NEWS – Kavli Prize 2024 announced

FRED KAVLI

• Birth and Background: Born in Erejsford, Norway, moved to California in 1956 after earning an engineering degree.
• Career: Worked for a company making high-tech sensors for missiles, becoming chief engineer in a year. Founded Kavlico in 1958, a leading manufacturer of pressure sensors.
• Philanthropy: Sold Kavlico in 2000 for $340 million and established the Kavli Foundation to support basic research.

PRIZE SPECIFICS

Comparison with Nobel Prize

• Similarities: Like the Nobel Prize in structure and prestige.
• Differences:
  • Nobel Prizes are awarded for achievements in the preceding year; Kavli Prizes have no such restriction.
  • The Kavli Prize focuses on more expansive fields: the largest (astrophysics), the smallest (nanoscience), and the most complex (neuroscience).

Award Components

• Cash Prize: $1 million per field.
• Additional Items: A scroll and a medal (7 cm in diameter).
• Award Ceremony: More flamboyant than the Nobel, with a red carpet and the Norwegian Royal Family presenting the awards.

Partners

• Kavli Foundation: US-based organization.
• Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters: Co-presenter of the award.
• Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research: Co-presenter of the award.

Selection Process

• Committees: Three independent selection committees, each with five members nominated by global science institutes.
• Institutes Involved: Chinese Academy of Sciences, French Academy of Sciences, Germany’s Max Planck Society, US National Academy of Sciences, UK Royal Society.

2024 KAVLI PRIZE WINNERS

Astrophysics

• Winners: David Charbonneau (Harvard University) and Sara Seager (MIT).
• Contributions:
  • Discoveries of exoplanets and characterization of their atmospheres.
  • Pioneering methods for detecting atomic species in planetary atmospheres and measuring thermal infrared emission.

Nanoscience

• Winners: Robert Langer (MIT), Armand Paul Alivisatos (University of Chicago), Chad Mirkin (Northwestern University).
• Contributions:
  • Langer: Nano-engineering materials for controlled release of therapeutic bio-molecules.
  • Alivisatos: Semiconductor crystals (quantum dots) used in bio-imaging and diagnostic imaging.
  • Mirkin: Concept of spherical nucleic acid (SNA) for gene regulation and immunotherapy.

Neuroscience

• Winners: Nancy Kanwisher (MIT), Winrich Freiwald (Rockefeller University), Doris Tsao (University of California at Berkeley).
• Contributions:
  • Mapping the brain’s facial recognition center.
  • Using functional imaging and recording from individual brain cells to map neural architecture.