The Descartes-Huygens Prize is an yearly scientific prize created in 1995 by the French and the Dutch governments, and attributed to two scientists of international level, a French one chosen by the

Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

and a Dutch one chosen by the

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...

, to reward their work and their contributions to the French-Dutch cooperation. The prize is named in memory of French scientist

René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathem ...

(1596–1650) and Dutch scientist

Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , , ; also spelled Huyghens; la, Hugenius; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor, who is regarded as one of the greatest scientists of ...

(1629–1695), who spent several years working in each other's country.

Attribution of the prize

The prize consists of an amount of 46000 euros (€23000 for each recipient), contributed by the KNAW, the French Embassy in the Netherlands and the French Minister of Higher Education and Research. It is intended to finance one or more research visits in the Netherlands or in France. It is attributed by juries presided by one of the participating Academies (

and

Académie des sciences morales et politiques An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...

), alternating between the following disciplines: natural sciences, life sciences, human and social sciences.

List of the Dutch laureates

* 1995 - Jook Walraven, physicist * 1996 - H. Pannekoek * 1997 - Olga Weijers, literary scholar * 1998 -

Wim van Saarloos Wim van Saarloos is a Dutch physicist, academic and researcher. He is a Professor of Theoretical Physics at Leiden University (emeritus since July 2021) Van Saarloos has written over 280 papers and has been cited over 12000 times. His research i ...

, physicist * 1999 - Jan Hoeijmakers, geneticist * 2000 - Theo Verbeek, philosopher * 2001 - Pieter Timotheus (Tim) de Zeeuw, astronomer * 2002 - Harry Struijker-Boudier, pharmacologist * 2003 - ''not assigned to Dutch scientist'' * 2004 - , historian * 2005 - Anne-Jans Faber, physicist * 2006 -

Albert Heck Albert J.R. Heck (born 25 November 1964) is a Dutch scientist and professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands in the field of mass spectrometry and proteomics. He is known for his work on technologies to study proteins in their natural envir ...

, chemist * 2007 - Pim den Boer, historian * 2008 - Stefan Vandoren, physicist * 2009 - Arthur Wilde, cardiovascular researcher * 2010 - , historian * 2011 -

Ieke Moerdijk Izak (Ieke) Moerdijk (; born 23 January 1958) is a Dutch mathematician, currently working at Utrecht University, who in 2012 won the Spinoza prize. Education and career Moerdijk studied mathematics, philosophy and general linguistics at the Uni ...

, mathematician * 2012 - Harry Heijnen, cell biologist * 2013 -

Caroline van Eck Caroline Alexandra van Eck (born 22 July 1959) is a Dutch art historian and academic, specialising in the art and architecture of the early modern period. Since 2016, she has been Professor of Art History at the University of Cambridge and a Fel ...

, art historian * 2014 - Willem Vos, physicist * 2015 - Joost Gribnau, epigeneticist * 2016 - Louis Sicking, historian * 2017 - Daniël Vanmaekelbergh, material scientist * 2018 - Katell Lavéant, literary scholar * 2019 - , astronomer *2020 - Rampal Etienne, evolutionary ecologist * 2021 - Maike Hansen, biophysician

List of the French laureates

* 1995 -

Michel Devoret Michel Devoret is a French physicist and F. W. Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics at Yale University. He also holds a position as the Director of the Applied Physics Nanofabrication Lab at Yale. He is known for his pioneering work on macroscopi ...

, physicist * 1996 - Denis Escande * 1997 -

Robert Muchembled Robert Muchembled (born 4 March 1944) is a French historian. In 1967, he passed the Agrégation in history. In 1985 he was awarded a doctorate for his thesis on attitudes to violence and society in Artois between 1440 and 1600. In 1986 he became ...

, historian * 1998 -

Philippe Sautet Philippe Sautet (born 8 May 1961 in Salon-de-Provence, France) is a French chemist. He was elected to the French Academy of sciences on 30 November 2010. He was a research director at the CNRS and works in the chemistry laboratory of the École ...

, chemist * 1999 - Philippe Devaux * 2000 - Virginie Guiraudon, political scientist * 2001 -

Bernard Meunier Bernard Meunier (born 11 March 1947) is a French chemist and academic. He has been a member of the Académie des sciences since 1999. Career After a doctorate at the University of Montpellier in November 1971 under the supervision of Robert Cor ...

, chemist * 2002 - , biologist * 2003 - Hamida Demirdache, linguist * 2004 -

Marie-Paule Pileni Marie-Paule Pileni is a French physical chemist who was born in Tananarive, Madagascar. She is an Emeritus Professor at Sorbonne University and a Senior Member, since 1999, and administrator (2004–2011) of the Institut Universitaire de France. ...

, physical chemist * 2005 - ''not assigned to French scientist'' * 2006 - Hubert Vaudry, endocrinologist * 2007 - Catherine Secretan, philosopher * 2008 -

Pierre Braunstein Pierre Braunstein (born 4 October 1947) is a French chemist. He was director of the Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination ( Coordination Chemistry Laboratory, CNRS-Université de Strasbourg) of Strasbourg (France) and is a member of the French Aca ...

, chemist * 2009 - Marc Humbert, pulmonary researcher * 2010 -

François Héran François Héran is a French anthropologist and demographic sociologist. Born on May 18, 1953, in the town of Laon, Héran is a specialist on multilingualism. He has notably worked on such varied topics as: the so-called "sociability" of the F ...

, social demographer * 2011 - François Hammer, astronomer * 2012 - , biologist * 2013 - Bénédicte Fauvarque-Cosson, jurist * 2014 -

Ludwik Leibler Ludwik Leibler, born in 1952 is a Polish-born French physicist. He is Professor of École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (ESPCI ParisTech) and member of the French Academy of Sciences and National Academy ...

, physicist * 2015 - Benoit Viollet, molecular physiologist * 2016 - Olivier l'Haridon, behavioural economist * 2017 - , physicist * 2018 - Marine Cotte, art conservation researcher * 2019 - Julien Barc, cardiovascular researcher *2020 - Halima Mouhib, physicist * 2021 - Charles-Édouard Levillain, historian{{cite web, last=Monnier, first=Par Eva, date=2021-12-14, title=Prix Descartes-Huygens : annonce des lauréats 2021, url=https://institutfrancais.nl/prix-descartes-huygens-annonce-des-laureats-2021/, access-date=2022-01-06, website=Institut français des Pays-Bas, language=fr-FR

References

Awards of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Awards of the French Academy of Sciences Dutch science and technology awards French science and technology awards