BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards (Spanish: Premios Fundación BBVA Fronteras del Conocimiento) are an international award programme recognizing significant contributions in the areas of scientific research and cultural creation. The categories that make up the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards respond to the knowledge map of the present age. As well as the fundamental knowledge that is at their core, they address developments in information and communication technologies, and interactions between biology and medicine, ecology and conservation biology, climate change, economics, humanities and social sciences, and, finally, contemporary musical creation and performance. Specific categories are reserved for developing knowledge fields of critical relevance to confront central challenges of the 21st century, as in the case of the two environmental awards.

The awards were established in 2008, with the first set of winners receiving their prizes in 2009. The BBVA Foundation – belonging to financial group BBVA – is partnered in the scheme by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the country's premier public research organization.

Categories

There are eight award categories: basic science, biology and biomedicine, climate change, ecology and conservation biology, information and communications technologies, economics, finance and management, music and opera, humanities and social sciences (a new category in the 11th edition). Previously, in the first 10 editions, there was a category in development cooperation.

Juries

Eight juries, one for each category, analyze the nominations put forward by international academic and research institutions.^[1][2] To reach their decision, the juries meet during January and February in the Marqués de Salamanca Palace, Madrid headquarters of the BBVA Foundation. The day after the jury's decision, the name of the winners(s) and the achievements that earned them the award are revealed at an announcement event in the same location.

Ceremony

The awards are presented in June each year at a ceremony held, from the 11th edition, in the Euskalduna Palace at Bilbao, in the Basque Country.^[3][4][5][6]

BBVA Foundation

The BBVA Foundation engages in the promotion of research, advanced training and the transmission of knowledge to society, focusing on the emerging issues of the 21st century in five areas: Environment, Biomedicine and Health, Economy and Society, Basic Sciences and Technology, and Arts and Humanities. The BBVA Foundation designs, develops and finances research projects in these areas; facilitates advanced specialist training through grants, courses, seminars and workshops; organizes award schemes for researchers and professionals whose work has contributed significantly to the advancement of knowledge; and communicates and disseminates such new knowledge through publications, databases, lecture series, debates, exhibitions and audiovisual and electronic media.^[7][8]

Prizes

Each BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge laureate receives a commemorative artwork, a diploma and a cash prize of 400,000 euros per category. Awards may not be granted posthumously, and when an award is shared, its monetary amount is divided equally among the recipients.

The commemorative artwork is created by Madrid sculptor Blanca Muñoz, B.A. in Fine Arts from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Holder of scholarships at Calcografia Nazionale (1989), awarded by the Italian Government, at the Spanish Royal Academy in Rome (1990), and in Mexico City (1992), awarded by the Mexican Department of Foreign Affairs, her numerous distinctions include the 1999 National Print Prize.

As of 2023, 22 BBVA Foundation laureates have also won the Nobel Prize.

