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Abstract:
Half of the amount must be destined to research projects

Balzan Prize 2007 (1 million Swiss Francs) for nanoscience awarded

Milan, Italy | Posted on September 3rd, 2007

One of the four International Balzan Prizes 2007,
which have a prize fund of CHF 1 million (EUR 610 thousand), is to be
awarded for research in the area of nanoscience to Sumio Iijima, Meijo
University, Nagoya, Japan.

The profiles of the winners and the motivations of the award were presented
by a member of Balzan¹s General Prize Committee:

Nicola Cabibbo (Professor of Physics at the University La Sapienza in Rome,
Fellow of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome and President of the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences) justified the assignment of the Prize for
Nanoscience to Sumio Iijima as follows:

³For his discovery of carbon nanotubes and in particular the discovery of
single walled carbon nanotubes and the study of their properties².

The President of the General Prize Committee, Sergio Romano, added that the
awarded subjects, which vary each year, make it possible to encourage
specific fields of study which are new or unknown to other international
awards. As usual, the Committee¹s twenty prestigious scholars from eleven
different European countries put a great deal of effort in selecting the
winners from among the candidates submitted by the most important
international cultural institutions.

Ambassador Bruno Bottai, expressed satisfaction for the prestige of the
eminent scholars who will receive the Balzan Prize on 23 November in Berne
(in compliance with the rule of alternation between the Italian and the
Swiss capitals). It is important to remember that the Balzan Foundation
requests that half of the million Swiss Francs received by the winner of
each of the four subjects be destined for research work, preferably
involving young scholars and researchers.

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About Balzan Foundation
The International Balzan Prize Foundation, founded in 1957, promotes
culture, science, and the most meritorious initiatives in the cause of
humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples, regardless of nationality,
race or creed throughout the world. It achieves its aim through the annual
award of four prizes in two general fields: literature, the moral sciences
and the arts; medicine and the physical, mathematical and natural sciences,
each for the current value of CHF 1 million. Each prize-winner must destine
half of the prize for research work, preferably involving young researchers.

The Balzan Foundation also periodically awards a ³Prize for humanity, peace
and brotherhood among peoples². The awards ceremony is held in alternate
years in Rome, in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic, and
in Berne, in the presence of the Representative of the Federal Council of
the Swiss Confederation. The International Balzan Prize Foundation works
from two different offices. The Balzan Foundation ³Prize² (chaired in Milan
by Ambassador Bruno Bottai), selects the subjects to be awarded and the
candidates through its General Prize Committee, which is composed of eminent
European members. The Balzan Foundation ³Fund² (chaired in Zurich by Achille
Casanova) administer the estate left by Eugenio Balzan.