Crafoord Prize

The Crafoord Prize is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger and Anna-Greta Crafoord. It is administered by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The prize is for "international basic research in the disciplines Astronomy, Mathematics, Geosciences, and Biosciences, with particular emphasis on ecology, and rheumatoid arthritis" (the disease from which Holger severely suffered in his last years). According to the Academy, "these disciplines are chosen so as to complement those for which the Nobel Prizes are awarded."

Only one award is given each year, according to a rotating scheme – astronomy and mathematics; then geosciences; then biosciences. A Crafoord Prize is only awarded for arthritis when a committee decides that substantial progress in the field has been made. On Crafoord Day in April, the prize is presented by the King of Sweden, who also presents the Nobel Prize Awards at the ceremony in December. The prize is to fund further research by the prize winner. In 2012 it is US$600,000.

Winners

Year	Category	Image	Laureate	Nationality	Work
1982	Mathematics		Vladimir Arnold		Theory of non-linear differential equations
			Louis Nirenberg	United States
1983	Geosciences		Edward Lorenz	United States	Geophysical hydrodynamics
		—	Henry Stommel	United States
1984	Biosciences		Daniel Janzen	United States	Co-evolution
1985	Astronomy		Lyman Spitzer	United States	Studies of the interstellar medium
1986	Geosciences	—	Claude Allègre	France	Isotope geochemical relations
		—	Gerald J. Wasserburg	United States
1987	Biosciences	—	Eugene P. Odum	United States	Ecosystem ecology
			Howard T. Odum	United States
1988	Mathematics		Pierre Deligne	Belgium United States	Algebraic geometry
			Alexander Grothendieck	None
1989	Geosciences		James Van Allen	United States	Exploration of space, the discovery the Van Allen belts
1990	Biosciences		Paul R. Ehrlich	United States	Dynamics and genetics of fragmented populations
			E.O. Wilson	United States	Theory of island biogeography
1991	Astronomy		Allan Rex Sandage	United States	Study of galaxies
1992	Geosciences	—	Adolf Seilacher	Germany	Research into evolution of life
1993	Biosciences		W.D. Hamilton	United Kingdom	Theories of kin selection and genetic relationship
			Seymour Benzer	United States	Genetical and neurophysiological studies of fruit flies
1994	Mathematics	—	Simon Donaldson	United Kingdom	Four-dimensional geometry
			Shing-Tung Yau	United States	Non-linear techniques in differential geometry
1995	Geosciences	—	Willi Dansgaard	Denmark	Development of isotope geological analysis methods
			Nicholas Shackleton	United Kingdom
1996	Biosciences		Robert M. May	Australia	Ecological research
1997	Astronomy		Fred Hoyle	United Kingdom	Study of nuclear processes in stars, stellar evolution
		—	Edwin Salpeter	United States
1998	Geosciences	—	Don L. Anderson	United States	Study of the structures and processes in the interior of the Earth
		—	Adam M. Dziewonski	United States
1999	Biosciences		Ernst Mayr	United States	Developing the concept of evolutionary biology
		—	John Maynard Smith	United Kingdom
			George C. Williams	United States
2000	Polyarthritis	—	Marc Feldmann	United Kingdom	Definition of TNF-alpha
		—	Ravinder N. Maini	United Kingdom
2001	Mathematics		Alain Connes	France	Theory of operator algebras, founder of the non-commutative geometry
2002	Geosciences	—	Dan P. McKenzie	United Kingdom	Dynamics of the lithosphere
2003	Biosciences	—	Carl Woese	United States	Third domain of life
2004	Polyarthritis	—	Eugene C. Butcher	United States	Study of molecular mechanisms concerning white blood cells
		—	Timothy A. Springer	United States
2005	Astronomy	—	James E. Gunn	United States	Understanding the large-scale structure of the Universe
		—	James Peebles	United States
			Martin Rees	United Kingdom
2006	Geosciences	—	Wallace S. Broecker	United States	Research into the global carbon cycle
2007	Biosciences	—	Robert Trivers	United States	Analysis of social evolution
2008	Astronomy		Rashid Alievich Sunyaev	Russia	Contributions to high-energy astrophysics and cosmology
	Mathematics		Maxim Kontsevich	Russia	Contributions to mathematics from modern theoretical physics
			Edward Witten	United States
2009	Polyarthritis		Charles Dinarello	United States	Isolation of interleukins, understanding their role in the onset of inflammatory diseases
			Tadamitsu Kishimoto	Japan
			Toshio Hirano	Japan
2010	Geosciences		Walter Munk	United States	“for his pioneering and fundamental contributions to our understanding of ocean circulation, tides and waves, and their role in the Earth’s dynamics”.
2011	Biosciences		Ilkka Hanski	Finland	“for his pioneering studies on how spatial variation affects the dynamics of animal and plant populations”.
2012	Astronomy	—	Reinhard Genzel	Germany	"for their observations of the stars orbiting the galactic centre, indicating the presence of a supermassive black hole".
		—	Andrea M. Ghez	United States
	Mathematics	—	Jean Bourgain	Belgium	“for their brilliant and groundbreaking work in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, ergodic theory, number theory, combinatorics, functional analysis and theoretical computer science".
			Terence Tao	Australia United States