The Marcel Benoist Prize, offered by the Marcel Benoist Foundation, is a monetary prize that has been offered annually since 1920 to a

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

nationality or residency who has made the most useful scientific discovery. Emphasis is placed on those discoveries affecting human life. Since 1997, candidates in the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

have also been eligible for the prize. The Marcel Benoist Foundation was established by the will of the French lawyer Marcel Benoist, a wartime resident of

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

, who died in 1918. It is managed by a group of trustees comprising the Swiss interior minister and heads of the main Swiss universities. It is often dubbed the "Swiss Nobel Prize."

History

The first award was given to immunologist Maurice Arthus (1862–1945) at the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...

. Other winners have included

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...

Niklaus Wirth Niklaus Emil Wirth (born 15 February 1934) is a Swiss computer scientist. He has designed several programming languages, including Pascal (programming language), Pascal, and pioneered several classic topics in software engineering. In 1984, he w ...

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

Michel Mayor Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor (; born 12 January 1942) is a Swiss astrophysicist and professor emeritus at the University of Geneva's Department of Astronomy. He formally retired in 2007, but remains active as a researcher at the Observatory o ...

, and cardiologist

Max Holzmann Max Holzmann (31 March 1899 – 27 January 1994) was a Swiss cardiology, cardiologist. Early life Max Holzmann was born on 31 March 1899 in Zurich, the son of physician Moritz Holzmann and Anna Helena Lerch. Holzmann took a degree in medici ...

. , eleven Marcel Benoist winners have later also won the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

: Paul Karrer, Leopold Ruzicka, Walter R. Hess, Tadeus Reichstein, Vladimir Prelog, Niels Kaj Jerne, Johannes G. Bednorz, Karl. Alexander Müller, Richard R. Ernst, Kurz Wüthrich, and Michel Mayor. In 2009, Françoise Gisou van der Goot (

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

) was the first woman to win the Marcel Benoist Prize.

Laureates

* 1920: Maurice Arthus * 1921: Conrad Brunner * 1922:

Paul Karrer Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

* 1923:

Albert Heim Albert Heim (12 April 184931 August 1937) was a Swiss geologist, noted for his three-volume ''Geologie der Schweiz''. Born in Zürich, he was educated at Zürich and Berlin universities. Very early in life he became interested in the physical fe ...

* 1924:

Heinrich Zangger Heinrich Zangger (born 6 December 1874, Bubikon – 15 March 1957, Zürich) was a Swiss toxicologist and coroner. He was one of the "foremost forensic scientists of his generation". Biography Zangger was the son of a prosperous farmer and studied ...

* 1925: Alfred Gysi * 1926: Emile Argand * 1927:

Hermann Sahli Hermann Sahli (May 23, 1856 – April 28, 1933) was a Swiss internist who was a native of Bern. In 1878 he earned his doctorate from the University of Bern, and subsequently became an assistant to Ludwig Lichtheim (1845–1915) in Bern. Afte ...

* 1928:

Jules Gonin Jules Gonin (10 August 1870 – May 1935) was a professor of ophthalmology in Lausanne who pioneered the procedure of ignipuncture, the first successful surgery for the treatment of retinal detachments. Early life Jules grew in a family with cul ...

* 1929:

Paul Niggli Paul Niggli (26 June 1888 – 13 January 1953) was a Swiss crystallographer, mineralogist, and petrologist who was a leader in the field of X-ray crystallography. Education and career Niggli was born in Zofingen and studied at the Swiss Fed ...

* 1930: Aloys Müller * 1931: Walter R. Hess * 1932:

Maurice Lugeon Maurice Lugeon FRS(For) HFRSE FGS (10 July 1870 – 23 October 1953) was a Swiss geologist, and the pioneer of nappe tectonics. He was a pupil of Eugène Renevier. Named for Maurice Lugeon, the lugeon is a measure of transmissivity in rocks ...

* 1933: Robert Doerr * 1934:

Max Askanazy Max Askanazy (24 February 1865, Stallupönen, East Prussia – 23 October 1940, Geneva, Switzerland) was a German-Swiss pathologist. In 1890 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Königsberg, where he worked for several years ...

* 1935: Jakob Eugster * 1936: Alfredo Vannotti * 1937: Charles Dhéré * 1938:

Leopold Ruzicka Leopold may refer to: People * Leopold (given name) * Leopold (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons'' * Leopold Bloom, the protagonist o ...

* 1939: Fritz Baltzer * 1940: Friedrich T. Wahlen * 1941: Hermann Mooser * 1942: Arthur Stoll * 1943:

Paul Scherrer Paul Hermann Scherrer (3 February 1890 – 25 September 1969) was a Swiss physicist. Born in St. Gallen, Switzerland, he studied at Göttingen, Germany, before becoming a lecturer there. Later, Scherrer became head of the Department of Physics ...