Laureates

Year	Category	Laureate	Nationality	Nobel Prize
2008	Basic Sciences	Ignacio Cirac	Spain
		Peter Zoller	Austria
	Biology and Biomedicine	Joan Massagué	Spain
	Climate Change	Wallace S. Broecker	United States
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Thomas Lovejoy	United States
		William Laurance
	Information and Communication Technologies	Jacob Ziv	Israel
	Economics, Finance and Management	Jean Tirole	France	Economic Sciences 2014
	Development Cooperation	Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab	United States
	Arts	Steven Holl	United States
2009	Basic Sciences	Richard Zare	United States
		Michael Fisher	United Kingdom
	Biology and Biomedicine	Robert Lefkowitz	United States	Chemistry 2012
	Climate Change	Klaus Hasselmann	Germany	Physics 2021
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Peter B. Reich	United States
	Information and Communication Technologies	Thomas Kailath	United States
	Economics, Finance and Management	Andreu Mas-Colell	Spain
		Hugo F. Sonnenschein	United States
	Development Cooperation	Development Research Institute	United States
	Contemporary Music	Cristóbal Halffter	Spain
2010	Basic Sciences	Gabor A. Somorjai	United States  Hungary
	Biology and Biomedicine	Shinya Yamanaka	Japan	Physiology 2012
	Climate Change	Nicholas Stern	United Kingdom
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Edward Osborne Wilson	United States
	Information and Communication Technologies	Donald Knuth	United States
	Economics, Finance and Management	Lars Peter Hansen	United States	Economic Sciences 2013
	Development Cooperation	International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)	Finland
	Contemporary Music	Helmut Lachenmann	Germany
2011	Basic Sciences	Michel Mayor	Switzerland	Physics 2019
		Didier Queloz
	Biology and Biomedicine	Alexander Varshavsky	United States
	Climate Change	Isaac Held	United States
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Daniel H. Janzen	United States
	Information and Communication Technologies	Carver Mead	United States
	Economics, Finance and Management	Angus Deaton	United Kingdom	Economic Sciences 2015
	Development Cooperation	Ciro de Quadros	Brazil
	Contemporary Music	Salvatore Sciarrino	Italy
2012	Basic Sciences	Ingrid Daubechies[9]	Belgium
		David Mumford[10]	United Kingdom
	Biology and Biomedicine	Douglas Coleman[11]	Canada
		Jeffrey Friedman[12]	United States
	Climate Change	Susan Solomon[13]	United States
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Jane Lubchenco[14]	United States
	Information and Communication Technologies	Lotfi A. Zadeh[15]	Azerbaijan
	Economics, Finance and Management	Paul Milgrom[16]	United States	Economic Sciences 2020
	Development Cooperation	DNDi[17]	Switzerland
	Contemporary Music	Pierre Boulez[18]	France
2013	Basic Sciences	Maximilian Haider[19]	Austria
		Harald Rose[20]	Germany
		Knut Urban[21]
	Biology and Biomedicine	Adrian Bird[22]	United Kingdom
	Climate Change	Christopher Field[23]	United States
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Paul R. Ehrlich[24]	United States
	Information and Communication Technologies	Marvin Minsky[25]	United States
	Economics, Finance and Management	Elhanan Helpman[26]	Israel
	Development Cooperation	Pratham[27]	India
	Contemporary Music	Steve Reich[28]	United States
2014	Basic Sciences	Stephen Buchwald[29]	United States
	Biology and Biomedicine	Joseph Schlessinger[30]	United States
		Charles Sawyers[31]
		Tony Hunter[32]	United Kingdom
	Climate Change	Richard Alley[33]	United States
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	David Tilman[34]	United States
	Information and Communication Technologies	Leonard Kleinrock[35]	United States
	Economics, Finance and Management	Richard Blundell	United Kingdom
		David Card	Canada	Economic Sciences 2021
	Development Cooperation	Helen Keller International	United States
	Contemporary Music	György Kurtág[36]	Hungary
2015	Basic Sciences	Stephen Hawking	United Kingdom
		Viatcheslav Mukhanov	Germany
	Biology and Biomedicine	Edward Boyden	United States
		Karl Deisseroth	United States
		Gero Miesenböck	Austria
	Climate Change	Veerabhadran Ramanathan	India
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Ilkka Hanski	Finland
	Information and Communication Technologies	Stephen Cook	Canada
	Economics, Finance and Management	Robert Wilson	United States	Economic Sciences 2020
	Development Cooperation	Martin Ravallion	Australia
	Contemporary Music	Georges Aperghis	Greece
2016	Basic Sciences	David Cox	United Kingdom
		Bradley Efron	United States
	Biology and Biomedicine	Emmanuelle Charpentier	France	Chemistry 2020
		Jennifer Doudna	United States	Chemistry 2020
		Francisco Mojica	Spain
	Climate Change	James Hansen	United States
		Syukuro Manabe	Japan /  United States	Physics 2021
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Gene E. Likens	United States
		Marten Scheffer	Netherlands
	Information and Communication Technologies	Geoffrey Hinton	United Kingdom
	Economics, Finance and Management	Daron Acemoglu	Turkey /  United States	Economic Sciences 2024
