Sep 9 2010
The 2010 Kavli Prize laureates were presented their awards Tuesday by His Majesty King Harald of Norway during a ceremony at the Oslo Concert Hall.
The 90-minute celebration in honor of the laureates also featured addresses by Fred Kavli, founder and chairman of The Kavli Foundation, Nils Christian Stenseth, president of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and the chairs of the committees charged with selecting the prize recipients.
"Today we celebrate the best of science by honoring these esteemed scientists who, with their groundbreaking work, have taken us a step forward on humanity's journey to better understand and utilize nature," said Fred Kavli.
The masters of ceremony were Åse Kleveland, artist and former Minister of culture for Norway, and Alan Alda, actor, director and writer whose long-time support of science has been recognized with the National Science Board's Public Service Award.
The Kavli Prizes recognize scientists for their seminal advances in three research areas: astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience, and are awarded biennially. The 2010 Kavli Prize laureates were chosen for research that has transformed our knowledge of basic units of matter, laid the foundations for the field of nanotechnology, revealed the molecular basis for the transfer of brain signals and other physiological functions, and made possible the building of telescopes that can see deeper into space and further back in time. The laureates are:
2010 KAVLI PRIZE LAUREATES IN ASTROPHYSICS
Citation: "for their contributions to the development of giant telescopes"
* Jerry Earl Nelson - University of California, Santa Cruz, US
* Raymond Neil Wilson - formerly of Imperial College, London, UK and the European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany
* J. Roger P. Angel - Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, US
2010 KAVLI PRIZE LAUREATES IN NANOSCIENCE
Citation: "for their development of unprecedented methods to control matter on the nanoscale"
* Donald M. Eigler - IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, US
* Nadrian C. Seeman - New York University, US
2010 KAVLI PRIZE LAUREATES IN NEUROSCIENCE
Citation: "for discovering the molecular basis of neurotransmitter release"
* Richard H. Scheller - Genentech, US
* Thomas C. Südhof - Stanford University School of Medicine, US
* James E. Rothman - Yale University, US
Each laureate was presented with a gold medal and scroll. Each prize area also included a cash award of one million dollars.
Source: http://www.kavlifoundation.org/