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Crafoord Prize 

The annual Crafoord Prize is a 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). In polyarthritis, a Crafoord Prize is only awarded when a special committee decides substantial progress in the field has been made.

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). The prize sum of US$ 500,000 (2007) is intended to fund further research by the prize winner.

Since 1982 no women have been awarded the prize.[1]


Contents

List of the Crafoord Prize winners:

Year Category Laureates Nationality Citation
1982 Mathematics Vladimir Arnold
Louis Nirenberg		 Soviet Union;
Canada /United States		 for their outstanding achievements in the theory of non-linear differential equations.
1983 Geosciences Edward Lorenz
Henry Stommel		 United States
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.
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
Gerald J. Wasserburg		 France
United States		 for their pioneering studies of isotope geochemical relations and the geological interpretations that these results permit.
1987 Biosciences Eugene P. Odum
Howard T. Odum		 United States
United States		 for their pioneering contributions within the field of ecosystem ecology.
1988 Mathematics Pierre Deligne
Alexander Grothendieck 1		 Belgium
France		 for their fundamental research in algebraic geometry.
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 William D. Hamilton Great Britain 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 Great Britain for his fundamental investigations in four-dimensional geometry through application of instantons, in particular his discovery of new differential invariants.
Shing-Tung Yau China / United States for his development of non-linear techniques in differential geometry leading to the solution of several outstanding problems.
1995 Geosciences Willi Dansgaard
Nicholas Shackleton		 Denmark
Great Britain		 for their fundamental work on developing and applying isotope geological analysis methods for the study of climatic variations during the Quaternary period.
1996 Biosciences Robert M. May Great Britain for his pioneering ecological research concerning theoretical analysis of the dynamics of populations, communities and ecosystems.
1997 Astronomy Fred Hoyle
Edwin Salpeter		 Great Britain
United States		 for their pioneering contributions to the study of nuclear processes in stars and stellar evolution.
1998 Geosciences Don L. Anderson
Adam M. Dziewonski		 United States;
Poland /United States		 for their fundamental contributions to our knowledge of the structures and processes in the interior of the Earth.
1999 Biosciences Ernst Mayr
John Maynard Smith
George C. Williams		 United States
Great Britain
United States		 for their fundamental contributions to the conceptual development of evolutionary biology.
2000 Polyarthritis Marc Feldmann
Ravinder N. Maini		 Great Britain
Great Britain		 for their definition of TNF-alpha as a therapeutic target in rheumatoid arthritis.
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 Great Britain 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
Timothy A. Springer		 United States
United States		 for their studies of the molecular mechanisms involved in migration of white blood cells in health and disease.
2005 Astronomy James E. Gunn
James Peebles
Martin Rees		 United States
United States
Great Britain		 for contributions towards understanding the large-scale structure of the Universe.
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
Edward Witten		 Russia / France;
United States		 for their important contributions to mathematics inspired by modern theoretical physics


1 Award declined

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b See official website.

External links
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