BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, Premios Fundación BBVA Fronteras del Conocimiento, in Spanish, are an international award scheme recognizing significant contributions in the areas of scientific research and cultural creation. The categories that make up the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards respond to the knowledge map of the present age. As well as the fundamental knowledge that is at their core, they address developments in information and communication technologies, interactions between biology and medicine, ecology and conservation biology, climate change, economics, development cooperation and, finally, contemporary musical creation and performance. Specific categories are reserved for developing knowledge fields of critical relevance, as in the case of the two environmental awards. Accolades in the environment area and development cooperation, two central challenges of the 21st century, may go to either research or practical actions and programs founded on the best available knowledge.

The awards were established in 2008, with the first set of winners receiving their prizes in 2009. The BBVA Foundation – belonging to financial group BBVA – is partnered in the scheme by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the country’s premier public research organization.

In their six editions, as many as four winners of BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards have gone on to win the Nobel Prize. They are: Robert J. Lefkowitz, 2009 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Laureate in Biomedicine and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2012; Shinya Yamanaka, 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Laureate in Biomedicine and Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine 2012; Lars Peter Hansen, 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Laureate in Economics, Finance and Management, and 2013 Nobel Laureate in Economics, and Jean Tirole, 2008 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Laureate in Economics, Finance and Management and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics 2014.

Categories

There are 8 award categories: Basic science, Biomedicine, Ecology and Conservation Biology, Information and Communication Technologies, Economy, Finance and Management, Contemporary Music, Climate Change, and Development cooperation. Specific categories are reserved for developing knowledge fields of critical relevance, as in the case of the two environmental awards. Accolades in the environment area and development cooperation, two central challenges of the 21st century, may go to either research or practical actions and programs founded on the best available knowledge.

Juries

Eight juries, one for each category, analyze the nominations put forward by eminent international academic and research institutions. Jury chairs in the latest sixth (2013) award edition were:

In Basic Sciences, Theodor W. Hänsch, Director of the Division of Laser Spectroscopy at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, and holder of a Nobel Prize in Physics.

In Biomedicine, Angelika Schnieke, Chair of Livestock Technology in the Technische Universität München (TUM).

In Ecology and Conservation Biology, Daniel Pauly, Professor in the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre.

In Information and Communication Technologies, George Gottlob, Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford.

In Economics, Finance and Management, Kenneth J. Arrow, Emeritus Professor of Economics and of Operations Research at Stanford University, and holder of a Nobel Prize in Economics.

In Contemporary Music, Philippe Albèra, Director of Contrechamps Éditions.

In Climate Change, Bjorn Stevens, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology.

In Development Cooperation, Pedro L. Alonso, Director of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).

Award decision

To reach their decision, the juries meet during January and February in the Marqués de Salamanca Palace, Madrid headquarters of the BBVA Foundation. The day after the jury’s decision, the name of the winners(s) and the achievements that earned them the award are revealed at an announcement event in the same location.

Ceremony

The awards are presented in June each year at a ceremony held in the Marqués de Salamanca Palace, Madrid headquarters of the BBVA Foundation, and attended by representatives of Spain’s scientific and cultural communities.

BBVA Foundation

The BBVA Foundation engages in the promotion of research, advanced training and the transmission of knowledge to society, focusing on the emerging issues of the 21st century in five areas: Environment, Biomedicine and Health, Economy and Society, Basic Sciences and Technology, and Arts and Humanities. The BBVA Foundation designs, develops and finances research projects in these areas; facilitates advanced specialist training through grants, courses, seminars and workshops; organizes award schemes for researchers and professionals whose work has contributed significantly to the advancement of knowledge; and communicates and disseminates such new knowledge through publications, databases, lecture series, debates, exhibitions and audiovisual and electronic media.

Prizes

Each BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge laureate receives a commemorative artwork, a diploma and a cash prize of 400,000 euros per category. Awards may not be granted posthumously, and when an award is shared, its monetary amount is divided equally among the recipients.

The commemorative artwork is created by Madrid sculptor Blanca Muñoz, B.A. in Fine Arts from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Holder of scholarships at Calcografia Nazionale (1989), awarded by the Italian Government, at the Spanish Royal Academy in Rome (1990), and in Mexico City (1992), awarded by the Mexican Department of Foreign Affairs, her numerous distinctions include the 1999 National Print Prize.