	Development Cooperation	Peter J. Myler	United States
		Pedro L. Alonso	Spain
	Contemporary Music	Sofia Gubaidulina	Russia
2017	Basic Sciences	Omar M. Yaghi	Jordan /  United States
	Biology and Biomedicine	James P. Allison	United States	Medicine 2018
	Climate Change	William Nordhaus	United States	Economic Sciences 2018
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Rosemary Grant	United Kingdom
		Peter Grant	United Kingdom
	Information and Communication Technologies	Shafi Goldwasser	United States
		Ronald Rivest
		Silvio Micali	Italy
		Adi Shamir	Israel
	Economics, Finance and Management	Robert Porter	Canada
		Ariel Pakes	Canada /  United States
		Timothy Bresnahan	United States
	Development Cooperation	Nubia Muñoz	Colombia
	Contemporary Music	Kaija Saariaho	Finland
2018	Basic Sciences	Charles L. Kane[37]	United States
		Eugene J. Mele[38]
	Biology and Biomedicine	Jeffrey I. Gordon[39][40]	United States
	Climate Change	Anny Cazenave[41]	France
		John A. Church[42]	Australia
		Jonathan M. Gregory[43]	United Kingdom
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Gretchen Daily[44]	United States
		Georgina Mace[45]	United Kingdom
	Information and Communication Technologies	Ivan Sutherland[46]	United States
	Economics, Finance and Management	Claudia Goldin[47]	United States	Economic Sciences 2023
	Humanities and Social Sciences	Noam Chomsky[48]	United States
	Music and Opera	John Adams[49]	United States
2019	Basic Sciences	Gilles Brassard	Canada
		Charles H. Bennett	United States
		Peter Shor
	Biology and Biomedicine	Michael N. Hall	United States /   Switzerland
		David M. Sabatini	United States
	Climate Change	Kerry A. Emanuel	United States
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Daniel Pauly	Canada
		Terence Hughes	Ireland /  Australia
		Carlos M. Duarte	Spain
	Information and Communications Technology	Isabelle Guyon	France
		Bernhard Schölkopf	Germany
		Vladimir Vapnik	Russia /  United States
	Economics, Finance and Management	Philippe Aghion	France
		Peter W. Howitt	Canada
	Humanities and Social Cognition	Susan Fiske	United States
		Shelley E. Taylor
	Music and Opera	Arvo Pärt	Estonia
2020	Basic Sciences	Paul Alivisatos	United States
		Michael Grätzel	Switzerland
	Biology and Biomedicine	David Julius	United States	Medicine 2021
		Ardem Patapoutian	Lebanon /  United States	Medicine 2021
	Climate Change	Neil Adger[50]	United Kingdom
		Ian Burton
		Karen O'Brien	United States
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Sandra Díaz	Argentina
		Sandra Lavorel	France
		Mark Westoby	Australia
	Information and Communications Technology	John L. Hennessy	United States
		David A. Patterson
	Economics, Finance and Management	Ben Bernanke	United States	Economic Sciences 2022
		Mark Gertler
		Nobuhiro Kiyotaki	Japan
		John Moore	United Kingdom
	Humanities and Social Sciences	Gerald Holton	Austria /  United States
	Music and Opera	Peter Eötvös	Hungary
2021	Basic Sciences	Charles Fefferman	United States
		Jean-François Le Gall	France
	Biology and Biomedicine	Katalin Kariko	Hungary	Medicine 2023
		Drew Weissman	United States	Medicine 2023
		Robert S. Langer
	Climate Change	Lonnie G. Thompson	United States
		Ellen Mosley-Thompson
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Lenore Fahrig	Canada
		Simon Levin	United States
		Steward Pickett
	Information and Communications Technology	Judea Pearl	Israel /  United States
	Economics, Finance and Management	Matthew O. Jackson	United States
	Humanities and Social Sciences	Mark Granovetter[51]	United States
	Music and Opera	Philip Glass	United States
2022	Basic Sciences	Paul Corkum	Canada
		Ferenc Krausz	Hungary /  Germany	Physics 2023
		Anne L’Huillier	France /  Sweden	Physics 2023
	Biology and Biomedicine	David Baker	United States	Chemistry 2024
		John Jumper		Chemistry 2024
		Demis Hassabis	United Kingdom	Chemistry 2024
	Climate Change	Ellen Thomas	United States
		James Zachos
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Susan Alberts	United States
		Jeanne Altmann
		Marlene Zuk
	Information and Communications Technology	Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli	Italy /  United States
	Economics, Finance and Management	Timothy J. Besley	United Kingdom
		Torsten Persson	Sweden
		Guido Tabellini	Italy
	Humanities and Social Sciences	Steven Pinker	Canada
		Peter Singer	Australia
	Music and Opera	Thomas Adès	United Kingdom
2023	Basic Sciences	Claire Voisin	France
		Yakov Eliashberg	United States
	Biology and Biomedicine	Franz-Ulrich Hartl	Germany
		Arthur L. Horwich	United States
		Kazutoshi Mori	Japan
		Peter Walter	United States
	Climate Change	Dorthe Dahl-Jensen	Denmark
		Jean Jouzel	France
		Valérie Masson-Delmotte
		Jakob Schwander	Switzerland
		Thomas Stocker
	Ecology and Conservation Biology	Gerardo Ceballos	Mexico
		Rodolfo Dirzo
	Information and Communication Technologies	Takeo Kanade	Japan
	Economics, Finance and Management	Partha Dasgupta	India /  United Kingdom
	Humanities and Social Sciences	Elke U. Weber	United States
	Music and Opera	George Benjamin	United Kingdom

