Vienna, 2 September 2008. The International Balzan Foundation will announce the winners of this year’s prestigious Balzan prizes on 8 September 2008 in Milan. The foundation will be awarding the prizes in honour of exceptional research in Preventive Medicine, the Science of Climate Change, the Visual Arts Since 1700 and Moral Philosophy. The prizes, which are each worth one million Swiss Francs, are to be presented on 21 November in the presence of Italy’s President, Giorgio Napolitano, during an official ceremony at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome.
The winners of this year’s Balzan prizes will be announced during a press conference held in cooperation with the city of Milan at the Triennale Design Museum at 6 p.m. local time (5 p.m. GMT) on 8 September 2008 (media representatives will be informed ahead of the conference at 12.30 p.m. local time (11.30 a.m. GMT)). The announcement will be made by the Chairman of the General Prize Committee, historian and former ambassador, Sergio Romano. As is the case every year, two prizes will be awarded in the field of natural sciences and two in the field of social sciences and art. This year, the International Balzan Foundation is focusing on the subject areas of Preventive Medicine (including vaccination), the Science of Climate Change, the Visual Arts Since 1700 and Moral Philosophy.
Once the winners have been announced, committee members will explain why they have been selected to win a prize. A closing speech by Sir Peter Hall will mark the end of the press conference. Sir Peter Hall won a Balzan prize in 2005 for his research into the Social and Cultural History of Cities Since the Beginning of the 16th Century.
The official 2008 awards ceremony for the Balzan prizes will take place on 21 November at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome.
ABOUT the International Balzan Foundation:
Each year, the International Balzan Foundation awards four science prizes – two for humanities, social sciences and art, and two for physics, mathematics, natural sciences and medicine. Unlike the Nobel Prize committee, the International Balzan Foundation prize committee picks new award topics each year, so as to raise the profile of research areas that would otherwise receive little attention. As well as the science prizes, the foundation also awards a separate special prize for humanity and peace every three to five years, most recently in 2007. The Foundation also promotes interdisciplinary debate between science and the humanities by organising Symposia where holders of Balzan prizes debate key issues in science and culture. The foundation is a worldwide organisation and has two branches – the Balzan “Prize” Foundation in Milan and the Balzan “Fund” Foundation in Zurich. The Balzan Foundation was set up in 1957 by Angela Lina Balzan in memory of her father Eugenio Balzan, who was a co-owner of the Italian daily “Corriere della Sera” and who moved to Switzerland in 1933.
For further information visit: www.balzan.org
Press contact:
PR&D – Public Relations for Research & Education
Campus Vienna Biocenter 2
1030 Vienna
Austria
T +43 / 1 / 505 70 44
E [email protected]
W http://www.prd.at
