The presentation ceremony in this inaugural edition of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards will take place on Thursday, June 18, under the presidency of the Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia, and the BBVA Foundation President, Francisco González. The public at the event will include leading representatives from the international scientific community and high-level government institutions alongside personalities from the cultural and business worlds.
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, with a combined purse of 3.2 million euros spread across eight prize categories, seek to recognize and encourage world-class research and artistic creation. The awards lend special importance to basic knowledge and interdisciplinary achievements, as well as addressing such crucial concerns for the global society of the 21st century as climate change and development cooperation.
The name of the scheme, in which the Foundation is partnered by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), refers to work that enlarges our understanding and contributes to the ongoing advancement of the frontiers of science.
The winners in the first edition of the Frontiers Awards are:
- Wallace S. Broecker, in the Climate Change category;
- Peter Zoller and Ignacio Cirac, in Basic Sciences;
- Joan Massagué, in Biomedicine;
- Thomas E. Lovejoy and William F. Laurance, in Ecology and Conservation Biology;
- Jacob Ziv, in Information and Communication Technologies;
- Jean Tirole, in Economics, Finance and Management;
- Steven Holl, in the Arts;
- The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (MIT), in Development Cooperation.
The prize juries, appointed by the BBVA Foundation after conferring with the CSIC, were made up of distinguished international experts from the academic, cultural and economic worlds, including on this occasion a number of Nobel laureates.
A series of press events have been scheduled at the BBVA Foundation for the week of the awards, as follows:
Monday, June 15, 11.30: press conference with Wallace S. Broecker
Tuesday, June 16, 10.00: press breakfast with Steven Holl.
Wednesday, June 17, 10.00: press conference with Jean Tirole
11.30: press conference with Joan Massagué
Award Ceremony
Thursday, June 18. 19.00
Fundación BBVA
Paseo de Recoletos, 10
28001 Madrid
Media wishing to cover the event should confirm to comunicacion@fbbva.es or tel. +34 91 537 66 15