For Peace Foundation Rava

The winners of the competitions were announced today in Milan by President Alberto Quadrio Curzio Balzan Awards 2023It is awarded for studies and initiatives that have contributed to understanding our world and our times. Four prizes are awarded annually, two of which are in “Literature, Moral Sciences, and Arts” and two in “Physical, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences and Medicine.” This year, the fifth prize was added, which is the Prize for Humanity, Peace and Fraternity among Peoples, which is awarded at an interval of no less than three years. The value of each prize is approximately 750,000 Swiss francs 784 thousand euros. As for annual projects, half of the grant should be allocated to research projects, preferably carried out by humanities and young scientists. There have been 87 projects funded by the Balzan Foundation in twenty-two years, with a total of 500 participating researchers.

to win in this category World literature And David Damrosch“, a professor at Harvard University, “for his innovative approach to treating world literature as a transnational circulation of works” that “have been received and modified beyond their culture of origin.” World literature today is dynamic and expresses migration between different cultures, languages, and nations, overcoming borders and hierarchies. Hierarchical.

This year, two distinct themes have been brought together under the common denominator of human evolution, in the name of interdisciplinarity. In fact, according to the foundation, only by combining various knowledge and projects can the complex problems of nature and society be addressed. On the human side of human evolution, Jean-Jacques Hublin He received the award from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig Human evolution: paleontology. This discipline has taken root since the 1970s and studies the fossil remains of humans by comparing them to primates.

Jean-Jacques Hublin, Balzan Prize for Human Evolution: Paleoanthropology – Wikicommons

Hublin was awarded the prize “for the importance of his discoveries in this field, in particular those of the oldest Homo sapiens in Africa; For its ability to collect data from advanced technological tools; for his ability to organize scholarly groups” and his “qualities as a teacher and promoter.” On the scientific side of human evolution, recognition of Human evolution: ancient DNA and human evolution It was set for ESCII Willerslev from the University of Copenhagen “for his studies of human DNA from an evolutionary perspective focusing on population movements and migrations, which have greatly transformed our understanding of human history”.

Eski Willerslev, Balzan Prize for Human Evolution: Ancient DNA and Human Evolution – Wikicommons

The final annual category was for 2023 High-resolution images: from planetary objects to cosmic objects. He was the one who should be rewarded Hino FalkProfessor at Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands) and researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn. His work has produced the sharpest images yet of what surrounds black holes in the Milky Way and the galaxy known as M87. This feat was made possible byEvent horizon telescopeDesigned specifically to observe this phenomenon in FALK format.

the Special award for humanity, peace and brotherhood It was set for Francesca Rava Foundation, which has been helping families, children, adolescents and women in difficulty since 2000. The Balzan Foundation’s honors are credited to “urgent interventions in the aftermath of humanitarian and natural disasters in Italy and Latin America” ​​and initiatives for children “to address educational and nutritional deficiencies” in South America. The historical value of this award is evident through the personalities and institutions it has received over the years: the Nobel Foundation in 1962, Pope John XXIII in 1963 and Mother Teresa of Calcutta in 1979.

In addition to the 2023 awards, the topics to be awarded next year have been announced: Restorative Justice, History of Modern and Contemporary Science, Biological Mechanisms of Aging, and Nanomaterials for Environmental Applications.