Crafoord Prize

The Crafoord Prize (Swedish: Crafoordpriset) is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord following a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.^[1] It is awarded jointly by the Academy and the Crafoord Foundation in Lund, with the former selecting the laureates.^[2] The Prize is awarded in four categories: mathematics and astronomy, geosciences, biosciences (with an emphasis on ecology) and polyarthritis,^[1] the final one because Holger suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis in his later years.^[3]

The disciplines for which the Crafoord Prize is awarded are chosen so as to complement the Nobel Prizes.^[2] Only one award is given each year, according to a rotating scheme – astronomy and mathematics, then geosciences, then biosciences.^[1] Since 2012, the prizes in astronomy and mathematics are separate and awarded at the same time; prior to this, the disciplines alternated every cycle.^[2] A Crafoord Prize in polyarthritis is only awarded when a special committee decides that substantial progress in the field has been made.^[2] The recipient of the Crafoord Prize is announced every year in mid-January and the prize is presented in April or May on "Crafoord Days",^[1] by a member of the Monarchy of Sweden. As of 2024^[update], the prize money is 6,000,000 kr (approx. US$560,000), roughly half that of the Nobel Prizes.^[1]

The Prize is usually awarded to one recipient, but there can be as many as three.^[2] The inaugural laureates, Vladimir Arnold and Louis Nirenberg, were awarded the prize in 1982 for their work in the field of non-linear differential equations. Since then, the winners of the Prize have predominantly been men. The first woman to be awarded the Prize was astronomer Andrea Ghez in 2012.

