Prize winners

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded in the categories of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. An award for Economics was added in 1969. In his will establishing the awards, the Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel stipulated that they be awarded “to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind”. With prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor (approx. 855,000 euros) per category, the Nobel Prize is the most prestigious science accolade in the world.

The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG) is Germany’s top research prize. Since 1985, funding from the Leibniz Programme has allowed outstanding academics to expand the scope of their research and shed some of their administrative burden. The financial assistance also allows projects to take on particularly qualified scientists. The prize is endowed with up to 2.5 million euros. 

Since its establishment in 1961, the International Balzan Prize Foundation has recognised outstanding figures in the fields of the humanities, the social sciences and the arts, physics, mathematics, the natural sciences and medicine. The aim of the awards is to promote culture and science around the world as well as outstanding initiatives for peace and understanding between nations. With prize money of 750,000 Swiss francs (approx. 770,000 euros) per category, the Balzan Prize ranks as one of the world’s most prestigious awards for science. 

The Bavarian Maximilian Order is Bavarian Free State’s highest accolade for outstanding achievements in the fields of science and art. It is awarded by the state’s Minister-President. First established by King Maximilian II in 1853 as a Bavarian equivalent of the Prussian “Pour le Mérite” order, the tradition of awarding the Bavarian Maximilian Order was reinstated by a law in 1980. The order is restricted to 100 living members. 

The Pour le Mérite order is awarded to a maximum of 40 recipients in Germany and a further 40 in other countries “who have made an outstanding name for themselves through the widespread recognition of their achievements in science and the arts”. Established in 1740 by Frederick the Great as Prussia’s highest military award for bravery, King Frederick William IV added a civil class in 1842 on the advice of Alexander von Humboldt, which was re-established in 1952 at the initiative of Federal President Theodor Heuss.