Kavli Prize

The Kavli Prize
The Kavli Prize
Awarded for	outstanding contributions in Astrophysics, Nanoscience, and Neuroscience.
Country	Norway
Presented by	Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters; The Kavli Foundation; Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research;
Rewards	A gold medal, a scroll, and a monetary award of US$1,000,000
First award	2008
Number of laureates	21 prizes to 54 laureates (as of 2021)
Website	http://www.kavliprize.no

The Kavli Prize was established in 2005 as a joint venture of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Kavli Foundation. It honors, supports, and recognizes scientists for outstanding work in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. Three prizes are awarded every second year. Each of the three Kavli Prizes consists of a gold medal, a scroll, and a cash award of US$1,000,000.^[1] The medal has a diameter of 70 millimetres (2.8 in), a thickness of 5 millimetres (0.20 in), and weighs 311 grams (11.0 oz).^[2]^[3]

The first Kavli Prizes were awarded on 9 September 2008 in Oslo, presented by Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway.^[4]

Selection committees

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters appoints three prize committees consisting of leading international scientists after receiving recommendations made from the following organisations:

Laureates

Astrophysics

Year		Institution	Citation
2008	Maarten Schmidt	California Institute of Technology	"for their seminal contributions to understanding the nature of quasars"
2008	Donald Lynden-Bell	Cambridge University
2010	Jerry E. Nelson	Lick Observatory, University of California, Santa Cruz	"for their contributions to the development of giant telescopes"
	Raymond N. Wilson	European Southern Observatory, Garching
	James Roger Angel	Steward Observatory, University of Arizona
2012	David C. Jewitt	University of California Los Angeles	"for discovering and characterizing the Kuiper Belt and its largest members, work that led to a major advance in the understanding of the history of our planetary system"
	Jane X. Luu	Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	Michael E. Brown	California Institute of Technology
2014	Alan H. Guth	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	"for pioneering the theory of cosmic inflation"
	Andrei D. Linde	Stanford University
	Alexei A. Starobinsky	Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics
2016	Ronald W.P. Drever	California Institute of Technology	"for the direct detection of gravitational waves"^[5]
	Kip S. Thorne	California Institute of Technology
	Rainer Weiss	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2018	Ewine van Dishoeck	Leiden University	"for her combined contributions to observational, theoretical, and laboratory astrochemistry, elucidating the life cycle of interstellar clouds and the formation of stars and planets"^[6]^[7]
2020	Andrew Fabian	University of Cambridge	"for his groundbreaking research in the field of observational X-ray astronomy, covering a wide range of topics from gas flows in clusters of galaxies to supermassive black holes at the heart of galaxies"^[8]
2022	Roger Ulrich	University of California, Los Angeles	"for their pioneering work and leadership in the development of helio- and asteroseismology"
	Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard	Aarhus University
	Conny Aerts	KU Leuven
2024	Sara Seager	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	"for their ground-breaking work on the discovery and characterization of extra-solar planets and their atmospheres"
2024	David Charbonneau	Harvard University
2026	Vasily Belokurov	University of Cambridge	"for uncovering the fossil evidence of past mergers proving that the Milky Way galaxy was built through hierarchical accretion"
	Amina Helmi	University of Groningen
	Rodrigo Ibata [fr]	University of Strasbourg