Laureates per country

Below is a chart of all laureates per country (updated to 2023 laureates). Some laureates are counted more than once if they have multiple citizenships.

Country	Number of laureates
United States	102
United Kingdom	20
France	9
Canada	9
Germany	7
Hungary	6
Spain	6
Japan	5
Austria	4
Russia	3
Italy	3
Israel	3
Sweden	2
Brazil	1
Argentina	1
Netherlands	1

References

1. "Hemos perdido el tiempo con el cambio climático". El País. January 29, 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
2. Rivera, Alicia (February 11, 2014). "El sistema de ciencia español no responde a las necesidades del siglo XXI". El País. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
3. "Entrega de los premios Fronteras de la Fundación BBVA". El País. June 10, 2010. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
4. Guerrero, Teresa (June 21, 2013). "Diez sabios defienden la ciencia frente a la crisis". El Mundo. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
5. Corral, Miguel G. (June 22, 2012). "Ante la crisis, más ciencia". El Mundo. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
6. "La Fundación BBVA entrega sus premios Fronteras del Conocimiento". ABC. June 17, 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
7. "La Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando premia a la Fundación BBVA". El País. January 12, 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
8. "La ciencia vale la pena". La Vanguardia. June 22, 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
9. Soto, A. (January 22, 2013). "Los matemáticos Ingrid Daubechies9-url=https://archive.today/20150205113423/http://sevilla.abc.es/sociedad/20130122/rc-matematicos-ingrid-daubechies-david-201301221330.html". ABC.
10. Corral, Miguel G. (January 25, 2013). "Premio Fronteras a los matemáticos clave para la robótica y el audio y vídeo". El Mundo. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
11. Tobella, Alba (January 29, 2013). "Premio a los descubridores de la hormona que regula el apetito". El País. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
12. Díaz Landaluce, Ixone (June 17, 2013). "La obesidad está en el cerebro, no en el plato". XL Semanal. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
13. López, Celeste (December 27, 2013). "Llegaremos a tiempo de parar el cambio climático". Magazine La Vanguardia. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
14. López Rejas, Javier (June 14, 2013). "Jane Lubchenco "Los océanos se hallan en un grave deterioro"". El Cultural. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
15. Peirón, Francesc (June 14, 2013). "Hoy todo se convierte en dinero". La Vanguardia. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
16. Matos Elices, María (June 20, 2013). "Pocos economistas van de lo concreto a lo de mayor alcance". Cinco Días. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
17. "La fundación 'Medicamentos para enfermedades olvidadas' recibe el premio BBVA". El Mundo. February 26, 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
18. Verdú, Daniel (February 26, 2013). "Me decepciona que el arte moderno esté más expuesto que la música". El País. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
19. "El microscopio de precisión subatómica, premio Fronteras del Conocimiento". El País. January 21, 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
20. López Rejas, Javier (January 21, 2014). "Los avances técnicos del microscopio electrónico, Premio Fundación BBVA". El Cultural. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
21. López Rejas, Javier (May 2, 2014). "Knut Urban: "Los átomos han dejado de ser un campo exótico"". El Cultural. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
22. Sánchez-Monge, María (June 23, 2014). "Adrian Bird: "Soy como un hereje de la epigenética"". Diario Médico. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
23. Fresneda, Carlos (June 4, 2014). "'Es fantástico que Obama obligue a reducir las emisiones de CO2'". El Mundo. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
