Körber European Science Prize

Selection process

Candidates for the prize need not be from Europe, but they must be living in Europe. Renowned scientists from all over Europe, grouped into two Search Committees, select promising candidates. The awards are annual and alternate between the life and physical sciences. Those who are shortlisted are then asked to submit a detailed proposal for a research project which is then judged in two rounds of assessment by the Search Committee. The work of the Search Committee is supported by international experts. A maximum of five candidates are subsequently recommended to the Trustee Committee which, based on a summary of expert assessments, previous publications, and scientific career history, decides on the new prizewinner. A personal application is not allowed.

Prize money

All prizewinners receive a certificate and one million euro (until 2008: 750,000 euros) prize money. The prizewinners can keep 10 percent of the money for themselves and must spend the rest on research in Europe in three to five years. Aside from these restrictions they alone can decide how to use the money.

Presentation

The prize is presented every year in the Great Hall of Hamburg City Hall in the presence of the Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and 600 guests from science, industry, politics, and society.

Winners

• 1985: Applications of Shock Waves in Medicine, Walter Brendel, Michael Delius, Georg Enders, Joseph Holl, Gustav Paumgartner, Tilman Sauerbruch
• 1985: Back Pressure Casting Technology, Teodor Balevski, Rumen Batschvarov, Emil Momtschilov, Dragan Nenov, Rangel Zvetkov
• 1986: Retrovirus Research (AIDS), Jean-Claude Gluckman, Sven Haahr, George Janossy, David Klatzmann, Luc Montagnier, Paul Rácz
• 1987: Further Development of Electron Holography, Karl-Heinz Herrmann, Friedrich Lenz, Hannes Lichte, Gottfried Möllenstedt
• 1987: Creating Ultralow Temperatures, Riitta Hari, Matti Krusius, Olli V. Lounasmaa, Martti Salomaa
• 1988: Extending the Hamburg Pyrolytic Technique to Destroy Toxic Wastes, Alfons Buekens, Vasilij Dragalov, Walter Kaminsky, Hansjörg Sinn
• 1989: Active Substances from Plant Cell Cultures, Christian Brunold, Yury Y. Gleba, Lutz Nover, J. David Phillipson, Elmar Weiler, Meinhart H. Zenk
• 1990: Forecasting Short-Term Changes in Climate, Lennart Bengtsson, Bert Bolin, Klaus Ferdinand Hasselmann
• 1991: Recognizing and Preventing Cancer Caused by Environmental Chemicals, Lars Ehrenberg, Dietrich Henschler, Werner Lutz, Hans-Günter Neumann
• 1992: The Spread and Transformation of Contaminants in Ground Water, Philippe Behra, Wolfgang Kinzelbach, Ludwig Luckner, René Schwarzenbach, Laura Sigg
• 1993: Bionics of Walking: The Technical Application of Biological Knowledge, Felix Chernousko, François Clarac, Holk Cruse, Friedrich Pfeiffer
• 1994: Modern Plant Breeding: From the Cell to the Plant, Dénes Dudits, Dirk Inzé, Anne Marie Lambert, Horst Lörz
• 1995: Genetic Probes in Environmental Research and Medicine, Rudolf Amann, Erik C. Böttger, Ulf B. Göbel, Bo Barker Jørgensen, Niels Peter Revsbech, Karl-Heinz Schleifer, Jiri Wanner
• 1996: The Habitat of Treetops in the Tropics, Pierre Charles-Dominique, Antoine Cleef, Gerhard Gottsberger, Bert Hölldobler, Karl E. Linsenmair, Ulrich Lüttge
• 1996: Computer-Assisted Design of Materials, Michael Ashby, Yves Bréchet, Michel Rappaz
• 1997: Mutant Mouse Models in Clinical Research, Paweł Kisielow, Klaus Rajewsky, Harald von Boehmer
• 1998: Magnetic resonance imaging with Helium-3, Werner Heil, Michèle Leduc, Ernst-Wilhelm Otten, Manfred Thelen
• 1998: Electronic Micronoses to Enhance Safety at the Workplace, Henry Baltes, Wolfgang Göpel, Massimo Rudan
• 1999: High-Altitude Platforms for Telecommunications, Bernd Kröplin, Per Lindstrand, John Adrian Pyle, Michael André Rehmet
• 2000: Perception of Shape in Technology with Insights from Nature, Rodney Douglas, Amiram Grinvald, Randolf Menzel, Wolf Singer, Christoph von der Malsburg
• 2001: Optimised Crops through Genetic Engineering, Wolf-Bernd Frommer, Rainer Hedrich, Enrico Martinoia, Dale Sanders, Norbert Sauer
• 2002: Scarfree Wound Healing Using Tissue Engineering, Mark W. J. Ferguson, Jeffrey A. Hubbell, Cay M. Kielty, Björn Stark, Michael G. Walker
• 2003: Light-driven Molecular Walkers, Ben Feringa, Martin Möller, Justin Molloy, Niek F. van Hulst
• 2004: Therapies for a New Group of Hereditary Diseases, Markus Aebi, Thierry Hennet, Jaak Jaeken, Ludwig Lehle, Gert Matthijs, Kurt von Figura
• 2005: Taking Light onto New Paths, Philip Russell
• 2006: Chaperons of the Protein Folding in Biotechnology and Medicine, Franz-Ulrich Hartl
• 2007: Automated Synthesis of Carbohydrate Vaccinations against Tropical Diseases, Peter Seeberger
• 2008: Drugs to Fight Cancer and Aging, Maria Blasco
• 2009: Graphene, the Thinnest Material in the Universe, Andre Geim
• 2010: Auxin – Understanding Plant Growth, Jiří Friml
• 2011: STED microscopy, Stefan Hell
• 2012: Ground-breaking work on the Proteome, Matthias Mann.
• 2013: Immanuel Bloch
• 2014: May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser
• 2015: Multiferroics, Nicola Spaldin
• 2016: Hans Clevers
• 2017: Karsten Danzmann, for he and his team developed the key technologies, including high-precision lasers, which LIGO were able to direct detected gravitational waves in 2015.
• 2018: Svante Pääbo, for his pioneering achievements in the field of paleogenetics.
• 2019: Bernhard Schölkopf, for developing mathematical methods that have made a significant contribution to helping artificial intelligence (AI) reach its most recent heights.
• 2020: Botond Roska, for revolutionising ophthalmology.
• 2021: Clare Grey, for optimisation of batteries using NMR spectroscopy.
• 2022: Anthony A. Hyman, for research on cell droplets
• 2023: Cordelia Schmid, for making AI more intelligent – Smart Image Recognition for Autonomous Robots
• 2024: Erin Schuman, for research on protein synthesis in brain cells