Sumio Iijima Wins Balzan Prize for Nanoscience

Sumio Iijima, a professor at Meijo University, in Nagoya, Japan, is among the winners of the 2007 International Balzan Prize, founded in 1957 to promote culture, the sciences, and the most meritorious initiatives in the cause of humanity, peace, and brotherhood.

The awarded subjects vary each year, making it possible to encourage specific fields of study that are new or not recognized by other international awards.

Iijima earned the Prize for Nanoscience for his discovery of carbon nanotubes and in particular the discovery of single-walled carbon nanotubes and the study of their properties.

He shares the prize with Jules Hoffmann of the French Academy of Sciences and Bruce Beutler of Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., who garnered the Prize for Innate Immunity; Michel Zink of the College of France, who won the Prize for European Literature (1000-1500); Rosalyn Higgins of the International Court of Justice at The Hague, who won the Prize for International Law since 1945; and Karlheinz Böhm, founder of the charity Menschen für Menschen, who won the Prize for Humanity, Peace & Brotherhood among Peoples.

Each winner receives 1 million Swiss francs (approximately $900,000 U.S.). At least half of the award money must be used for further research projects.