "for establishing the concept of autoinflammatory diseases". [14]

Crafoord Prize Media

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "About the prize". The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 3 July 2009.
  2. "King of Sweden awards Crafoord Prize to IC researchers". Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. 4 October 2000. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
  3. "The Crafoord Prize 1982–2009" (PDF). The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 February 2010. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 "The Crafoord Prize 1982–2014" (PDF). The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 January 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  5. Wollheim, Frank A. (22 August 2013). "The Crafoord Prize in polyarthritis 2013" (PDF). Rheumatology. 53 (4): 581–582. doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ket285. PMID 23970543. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  6. "Peter Molnar wins Crafoord Prize in Geosciences". Royal Astronomical Society. 17 January 2014. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  7. Lane, Isabel (19 January 2015). "Crafoord Prize in Biosciences goes to genetic polymorphism research". Biofuels Digest. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  8. "NZ astrophysicist awarded $1m prize". Sky News Australia. 15 January 2016. Archived from the original on 18 January 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  9. "Yakov Eliashberg awarded the Crafoord Prize in Mathematics". Stanford University. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  10. Crafoord Prize 2017 Archived 18 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  11. Crafoord Prize 2018
  12. Crafoord Prize 2019
  13. Crafoord Prize 2020
  14. "The Crafoord Prize in Polyarthritis 2021". Crafoord Prize. Retrieved 1 February 2021.