24. "Fundación BBVA premia a Paul Ehrlich por sus estudios sobre biodiversidad". La Vanguardia. February 4, 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
25. Elola, Joseba (August 31, 2014). "Nadie está al frente del planeta". El País. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
26. Cymerman, Henrique (June 13, 2014). "Es probable que veamos más protestas y más presión para que se hagan cambios". Magazine La Vanguardia. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
27. Resino, Marta (February 25, 2014). "La ONG Pratham, galardonada por educar a 33 millones de niños en la India". El Mundo. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
28. Ojeda, Alberto (June 13, 2014). "Steve Reich: "Los minimalistas abrimos las ventanas de los auditorios"". El Cultural. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
29. BBVA (20 January 2015). "The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences goes to Stephen Buchwald for creating more efficient, stable, broad-spectrum catalysts of importance in drug discovery". Reuters. Archived from the original (press release) on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
30. "La Fundación BBVA premia a tres investigadores por el tratamiento personalizado del cáncer". Expansión. January 15, 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
31. "Los pioneros del tratamiento personalizado del cáncer, premio Fundación BBVA". La Vanguardia. January 27, 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
32. "Medicina personalizada contra el cáncer". El País. February 4, 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
33. Acosta, A. (January 9, 2015). "El glaciólogo Richard Alley, premio Fronteras del Conocimiento de Cambio Climático". ABC. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
34. Mosquera, Eva (February 3, 2015). "Premio al pionero que demostró el valor de la biodiversidad". El Mundo. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
35. "El artífice de la primera conexión de datos en internet, Premio Fundación BBVA". La Vanguardia. January 13, 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
36. Leticia, Yustos (February 10, 2015). "György Kurtág premio Fundación BBVA Fronteras del Conocimiento en la especialidad de música contemporánea". Doce Notas. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
37. "La Fundación BBVA premia a los descubridores de los aislantes topológicos". La Sexta TV. 5 March 2019.
38. "Los físicos Charles Kane y Eugene Mele, premiados por Fundación BBVA por descubrir los aislantes topológicos". Europa Press. 5 March 2019.
39. Laureates 2018
40. Del Corral, Pedro (29 January 2019). "El investigador que descubrió que las bacterias intestinales no son enemigas". Diario La Razón.
41. Portillo, Javier (30 January 2019). "Anny Cazenave: "El aumento del nivel del mar está cambiado la forma de la Tierra"". Diario El País.
42. Díaz, Raquel (9 January 2019). "Premio a los pioneros en la detección del aumento del nivel del mar por el cambio climático". Diario El Mundo.
43. "Cazenave, Church y Gregory, Premio Fronteras Conocimiento en Cambio Climático". No. EFE Verde. 9 January 2019.
44. Portillo, Javier (5 February 2019). "Premio Fronteras del Conocimiento para las profesoras Daily y Mace, revolucionarias de la ecología". Diario El País.
45. Díaz, Raquel (5 February 2019). "La Fundación BBVA premia a las visionarias que cuantificaron el valor de la naturaleza". Diario El Mundo.
46. "Ivan Sutherland, el "padre de la computación gráfica" que revolucionó nuestra interacción con las máquinas". BBC News. 2 March 2019.
47. "La fundación BBVA premia a Claudia Goldin por su análisis de la brecha de género". El Mundo. 26 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
48. Ruiz Mantilla, Jesús (16 April 2019). "Noam Chomsky consigue el Premio Fronteras del Conocimiento". El País.
49. Bravo, Julio (10 March 2019). "John Adams: "Nadie puede vivir sin música"". ABC.
50. Laureates 2020
51. "The Frontiers Award goes to Mark Granovetter for discovering the importance of an extended network of "acquaintances" in economic and social life". 6 April 2022.

External links

• BBVA Foundation