Nanoscience

Year		Institution	Citation
2008	Louis E. Brus	Columbia University	"for their large impact in the development of the nanoscience field of the zero and one dimensional nanostructures in physics, chemistry and biology"
2008	Sumio Iijima	Meijo University
2010	Donald Eigler	IBM Almaden Research Center	"for their development of unprecedented methods to control matter on the nanoscale"
2010	Nadrian C. Seeman	New York University
2012	Mildred S. Dresselhaus	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	"for her pioneering contributions to the study of phonons, electron-phonon interactions, and thermal transport in nanostructures"
2014	Thomas W. Ebbesen	University of Strasbourg	"for transformative contributions to the field of nano-optics that have broken long-held beliefs about the limitations of the resolution limits of optical microscopy and imaging"
	Stefan W. Hell	Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry
	John B. Pendry	Imperial College London
2016	Gerd Binnig	IBM Zurich Research Laboratory	"for the invention and realization of atomic force microscopy, a breakthrough in measurement technology and nanosculpting that continues to have a transformative impact on nanoscience and technology"^[9]
	Christoph Gerber	University of Basel
	Calvin Quate	Stanford University
2018	Emmanuelle Charpentier	Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology	"for the invention of CRISPR-Cas9, a precise nanotool for editing DNA, causing a revolution in biology, agriculture, and medicine"^[10]^[7]
	Jennifer Doudna	University of California, Berkeley
	Virginijus Šikšnys	Vilnius University
2020	Harald Rose	Universität Ulm	"for sub-ångström resolution imaging and chemical analysis using electron beams"^[11]
	Maximilian Haider	CEOS GmbH
	Knut Urban	Forschungszentrum Jülich
	Ondrej Krivanek	Nion Co
2022	Jacob Sagiv	Weizmann Institute of Science	"for Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAMs) on solid substrates; molecular coatings to control surface properties"
	Ralph Nuzzo	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
	David Allara	Pennsylvania State University
	George M. Whitesides	Harvard University
2024	Robert S. Langer	Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology	"for pioneering work integrating synthetic nanoscale materials with biological function for biomedical applications"
	Armand Paul Alivisatos	University of Chicago
	Chad A. Mirkin	Northwestern University
2026	Eva Andrei	Rutgers University	"for foundational work that established the field of Twistronics"
	Pablo Jarillo-Herrero	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	Allan H. MacDonald	University of Texas at Austin

Neuroscience

Year		Institution	Citation
2008	Sten Grillner	Karolinska Institute	"for discoveries on the developmental and functional logic of neuronal circuits"
	Thomas Jessell	Columbia University
	Pasko Rakic	Yale University School of Medicine
2010	Richard H. Scheller	Genentech	"for discovering the molecular basis of neurotransmitter release"
	Thomas C. Südhof	Stanford University School of Medicine
	James E. Rothman	Yale University
2012	Cornelia Isabella Bargmann	Rockefeller University	"for elucidating basic neuronal mechanisms underlying perception and decision"
	Winfried Denk	Max Planck Institute for Medical Research
	Ann M. Graybiel	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2014	Brenda Milner	Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University	"for the discovery of specialized brain networks for memory and cognition"
	John O’Keefe	University College London
	Marcus E. Raichle	Washington University in St. Louis
2016	Eve Marder	Brandeis University	"for the discovery of mechanisms that allow experience and neural activity to remodel brain function"^[12]
	Michael M. Merzenich	University of California, San Francisco
	Carla J. Shatz	Stanford University
2018	A. James Hudspeth	Rockefeller University	"for their scientific discoveries of the molecular and neural mechanisms of hearing"^[13]^[7]
	Robert Fettiplace	University of Wisconsin–Madison
	Christine Petit	Collège de France
2020	David Julius	University of California, San Francisco	"for their transformative discovery of receptors for temperature and pressure".^[14]
2020	Ardem Patapoutian	Scripps Research and Howard Hughes Medical Investigator
2022	Jean-Louis Mandel	University of Strasbourg	"for pioneering the discovery of genes underlying a range of brain disorders"
	Harry T. Orr	University of Minnesota Medical School
	Huda Zoghbi	Baylor College of Medicine
	Christopher A. Walsh	Harvard Medical School
2024	Nancy Kanwisher	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	"for the discovery of a highly localized and specialized system for representation of faces in human and non-human primate neocortex"
	Winrich Freiwald	Rockefeller University
	Doris Ying Tsao	University of California, Berkeley
2026	Christine Holt	University of Cambridge	"for the discovery of local protein translation in neurons and establishing its importance for brain development and plasticity"
	Kelsey Martin	University of California, Los Angeles, Simons Foundation
	Erin Schuman	Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
	Oswald Steward	University of California, Irvine

References

↑ "Kavli Prize". iau. 29 May 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2026.
↑ Yngvar Reichelt: «Kavlimedaljen», NNF-Nytt. Norsk numismatisk tidsskrift, nr. 3, 2010, s. 21–25.
↑ The Kavli Foundation (n.d.). "Kavli Prize Medal". Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
↑ "Kavli-Preis zum ersten Mal vergeben". Welt der Physik (in German). 9 September 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2026.
↑ "2016 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics | www.kavliprize.org". www.kavliprize.org. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
↑ "2018 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics | www.kavliprize.org". Kavil Prize. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
1 2 3 "Jennifer Doudna shares 2018 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience". Berkeley News. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
↑ "2020 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics". www.kavliprize.org. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
↑ "2016 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience | www.kavliprize.org". www.kavliprize.org. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
↑ "2018 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience | www.kavliprize.org". www.kavliprize.org. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
↑ 2020 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience". www.kavliprize.org. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
↑ "2016 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience | www.kavliprize.org". www.kavliprize.org. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
↑ "2018 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience | www.kavliprize.org". www.kavliprize.org. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
↑ 2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience". www.kavliprize.org. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2020.