* 1944: * 1945:

Ernst Albert Gäumann Ernst Albert Gäumann (6 October 1893 – 5 December 1963) was a Swiss botanist and mycologist. Born in Lyss, Canton of Bern, he obtained his early education in Biel, where he experienced both German and French languages and cultures. Studying wi ...

* 1946: Alexander von Muralt * 1947:

Tadeus Reichstein Tadeusz Reichstein (20 July 1897 – 1 August 1996) was a Polish-Swiss chemist and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate (1950), which was awarded for his work on the isolation of cortisone. Early life Reichstein was born into a Po ...

* 1948: Hans E. Walther * 1949: Albert Frey-Wyssling * 1950: Emile Guyénot * 1951: Anton Fonio * 1952: Otto Gsell * 1953: Alfred Fleisch * 1954: Ernst Hadorn * 1955:

* 1956: Siegfried Rosin * 1957: Jakob Seiler * 1958:

Klaus Clusius Klaus Paul Alfred Clusius (19 March 1903 – 28 May 1963) was a German physical chemist from Breslau (Wrocław), Silesia. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club; he worked on isotope s ...

* 1959: Albert Wettstein * 1960: Pierre Duchosal * 1961: Werner Kuhn * 1962: Alfred Hässig * 1963:

Gerold Schwarzenbach Gerold Karl Schwarzenbach (15 March 1904 – 20 May 1978) was a Swiss chemist. Schwarzenbach was born and grew up in Horgen, Switzerland. He studied chemistry at the ETH Zurich and graduated in 1928 with his dissertation ''Studien über die Salz ...

* 1964:

Vladimir Prelog Vladimir Prelog (23 July 1906 – 7 January 1998) was a Croatian-Swiss organic chemist who received the 1975 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions. Prelog was born and grew up in ...

* 1965:

Georges de Rham Georges de Rham (; 10 September 1903 – 9 October 1990) was a Swiss mathematician, known for his contributions to differential topology. Biography Georges de Rham was born on 10 September 1903 in Roche, a small village in the canton of Vaud in ...

* 1966: Edouard Kellenberger and Alfred Tissières * 1967: Kurt Mühlethaler and Hans J. Moor * 1968: Michel Dolivo * 1969:

Walter Heitler Walter Heinrich Heitler (; 2 January 1904 – 15 November 1981) was a German physicist who made contributions to quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory. He brought chemistry under quantum mechanics through his theory of valence bond ...

* 1970:

Charles Weissmann Charles Weissmann (born 14 October 1931) is a Hungarian-Swiss molecular biologist. Weissmann is particularly known for the first cloning and expression of interferon and his contributions to the unraveling of the molecular genetics of neurogener ...

* 1971: Manfred Bleuler * 1972:

Albert Eschenmoser Albert Jakob Eschenmoser (born 5 August 1925) is a Swiss organic chemist, best known for his work on the synthesis of complex heterocyclic natural compounds, most notably vitamin B12. In addition to his significant contributions to the field of ...

* 1973: Lucien Girardier, Eric Jéquier and Georges Spinnler * 1974: Ewald Weibel * 1975: M. Gazi Yasargil * 1976: Theodor K. Brunner, Jean Charles Cerottini and

Jean Lindenmann Jean Lindenmann (September 18, 1924 – January 15, 2015) was a Swiss virologist and immunologist. Lindenmann, together with his colleague, the British virologist Alick Isaacs, co-discovered and identified interferon in 1957 through their resea ...

* 1977: Hans Günthard and

Edgar Heilbronner Edgar Heilbronner (13 May 1921 – 28 August 2006) was a Swiss German chemist. In 1964 he published the concept of Möbius cyclic annulenes, but the first Möbius aromatic was not synthesized until 2003.On Molecular Orbital Correlation Di ...

* 1978:

Niels Kaj Jerne Niels Kaj Jerne, FRS (23 December 1911 – 7 October 1994) was a Danish immunologist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Georges J. F. Köhler and César Milstein "for theories concerning the specificity in dev ...

* 1979:

Michel Cuénod Michel may refer to: * Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name) * Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers) * Míchel (footballer, born 1963), ...

* 1980: Hans Kummer * 1981: Karl Illmensee * 1982: Franz Fankhauser * 1983: Hans R. Brunner * 1984: Harald Reuter * 1985:

Richard R. Ernst Richard Robert Ernst (14 August 1933 – 4 June 2021) was a Swiss physical chemist and Nobel Laureate. Ernst was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991 for his contributions towards the development of Fourier transform nuclear magnetic re ...

* 1986: Johannes G. Bednorz and

Karl Alexander Müller Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...

* 1987: Maurice E. Müller, Martin Allgöwer and Hans R. Willenegger * 1988: Ulrich Laemmli * 1989:

* 1990:

Bruno Messerli Bruno Messerli (17 September 1931, in Belp – 4 February 2019) was a Swiss geographer and university professor who focused on high mountains and highland-lowland linkages. He was appointed Full Professor of Geomorphology in 1968 by the Universit ...

