2010 Kavli Prize Laureates Honored in Oslo

Sept. 7, 2010 (Oslo, Norway)  - The 2010 Kavli Prize laureates [2] were presented their awards today by His Majesty King Harald of Norway during a ceremony at the Oslo Concert Hall. The 90-minute celebration in honor of the laureates also featured addresses by Fred Kavli, founder and chairman of The Kavli Foundation, Nils Christian Stenseth, president of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and the chairs of the committees charged with selecting the prize recipients.

"Today we celebrate the best of science by honoring these esteemed scientists who, with their groundbreaking work, have taken us a step forward on humanity's journey to better understand and utilize nature," said Fred Kavli.

The masters of ceremony were Åse Kleveland, artist and former Minister of culture for Norway, and Alan Alda, actor, director and writer whose long-time interest and support of science has been recognized and honored with the National Science Board's Public Service Award.

The Kavli Prizes recognize scientists for their seminal advances in three research areas: astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience, and are awarded biennially. The 2010 Kavli Prize laureates were chosen for research that has transformed our knowledge of basic units of matter, laid the foundations for the field of nanotechnology, revealed the molecular basis for the transfer of brain signals and other physiological functions, and made possible the building of telescopes that can see deeper into space and further back in time. Each laureate was presented with a gold medal and scroll. Each prize area also included a cash award of one million dollars.

The Kavli Prizes is a partnership between the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, The Kavli Foundation, and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. Independent of The Kavli Foundation, Kavli Prize recipients are chosen by three prize committees comprised of distinguished international scientists recommended by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck Society, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society. After making their selection for prize recipients, the recommendations of these prize committees are confirmed by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

2010 Kavli Prize Laureates in Astrophysics [4]

Citation: "for their contributions to the development of giant telescopes"

Jerry Earl Nelson [5]- University of California, Santa Cruz, US
Raymond Neil Wilson [5] - formerly of Imperial College, London, UK and the European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany
J. Roger P. Angel [5] - Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, US

2010 Kavli Prize Laureates in Nanoscience [6]

Citation: for their development of unprecedented methods to control matter on the nanoscale"

Donald M. Eigler [7] - IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, US
Nadrian C. Seeman [7] - New York University, US

2010 Kavli Prize Laureates in Neuroscience [8]

Citation: "for discovering the molecular basis of neurotransmitter release"

Richard H. Scheller [9] - Genentech, US
Thomas C. Südhof [9] - Stanford University School of Medicine, US
James E. Rothman [9] - Yale University, US

Additional images can be found here [10].

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters press release [11].