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Kavli Prizes Carry Handsome Reward

New awards will honor nanoscience, neuroscience, and astrophysics

by Bethany Halford
May 5, 2005 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 83, Issue 19

Kavli
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Credit: COURTESY OF KAVLI FOUNDATION
Credit: COURTESY OF KAVLI FOUNDATION

Scientists will soon have a shot at a new $1 million prize, thanks to physicist-turned-businessman-turned-philanthropist Fred Kavli.

Beginning in 2008, the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Kavli Foundation will biennially award three Kavli Prizes of $1 million each to scientists working in the foundation’s scientific focus areas—nanoscience, neuroscience, and astrophysics. The foundation has already set up Kavli research institutes at 10 major universities and created six endowed professorships dedicated to these fields.

Kavli, who established the foundation in 2000 and currently serves as its chairman, says the prizes are intended to “reward scientists who often make significant contributions to society yet spend their entire careers in obscurity.” During this week’s formal announcement of the new honors in Oslo, Norway, Kavli told reporters that he thinks the Kavli Prizes have the potential to be “more daring” than the Nobel Prizes. While the Nobels are arguably science’s most coveted honor, they are often awarded to scientists decades after their breakthrough research. Kavli believes that his awards would recognize more current scientific advancements.

“I’m hopeful the Kavli Prizes will help to bring science and scientists a little bit of recognition and attention,” Kavli says. “After all, look at what a great job the Nobel Prizes have done in educating people.”

Like Nobel Laureates, winners of the Kavli Prize will claim their awards at a ceremony in Scandinavia. The new prize, however, will be awarded in Kavli’s native Norway, rather than Sweden, where the scientific Nobels are presented. Recipients will be determined by an international panel of distinguished scientists and administered by Norway’s Academy of Science & Letters, Ministry of Education & Research, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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