Hans Oeschger Hans Oeschger (2 April 1927, Ottenbach, Switzerland, Ottenbach – 25 December 1998, Bern) was a Swiss climatologist. He founded the Division of Climate and Environmental Physics at the Physics Institute of the University of Bern in 1963 and was ...

and

Werner Stumm Werner Stumm (1924 – 14 April 1999) was a Swiss chemist. After earning his doctorate in inorganic chemistry at the University of Zürich in 1952 he moved to the U.S. where he was active as a professor at Harvard University until 1969. From 197 ...

* 1991:

Duilio Arigoni Duilio Arigoni (6 December 1928 – 10 June 2020) was a Swiss chemist and Emeritus Professor at ETH Zurich. He worked on the biosynthetic pathways of many organic natural substances. Birth and education Born in Lugano, Switzerland, Arigoni ...

and

Kurt Wüthrich Kurt Wüthrich (born 4 October 1938 in Aarberg, Canton of Bern) is a Swiss chemist/biophysicist and Nobel Chemistry laureate, known for developing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods for studying biological macromolecules. Education and ...

* 1992:

Gottfried Schatz Gottfried Schatz (18 August 1936 – 1 October 2015) was a Swiss-Austrian biochemist. Life and career Schatz was born in Strem. Upon obtaining his PhD in chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Graz (Austria), he did postdoctoral wor ...

* 1993: no prize * 1994:

Martin Schwab Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

* 1995: Henri Isliker and Alfred Pletscher * 1996: Bernard Rossier * 1997: Jürg M. Fröhlich * 1998:

* 1999: Jörg Paul Müller and Luzius Wildhaber * 2000:

Dieter Seebach Dieter Seebach is a German chemist known for his synthesis of biopolymers and dendrimers, and for his contributions to stereochemistry. He was born on 31 October 1937 in Karlsruhe. He studied chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) under ...

* 2001: * 2002: Rüdiger Wehner * 2003:

Denis Duboule Denis Duboule (born February 17, 1955) is a Swiss-French biologist. He earned his PhD in Biology in 1984 and is currently Professor of Developmental Genetics and Genomics at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and at the De ...

* 2004: Adriano Aguzzi * 2005: Othmar Keel * 2006:

Timothy J. Richmond Timothy John Richmond (born October 9, 1948, in Corvallis) is a Swiss/American molecular biologist, biochemist, and biophysicist. He graduated in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Purdue University, where his teachers included Lar ...

* 2007: Ari Helenius * 2008:

Ernst Fehr Ernst Fehr (born 21 June 1956 in Hard, Austria) is an Austrian-Swiss behavioral economist and neuroeconomist and a Professor of Microeconomics and Experimental Economic Research, as well as the vice chairman of the Department of Economics at the ...

* 2009: Françoise Gisou van der Goot (first time that the prize is awarded to a woman) * 2010: Daniel Loss * 2011:

Michele Parrinello Michele Parrinello (born 7 September 1945, Messina) is an Italian physicist particularly known for his work in molecular dynamics (the computer simulation of physical movements of atoms and molecules). Parrinello and Roberto Car were awarded the ...

* 2012:

Michael N. Hall Michael Nip Hall (born 1953) is an American-Swiss molecular biologist and professor at the Biozentrum University of Basel, Switzerland. Life Hall grew up in South America (Venezuela, Peru). He earned a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from the ...

* 2013:

Michael Grätzel Michael Grätzel (born 11 May 1944, in Dorfchemnitz, Saxony, Germany) is a professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne where he directs the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces. He pioneered research on energy and electron tran ...

* 2014:

Nicolas Gisin Nicolas Gisin (born 1952) is a Swiss physicist and professor at the University of Geneva working on the foundations of quantum mechanics, and quantum information and communication. His work includes both experimental and theoretical physics. He ...

* 2015: Laurent Keller * 2016: Johan Auwerx * 2017:

Thomas Stocker Thomas F. Stocker (born 1959) is a Swiss climate scientist. Born in Zürich, Stocker obtained a degree in physics at the ETH Zurich. He was active in research at the University College London, at McGill University in Montreal and at Columbia U ...

* 2018: Lars-Erik Cederman * 2019:

Nicola Spaldin Nicola Ann Spaldin (born 1969)Nicola Spaldin's FRS is Professor of Materials Theory at ETH Zurich, known for her pioneering research on multiferroics. Education and early life A native of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England, Spaldin earned a ...

* 2020: Rudolf Aebersold * 2021: Thomas Berger

References

External links

Official website
Benoist Benoist Benoist Benoist Prize {{Switzerland-stub

History

Laureates

See also

References

External links