The IQ Award is a prize donated by the high- IQ association Mensa to honor people and organisations who have made remarkable contributions to public welfare by an intelligent idea, scientific research about human intelligence or the positive image of intelligence in the public. Candidates can be nominated by Mensa members and former award winners. After being checked by an internal commission, all Mensa members can vote for which nominee to win the award.

History

The German IQ Award is held annually since 2004. The winners are: * 2004:

Albrecht Beutelspacher Albrecht Beutelspacher (born 5 June 1950) is a German mathematician and founder of the Mathematikum. He is a professor emeritus of the University of Giessen, where he held the chair for geometry and discrete mathematics from 1988 to 2018. Biogr ...

for his Mathematikum * 2005:

Günther Jauch Günther Johannes Jauch (; born 13 July 1956) is a German television presenter, television producer, and journalist. Career Jauch is known for a unique style of informing and entertaining people that is generally considered witty and funny. ...

for his TV show "Der Große IQ-Test" (''The big IQ test'') * 2006: ''

Die Sendung mit der Maus ' (''The Show with the Mouse''), often simply ' (''The Mouse''), is a German children's television series, popular nation-wide for its educational content.Bernhard Borgeest"Von Mäusen und Machern"'' Focus, official website. (March 12, 2001) Ret ...

'', a children's TV series * 2007:

Ranga Yogeshwar Ranganathan Gregoire Yogeshwar (born 18 May 1959) is a Luxembourgish physicist and science journalist based in Germany. He started gaining attention at the end of the 1980s in the German-speaking area for his science documentaries that were oft ...

, a German TV host * 2008: Dieter Nuhr, a comedian * 2009:

Harald Lesch Harald Lesch (born 28 July 1960) is a German physicist, astronomer, natural philosopher, author, television presenter, professor of physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and professor of natural philosophy at the Munich Un ...

, an astrophysicist and TV host * 2010:

Spektrum der Wissenschaft ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

, the German issue of ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

'' Since 2011 the award is issued in the two categories "Wissenschaft/Innovation" (''Science/Innovation'') and "Kultur/Medien" (''Culture/Media''): * 2011: Heatball and

Richard David Precht Richard David Precht (; born 8 December 1964) is a German philosopher and author of successful popular science books about philosophical issues. He hosts the TV show " Precht" on ZDF. He is an honorary professor of philosophy at the Leuphana U ...

* 2012:

Eckart von Hirschhausen Eckart von Hirschhausen (born 25 August 1967) is a German physician, talk show host and comedian. Academic career Born in Frankfurt, von Hirschhausen studied medicine, supported by a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes ( ...

and due to the same number of votes Franz Porzsolt and for

ScienceBlogs ScienceBlogs is an invitation-only blog network and virtual community that operated initially for almost 12 years, from 2006 to 2017. It was created by Seed Media Group to enhance public understanding of science. Each blog had its own theme, spe ...

* 2013: Auticon * 2014:

Jonny Lee Miller Jonathan Lee Miller (born 15 November 1972) is a British film, television and theatre actor. He achieved early success for his portrayal of Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson in the dark comedy-drama film '' Trainspotting'' (1996) and as Dade Murphy i ...

. Initially

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...

had been nominated by Mensa members, and the IQ commission had approved his nomination, the managing board of Mensa revoked Snowden's nomination because "Mensa is not allowed to comment on political issues." Jonny Lee Miller then garnered the most votes and won the award.{{cite web , url=https://www.freitag.de/autoren/felix-werdermann/kein-iq-preis-fuer-edward-snowden , title=Kein IQ-Preis für Edward Snowden (''No IQ Award for Edward Snowden'') , first=Felix , last=Werdermann , work=

der Freitag ''Der Freitag'' (English: ''The Friday'', stylized in its logo as ''der Freitag'') is a German weekly newspaper established in 1990. It is published in Rhenish format. The place of publication is Berlin. Its publisher and editor-in-chief is Jakob ...

, date=21 January 2015 , accessdate=22 January 2015 * 2015: Category 1 (Intelligent contributions to the Greater Good): foodsharing.de, Category 2 (Intelligent Dissemination of Knowledge): Daniele Ganser, Category 3 (Intellectual Giftedness in the Public): Initiative ArbeiterKind. * 2017: Category 1 (Intelligent contributions to the Greater Good): One Dollar Glasses Category 2 (Intelligent Dissemination of Knowledge): ScienceLab

References

Awards established in 2004 Mensa International Humanitarian and service awards