External links

The Kavli Prize, official site
The Kavli Prize on The Kavli Foundation site Archived 20 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine
The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research

[q149-1] "Kavli Prize". iau. 29 May 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2026.

[2] Yngvar Reichelt: «Kavlimedaljen», NNF-Nytt. Norsk numismatisk tidsskrift, nr. 3, 2010, s. 21–25.

[3] The Kavli Foundation (n.d.). "Kavli Prize Medal". Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2022.

[y260-4] "Kavli-Preis zum ersten Mal vergeben". Welt der Physik (in German). 9 September 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2026.

[5] "2016 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics | www.kavliprize.org". www.kavliprize.org. Retrieved 2 June 2016.

[Astro2018-6] "2018 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics | www.kavliprize.org". Kavil Prize. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2018.

[:0-7] 1 2 3 "Jennifer Doudna shares 2018 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience". Berkeley News. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2018.

[8] "2020 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics". www.kavliprize.org. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2020.

[9] "2016 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience | www.kavliprize.org". www.kavliprize.org. Retrieved 2 June 2016.

[Nanoscience2018-10] "2018 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience | www.kavliprize.org". www.kavliprize.org. Retrieved 31 May 2018.

[11] 2020 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience". www.kavliprize.org. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2020.

[12] "2016 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience | www.kavliprize.org". www.kavliprize.org. Retrieved 2 June 2016.

[13] "2018 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience | www.kavliprize.org". www.kavliprize.org. Retrieved 31 May 2018.

[14] 2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience". www.kavliprize.org. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2020.

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v t e Kavli Prize laureates
Astrophysics	Maarten Schmidt, Donald Lynden-Bell (2008) Jerry E. Nelson, Raymond N. Wilson, Roger Angel (2010) David C. Jewitt, Jane Luu, Michael E. Brown (2012) Alan Guth, Andrei Linde, Alexei Starobinsky (2014) Ronald Drever, Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss (2016) Ewine van Dishoeck (2018) Andrew Fabian (2020) Roger Ulrich, Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, Conny Aerts (2022) Sara Seager, David Charbonneau (2024) Vasily Belokurov, Amina Helmi, Rodrigo Ibata (2026)
Nanoscience	Louis E. Brus, Sumio Iijima (2008) Donald Eigler, Nadrian Seeman (2010) Mildred Dresselhaus (2012) Thomas Ebbesen, Stefan Hell, John Pendry (2014) Gerd Binnig, Christoph Gerber, Calvin Quate (2016) Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer Doudna, Virginijus Šikšnys (2018) Harald Rose, Maximilian Haider, Knut Urban, Ondrej Krivanek (2020) Jacob Sagiv, Ralph Nuzzo, David L. Allara, George M. Whitesides (2022) Robert S. Langer, Armand Paul Alivisatos, Chad Mirkin (2024) Eva Y. Andrei, Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, Allan H. MacDonald (2026)
Neuroscience	Sten Grillner, Thomas Jessell, Pasko Rakic (2008) Richard Scheller, Thomas C. Südhof, James Rothman (2010) Cornelia Bargmann, Winfried Denk, Ann Graybiel (2012) Brenda Milner, John O'Keefe, Marcus Raichle (2014) Eve Marder, Michael Merzenich, Carla J. Shatz (2016) A. James Hudspeth, Robert Fettiplace, Christine Petit (2018) David Julius, Ardem Patapoutian (2020) Jean-Louis Mandel, Harry T. Orr, Christopher A. Walsh, Huda Zoghbi (2022) Nancy Kanwisher, Winrich Freiwald, Doris Ying Tsao (2024) Christine Holt, Kelsey Martin, Erin Schuman, Oswald Steward (2026)