Crafoord Prize laureates

Year	Category	Image	Laureate	Rationale	Ref.
1982	Mathematics		Vladimir Arnold	“for their outstanding achievements in the theory of non-linear differential equations”	[4] [5]
			Louis Nirenberg
1983	Geosciences	—	Edward Norton Lorenz	“for their fundamental contributions to the field of geophysical hydrodynamics, which in a unique way have contributed to a deeper understanding of the large-scale motions of the atmosphere and the sea”	[4] [6]
			Henry Stommel
1984	Biosciences		Daniel H. Janzen	“for his imaginative and stimulating studies on co-evolution which have inspired many researchers to further work in this field”	[4] [7]
1985	Astronomy		Lyman Spitzer	“for his fundamental pioneering studies of practically every aspect of the interstellar medium, culminating in the results obtained using the Copernicus satellite”	[4] [8]
1986	Geosciences		Claude Allègre	“for their pioneering studies of isotope geochemical relations and the geological interpretations that these results permit”	[4] [9]
		—	Gerald J. Wasserburg
1987	Biosciences	—	Eugene Odum	“for their pioneering contributions within the field of ecosystem ecology”	[4] [10]
		—	Howard T. Odum
1988	Mathematics		Pierre Deligne	“for their fundamental research in algebraic geometry”	[4] [11]
			Alexander Grothendieck[a]
1989	Geosciences		James Van Allen	“for his pioneering exploration of space, in particular the discovery of the energetic particles trapped in the geomagnetic field which forms the radiation belts - the Van Allen belts - around the planet Earth”	[4] [12]
1990	Biosciences		Paul R. Ehrlich	“for his research on the dynamics and genetics of fragmented populations and the importance of the distribution pattern for their survival probabilities”	[4] [13] [14]
			E. O. Wilson	“for the theory of island biogeography and other research on species diversity and community dynamics on islands and in other habitats with differing degrees of isolation”
1991	Astronomy	—	Allan Sandage	“for his very important contributions to the study of galaxies, their populations of stars, clusters and nebulae, their evolution, the velocity-distance relation (or Hubble relation), and its evolution over time”	[4] [15]
1992	Geosciences	—	Adolf Seilacher	“for his innovative research concerning the evolution of life in interaction with the environment as documented in the geological record”	[4] [16]
1993	Biosciences	—	W. D. Hamilton	“for his theories concerning kin selection and genetic relationship as a prerequisite for the evolution of altruistic behavior”	[4] [17]
			Seymour Benzer	“for his pioneering genetical and neurophysiological studies on behavioural mutants in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster”
1994	Mathematics		Simon Donaldson	"for his fundamental investigations in four-dimensional geometry through application of instantos in particular his new discovery of new differential invariants"	[4] [18]
			Shing-Tung Yau	“for his development of non-linear techniques in differential geometry leading the solution of several outstanding problems”
1995	Geosciences	—	Willi Dansgaard	“for their fundamental work on developing and applying isotope geological analysis methods for the study of climatic variations during the Quaternary period”	[4] [19]
		—	Nicholas Shackleton
1996	Biosciences		Robert May	“for his pioneering ecological research concerning theoretical analysis of the dynamics of populations, communities and ecosystems”	[4] [20]
1997	Astronomy		Fred Hoyle	“for their pioneering contributions to the study of nuclear processes in stars and stellar evolution”	[4] [21]
		—	Edwin Ernest Salpeter
1998	Geosciences		Don L. Anderson	“for their fundamental contributions to our knowledge of the structures and processes in the interior of the Earth”	[4] [22]
			Adam M. Dziewonski
1999	Biosciences		Ernst Mayr	“for their fundamental contributions to the conceptual development of evolutionary biology”	[4] [23]
			John Maynard Smith
		—	George Christopher Williams
2000	Polyarthritis	—	Marc Feldmann	“for their definition of TNF-alpha as a therapeutic target in rheumatoid arthritis”	[4] [24]
			Ravinder N. Maini
2001	Mathematics		Alain Connes	“for his penetrating work on the theory of operator algebras and for having been a founder of non-commutative geometry”	[4] [25]
2002	Geosciences	—	Dan McKenzie	“for fundamental contributions to the understanding of the dynamics of the lithosphere, particularly plate tectonics, sedimentary basin formation and mantle melting”	[4] [26]
2003	Biosciences		Carl Woese	“for his discovery of a third domain of life”	[4] [27]
2004	Polyarthritis	—	Eugene C. Butcher	“for their studies of the molecular mechanisms involved in migration of white blood cells in health and disease”	[4] [28]
		—	Timothy A. Springer
2005	Astronomy		James E. Gunn	“for contributions towards understanding the large-scale structure of the Universe”	[4] [29]
			James Peebles
			Martin Rees
2006	Geosciences		Wallace Smith Broecker	“for his innovative and pioneering research on the operation of the global carbon cycle within the ocean atmosphere-biosphere system, and its interaction with climate”	[4] [30]
2007	Biosciences	—	Robert Trivers	“for his fundamental analysis of social evolution, conflict and cooperation”	[4] [31]
2008	Astronomy		Rashid Alievich Sunyaev	“for his decisive contributions to high energy astrophysics and cosmology, in particular processes and dynamics around black holes and neutron stars and demonstration of the diagnostic power of structures in the background radiation”	[4] [32]
	Mathematics		Maxim Kontsevich	“for their important contributions to mathematics inspired by modern theoretical physics”
			Edward Witten
2009	Polyarthritis		Charles Dinarello	“for their pioneering work to isolate interleukins, determine their properties and explore their role in the onset of inflammatory diseases”	[4] [33]
			Tadamitsu Kishimoto
			Toshio Hirano
2010	Geosciences		Walter Munk	“for his pioneering and fundamental contributions to our understanding of ocean circulation, tides and waves, and their role in the Earth’s dynamics”	[4] [34]
2011	Biosciences		Ilkka Hanski	"for his pioneering studies on how spatial variation affects the dynamics of animal and plant populations"	[4] [35]
2012	Astronomy		Reinhard Genzel	"for their observations of the stars orbiting the galactic centre, indicating the presence of a supermassive black hole"	[4] [36]
			Andrea M. Ghez
	Mathematics		Jean Bourgain	"for their brilliant and groundbreaking work in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, ergodic theory, number theory, combinatorics, functional analysis and theoretical computer science"
			Terence Tao
2013	Polyarthritis		Peter K. Gregersen	"for their discoveries concerning the role of different genetic factors and their interactions with environmental factors in the pathogenesis, diagnosis and clinical management of rheumatoid arthritis"	[3] [4]
			Lars Klareskog
			Robert J. Winchester [de]
2014	Geosciences	—	Peter Molnar	"for his ground-breaking contribution to the understanding of global tectonics, in particular the deformation of continents and the structure and evolution of mountain ranges, as well as the impact of tectonic processes on ocean-atmosphere circulation and climate"	[4] [37]
2015	Biosciences	—	Richard Lewontin	"for their pioneering analyses and fundamental contributions to the understanding of genetic polymorphism"	[4] [38]
			Tomoko Ohta
2016	Astronomy		Roy Kerr	"for fundamental work concerning rotating black holes and their astrophysical consequences"	[4] [39]
			Roger Blandford
	Mathematics		Yakov Eliashberg	"for the development of contact and symplectic topology and groundbreaking discoveries of rigidity and flexibility phenomena"
2017	Polyarthritis		Shimon Sakaguchi	"for their discoveries relating to regulatory T cells, which counteract harmful immune reactions in arthritis and other autoimmune diseases"	[4] [40]
			Fred Ramsdell
			Alexander Rudensky
2018	Geosciences		Syukuro Manabe	"for fundamental contributions to understanding the role of atmospheric trace gases in Earth’s climate system"	[4] [41]
			Susan Solomon
2019	Biosciences		Sallie W. Chisholm	"for the discovery and pioneering studies of the most abundant photosynthesising organism on Earth, Prochlorococcus"	[4] [42]
2020	Astronomy		Eugene N. Parker	"for pioneering and fundamental studies of the solar wind and magnetic fields from stellar to galactic scales"	[4] [43]
	Mathematics		Enrico Bombieri	"for outstanding and influential contributions in all the major areas of mathematics, particularly number theory, analysis and algebraic geometry"
2021	Polyarthritis		Daniel L. Kastner	"for establishing the concept of autoinflammatory diseases"	[4] [44]
2022	Geosciences		Andrew H. Knoll	"for fundamental contributions to our understanding of the first three billion years of life on Earth and life’s interactions with the physical environment through time"	[4] [45]
2023	Biosciences	—	Dolph Schluter	"for fundamental contributions to the understanding of adaptive radiation and ecological speciation"	[4] [46]
2024	Astronomy	—	Douglas Gough	"for developing the methods of asteroseismology and their application to the study of the interior of the Sun and of other stars"	[4] [47]
			Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard
			Conny Aerts
	Mathematics		Claire Voisin	"for outstanding contributions to complex and algebraic geometry, including Hodge theory, algebraic cycles, and hyperkähler geometry"

• List of general science and technology awards
• List of prizes known as the Nobel or the highest honors of a field#Geosciences, agricultural sciences and environmental sciences
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