The Wittgenstein Award (german: Wittgenstein-Preis) is an Austrian science award supporting the notion that "scientists should be guaranteed the greatest possible freedom and flexibility in the performance of their research." The prize money of up to 1.5 million euro make it the most highly endowed science award of Austria, money that is tied to research activities within the five years following the award. The Wittgenstein-Preis is named after the philosopher

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

and is conferred once per year by the Austrian Science Fund on behalf of the Austrian Ministry for Science.

Objectives

The award provides aims to express recognition and to support "excellent scientists" up to 55 years of age who "have produced exceptional scientific work and who occupy a prominent place in the international scientific community". Awardees receive financial support up to 1.5 million euro to be spent over a period of five years. The award should enhance and extend the research possibilities of the awardees and their research groups.

Nomination, requirements and selection

Nominations can be expressed by rectors as well as vice rectors for research of Austrian universities; the president of the Austrian Academy of Sciences; the president of the

Institute of Science and Technology Austria The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) is an international research institute in natural and mathematical sciences, located in Maria Gugging, Klosterneuburg, 20 km northwest of the Austrian capital of Vienna. It was establish ...

(ISTA); and all previous Wittgenstein-Preis awardees. Self-nomination is not permitted, researchers of any discipline are entitled. There are no quotas regulating the distribution of awards between subject areas. Nominees must be 60 years old or younger; permanently employed at an Austrian research institution; internationally recognised in their respective academic field; and have their center of life in Austria for at least one year at the time of the nomination. The awardees are selected by an international jury of experts, the same jury also selects the recipients of the related Start-Preis.

Recipients and affiliation

* 1996: Erwin Friedrich Wagner, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) * 1996:

Ruth Wodak Ruth Wodak (born 12 July 1950 in London) is an Austrian linguist, who is Emeritus Distinguished Professor and Chair in Discourse Studies in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University and Professor in Linguistics ...

, Institut für Sprachwissenschaften, Universität Wien * 1997: Marjori and Antonius Matzke, Institut für Molekularbiologie, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften * 1997: Erich Gornik, Institut für Festkörperelektronik, Technische Universität Wien * 1998:

Peter Zoller Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

, Institut für Theoretische Physik, Leopold-Franzens-Universität, Innsbruck * 1998: Walter Schachermayer, Institut für Informationssysteme, Technische Universität Wien * 1998:

Georg Gottlob Georg Gottlob FRS is an Austrian computer scientist who works in the areas of database theory, logic, and artificial intelligence and is Professor of Informatics at the University of Oxford. Education Gottlob obtained his undergraduate and PhD ...

, Institut für Informationssysteme, Technische Universität Wien * 1999:

Kim Nasmyth Kim Ashley Nasmyth (born 18 October 1952) is an English geneticist, the Whitley Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, former scientific director of the Research Institute of Molecular Path ...

, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) * 2000:

Peter Markowich Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, Institut für Mathematik, Universität Wien * 2000:

Andre Gingrich Andre Gingrich (born 12 September 1952) is an Austrian Ethnology, ethnologist and Cultural anthropology, anthropologist, member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, director of the Institute for Social Anthropology of the Austrian Academy of Scie ...

, Institut für Ethnologie, Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie, Universität Wien * 2001:

Heribert Hirt Heribert is a Germanic given name, derived from ''hari'' ("host") and '' beraht'' ("bright"). See also Herbert, another given name with the same roots. * Charibert of Laon (died before 762), also spelled Heribert, Count of Laon and maternal grandf ...

, Department für Pflanzenmolekularbiologie, Universität Wien * 2001: Meinrad Busslinger, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) * 2002:

Ferenc Krausz Ferenc Krausz (born 17 May 1962 in Mór, Hungary) is a Hungarian-Austrian physicist, whose research team has generated and measured the first attosecond light pulse and used it for capturing electrons’ motion inside atoms, marking the birth ...

, Institut für Photonik, Technische Universität Wien * 2003: Renée Schroeder, Institut für Mikrobiologie und Genetik, Universität Wien * 2004:

Walter Pohl Walter Pohl (born 27 December 1953, in Vienna) is an Austrian historian who is Professor of Auxiliary Sciences of History and Medieval History at the University of Vienna. He is a leading member of the Vienna School of History. Biography Walter ...

, Forschungsstelle für Geschichte des Mittelalters, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften * 2005:

Rudolf Grimm Rudolf Grimm (born 10 November 1961) is an experimental physicist from Austria. His work centres on ultracold atoms and quantum gases. He was the first scientist worldwide who, with his team, succeeded in realizing a Bose–Einstein condensation ...

, Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck * 2005:

Barry J. Dickson Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 1950 ...

, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) * 2006: Hannes- Jörg Schmiedmayer, TU Wien * 2007: Christian Krattenthaler, Fakultät für Mathematik, Universität Wien * 2007: Rudolf Zechner, Institut für Molekulare Biowissenschaften, Universität Graz * 2008: Markus Arndt, Fakultät für Physik, Universität Wien * 2009:

Gerhard Widmer Gerhard is Gerard, a name of Germanic origin and may refer to: Given name * Gerhard (bishop of Passau) (fl. 932–946), German prelate * Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg (1292–1340), German prince, regent of Denmark * Gerhard Barkhorn (19 ...

, Institut für Computational Perception, Universität Linz * 2009: Jürgen Knoblich, Institut für Molekulare Biotechnologie (IMBA) * 2010:

Wolfgang Lutz Wolfgang Lutz (born 10 December 1956) is an Austrian demographer specializing in demographic analysis and population projection. He founded the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital in 2010 – a collaboration between IIAS ...

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an independent international research institute located in Laxenburg, near Vienna, in Austria. Through its research programs and initiatives, the institute conducts policy-o ...

Vienna Institute of Demography 262px, University building Welthandelsplatz 2 262px, Entrance to VID The Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) (until 2002: Institut für Demographie/IfD) is a research institute of the division for humanities and social sciences within the ...

of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Department of Socioeconomics at the

Vienna University of Economics and Business The Vienna University of Economics and Business (german: Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, WU) is a public research university in Vienna, Austria, the largest university focusing on business, management and economics in Europe. It has been ranked a ...

* 2011: Jan-Michael Peters, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) * 2011: Gerhard J.Herndl, Department für Meeresbiologie, Fakultät für Lebenswissenschaften, Universität Wien * 2012: Niyazi Serdar Sariçiftçi, Institut für Physikalische Chemie und Institut für Organische Solarzellen, Universität Linz * 2012:

Thomas Henzinger Thomas Henzinger (born 1962) is an Austrian computer scientist, researcher, and president of the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria. Life and career Henzinger was born in Austria. He received his bachelor's degree in computer science ...

, ISTA * 2013:

Ulrike Diebold Ulrike Diebold (born December 12, 1961, in Kapfenberg, Austria) is an Austrian physicist and materials scientist who is a Professor of Surface Science at TU Vienna. She is known for her groundbreaking research on the atomic scale geometry and ...

, Institut für Angewandte Physik, TU Wien * 2014: Josef Penninger, Institut für Molekulare Biotechnologie (IMBA) * 2015:

Claudia Rapp Claudia Rapp FBA is a German scholar of the Byzantine Empire. She is currently Professor of Byzantine Studies at the University of Vienna, a position she has held since 2011. Having studied at the Free University of Berlin, she then obtained h ...

, Institut für Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik,

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

* 2016: Peter Jonas,

* 2017: Hanns-Christoph Nägerl,

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (german: Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck; la, Universitas Leopoldino Franciscea) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. ...

* 2018:

Herbert Edelsbrunner Herbert Edelsbrunner (born March 14, 1958) is a computer scientist working in the field of computational geometry, the Arts & Science Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics at Duke University, Professor at the Institute of Science and Tec ...

, ISTA and , Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology at the

University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university located in Vienna, established in 1817. With a student body of over three thousa ...

* 2019: , Institute for Eastern European History and , Department for Microbiology and Eco Systems Research, both

* 2020:

Adrian Constantin Adrian Constantin (born 22 April 1970) is a Romanian-Austrian mathematician who does research in the field of nonlinear partial differential equations.Wittgenstein Preis 2020 to Adrian Constantin' Universität Wien: Fakultät für Mathematik, 17 ...

, Department of Mathematics, University of Vienna * 2021:

Monika Henzinger Monika Henzinger (born as Monika Rauch, 17 April 1966 in Weiden in der Oberpfalz) is a German computer scientist, and is a former director of research at Google. She is currently a professor at the University of Vienna. Her expertise is mainly ...

, Faculty of Computer Science, University of Vienna * 2022: Christa Schleper, Department of Functional and Evolutionary Biology, University of Vienna

References

External links

* * {{cite web , url=http://www.wittgenstein-club.at/eng.htm , title=Wittgenstein Award Laureate , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209045149/http://www.wittgenstein-club.at/eng.htm , archivedate=2012-02-09 web page with information on recipients Austrian science and technology awards Awards established in 1996