Crafoord Prize

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The Crafoord Prize
Awarded for	in astronomy and mathematics, biosciences, geosciences or polyarthritis research, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Presented by	Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Country	Sweden
First awarded	1982
Official website

The Crafoord Prize is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord. Administered by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the prize "is intended to promote international basic research in the disciplines of astronomy and mathematics; geosciences; biosciences, with particular emphasis on ecology and polyarthritis (rheumatoid arthritis)" the disease from which Holger Crafoord 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] In polyarthritis, a Crafoord Prize is only awarded when a special committee decides substantial progress in the field has been made.^[1] The recipient of the Crafoord Prize is announced each year in mid-January; on Crafoord Day in April, the prize is presented by the King of Sweden (who also presents the awards at the December Nobel Prize Award Ceremony).^[1][2] The prize sum, which as of 2009 is US$500,000, is intended to fund further research by the prize winner.

The inaugural winners Vladimir Arnold and Louis Nirenberg were cited by the Academy for their work in the field of non-linear differential equations. The most recent recipients, American Charles Dinarello and Japanese Tadamitsu Kishimoto and Toshio Hirano, were presented the award in the category of polyarthritis for their research into the isolation of interleukins. Since its inception in 1982 no women have been awarded the prize.

Contents 1 Winners 2 Footnotes 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Winners

Year	Category	Image	Laureate	Nationality	Citation[3]
1982	Mathematics		Vladimir Arnold	Soviet Union	"... for their outstanding achievements in the theory of non-linear differential equations."
			Louis Nirenberg	United States[A]
1983	Geosciences	—	Edward Lorenz	United States	"... for their fundamental contributions to the field of geophysical hydrodynamics, which in a unique way have contributed to a deeper understanding of the large-scale motions of the atmosphere and the sea."
		—	Henry Stommel	United States
1984	Biosciences		Daniel H. Janzen	United States	"... for his imaginative and stimulating studies on co-evolution which has inspired many researchers to further work in this field."
1985	Astronomy		Lyman Spitzer	United States	"... for his fundamental pioneering studies of practically every aspect of the interstellar medium, culminating in the results obtained using the Copernicus satellite."
1986	Geosciences	—	Claude Allègre	France	"... for their pioneering studies of isotope geochemical relations and the geological interpretations that these results permit."
		—	Gerald J. Wasserburg	United States
1987	Biosciences	—	Eugene P. Odum	United States	"... for their pioneering contributions within the field of ecosystem ecology."
		—	Howard T. Odum	United States
1988	Mathematics		Pierre Deligne	Belgium	"... for their fundamental research in algebraic geometry."
			Alexander Grothendieck[B]	France
1989	Geosciences		James Van Allen	United States	"... for his pioneering exploration of space, in particular the discovery of the energetic particles trapped in the geomagnetic field which forms the radiation belts – the Van Allen belts – around our planet Earth."
1990	Biosciences	—	Paul Ralph Ehrlich	United States	"... for his research on the dynamics and genetics of fragmented populations and the importance of the distribution pattern for their survival probabilities.
			Edward Osborne Wilson	United States	for the theory of island biogeography and other research on species diversity and community dynamics on islands and in other habitats with differing degrees of isolation."
1991	Astronomy	—	Allan Rex Sandage	United States	"... for his very important contributions to the study of galaxies, their populations of stars, clusters and nebulae, their evolution, the velocity-distance relation (or Hubble relation), and its evolution over time."
1992	Geosciences	—	Adolf Seilacher	Germany	"... for his innovative research concerning the evolution of life in interaction with the environment as documented in the geological record."
1993	Biosciences	—	W. D. Hamilton	United Kingdom	"... for his theories concerning kin selection and genetic relationship as a prerequisite for the evolution of altruistic behavior."
			Seymour Benzer	United States	"... for his pioneering genetical and neurophysiological studies on behavioural mutants in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster."
1994	Mathematics	—	Simon Donaldson	United Kingdom	"... for his fundamental investigations in four-dimensional geometry through application of instantons, in particular his discovery of new differential invariants."
			Shing-Tung Yau	United States[C]	"... for his development of non-linear techniques in differential geometry leading to the solution of several outstanding problems."
1995	Geosciences	—	Willi Dansgaard	Denmark	"... for their fundamental work on developing and applying isotope geological analysis methods for the study of climatic variations during the Quaternary period."
			Nicholas Shackleton	United Kingdom
1996	Biosciences	—	Robert M. May	United Kingdom	"... for his pioneering ecological research concerning theoretical analysis of the dynamics of populations, communities and ecosystems."
1997	Astronomy	—	Fred Hoyle	United Kingdom	"... for their pioneering contributions to the study of nuclear processes in stars and stellar evolution."
		—	Edwin Salpeter	United States
1998	Geosciences	—	Don L. Anderson	United States	"... for their fundamental contributions to our knowledge of the structures and processes in the interior of the Earth."
		—	Adam M. Dziewonski	United States[D]
1999	Biosciences		Ernst Mayr	United States	"... for their fundamental contributions to the conceptual development of evolutionary biology."
		—	John Maynard Smith	United Kingdom
		—	George C. Williams	United States
2000	Polyarthritis	—	Marc Feldmann	United Kingdom	"... for their definition of TNF-alpha as a therapeutic target in rheumatoid arthritis."
		—	Ravinder N. Maini	United Kingdom
2001	Mathematics		Alain Connes	France	"... for his penetrating work on the theory of operator algebras and for having been a founder of the non-commutative geometry."
2002	Geosciences	—	Dan P. McKenzie	United Kingdom	"... for fundamental contributions to the understanding of the Dynamics of the Lithosphere, particularly Plate Tectonics, Sedimentary Basin Formation and Mantle Melting."
2003	Biosciences	—	Carl Woese	United States	"... for his discovery of a third domain of life."
2004	Polyarthritis	—	Eugene C. Butcher	United States	"... for their studies of the molecular mechanisms involved in migration of white blood cells in health and disease."
		—	Timothy A. Springer	United States
2005	Astronomy	—	James E. Gunn	United States	"... for contributions towards understanding the large-scale structure of the Universe."
		—	James Peebles	United States
			Martin Rees	United Kingdom
2006	Geosciences	—	Wallace S. Broecker	United States	"... for his innovative and pioneering research on the operation of the global carbon cycle within the ocean – atmosphere – biosphere system, and its interaction with climate."
2007	Biosciences	—	Robert Trivers	United States	"... for his fundamental analysis of social evolution, conflict and cooperation."
2008	Astronomy	—	Rashid Alievich Sunyaev	Russia	"... for his decisive contributions to high-energy astrophysics and cosmology, in particular processes and dynamics around black holes and neutron stars and demonstration of the diagnostic power of structures in the background radiation."
	Mathematics		Maxim Kontsevich	France[E]	"... for their important contributions to mathematics inspired by modern theoretical physics."
			Edward Witten	United States
2009	Polyarthritis	—	Charles Dinarello	United States	"... for their pioneering work to isolate interleukins, determine their properties and explore their role in the onset of inflammatory diseases."
		—	Tadamitsu Kishimoto	Japan
		—	Toshio Hirano	Japan

[edit] Footnotes

A. ^a  Nirenberg was born in Canada.^[4]

B. ^b  Grothendieck declined his prize.^[5]

C. ^c  Shing-Tung Yau was born in China.^[6]

D. ^d  Dziewonski was born in Poland.^[7]

E. ^e  Kontsevich was born in Russia.^[8]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Crafoord Prize - official website