Laureates

Year	Laureate	Nationality	Category	Nobelprize
2008	Ignacio Cirac Peter Zoller	Spain Austria	Basic Sciences
2008	Joan Massagué	Spain	Biomedicine
2008	Thomas Lovejoy William Laurance	United States United States	Ecology and Conservation Biology
2008	Jacob Ziv	Israel	Information and Communication Technologies
2008	Jean Tirole	France	Economy, Finance and Management	Economics 2014
2008	Steven Holl	United States	Arts
2008	Wallace S. Broecker	United States	Climate Change
2008	Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab	United States	Development Cooperation
2009	Richard Zare Michael Fisher	United States United Kingdom	Basic Sciences
2009	Robert Lefkowitz	United States	Biomedicine	Chemistry 2012
2009	Peter B. Reich	United States	Ecology and Conservation Biology
2009	Thomas Kailath	United States	Information and Communication Technologies
2009	Andreu Mas-Colell Hugo F. Sonnenschein	Spain United States	Economy, Finance and Management
2009	Cristóbal Halffter	Spain	Contemporary Music
2009	Klaus Hasselmann	Germany	Climate Change
2009	Development Research Institute	United States	Development Cooperation
2010	Gabor A. Somorjai	United States	Basic Sciences
2010	Shinya Yamanaka	Japan	Biomedicine	Physiology 2012
2010	Edward Osborne Wilson	United States	Ecology and Conservation Biology
2010	Donald Knuth	United States	Information and Communication Technologies
2010	Lars Peter Hansen	United States	Economy, Finance and Management	Economics 2013
2010	Helmut Lachenmann	Germany	Contemporary Music
2010	Nicholas Stern	United Kingdom	Climate Change
2010	International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)	Finland	Development Cooperation
2011	Michel Mayor	Switzerland	Basic Sciences
2011	Didier Queloz	Switzerland	Basic Sciences
2011	Alexander Varshavsky	United States	Biomedicine
2011	Daniel H. Janzen	United States	Ecology and Conservation Biology
2011	Carver Mead	United States	Information and Communication Technologies
2011	Angus Deaton	United Kingdom	Economy, Finance and Management
2011	Salvatore Sciarrino	Italy	Contemporary Music
2011	Isaac Held	United States	Climate Change
2011	Ciro de Quadros	Brazil	Development Cooperation
2012	Ingrid Daubechies	Belgium	Basic Sciences
2012	David Mumford	United Kingdom	Basic Sciences
2012	Douglas Coleman	Canada	Biomedicine
2012	Jeffrey Friedman	United States	Biomedicine
2012	Jane Lubchenco	United States	Ecology and Conservation Biology
2012	Lotfi A. Zadeh	Azerbaijan	Information and Communication Technologies
2012	Paul Milgrom	United States	Economy, Finance and Management
2012	Pierre Boulez	France	Contemporary Music
2012	Susan Solomon	United States	Climate Change
2012	DNDi	Switzerland	Development Cooperation
2013	Maximilian Haider	Austria	Basic Sciences
2013	Harald Rose	Germany	Basic Sciences
2013	Knut Urban	Germany	Basic Sciences
2013	Adrian Bird	United Kingdom	Biomedicine
2013	Paul R. Ehrlich	United States	Ecology and Conservation Biology
2013	Marvin Minsky	United States	Information and Communication Technologies
2013	Elhanan Helpman	Israel	Economy, Finance and Management
2013	Steve Reich	United States	Contemporary Music
2013	Christopher Field	United States	Climate Change
2013	Pratham	India	Development Cooperation
2014	Stephen Buchwald	United States	Basic Sciences
2014	Joseph Schlessinger	United States	Biomedicine
2014	Charles Sawyers	United States	Biomedicine
2014	Tony Hunter	United Kingdom	Biomedicine
2014	David Tilman	United States	Ecology and Conservation Biology
2014	Leonard Kleinrock	United States	Information and Communication Technologies
2014	Richard Blundell	United Kingdom	Economy, Finance and Management
2014	David Card	Canada	Economy, Finance and Management
2014	György Kurtág	Hungary	Contemporary Music
2014	Richard Alley	United States	Climate Change
2014	Helen Keller International	United States	Development Cooperation
2015	Stephen Hawking	United Kingdom	Basic Sciences
2015	Viatcheslav Mukhanov	Russia	Basic Sciences
2015	Edward Boyden	United States	Biomedicine
2015	Karl Deisseroth	United States	Biomedicine
2015	Gero Miesenböck	Austria	Biomedicine
2015	Ilkka Hanski	Finland	Ecology and Conservation Biology
2015	Stephen Cook	Canada	Information and Communication Technologies
2015	Georges Aperghis	Greece	Contemporary Music
2015	Veerabhadran Ramanathan	India	Climate Change
2015	Martin Ravallion	Australia	Development Cooperation

External links

• BBVA Foundation