Astrophysicist Joe Silk Wins 2011 Balzan Prize
Astrophysicist Joseph Silk is among this year’s winners of the prestigious Italian-Swiss Balzan Prize. The award is valued at 750,000 Swiss Francs (approx. $950,000); half of this amount must be designated by the winner to research work, preferably involving young scholars. Silk, of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland (USA), and Oxford University (UK), is cited for his work on the early universe, from the Planck time to the first galaxies.
The award fields vary each year and can be related to either a specific or an interdisciplinary field, and look to go beyond the traditional subjects both in the humanities (literature, the moral sciences, and the arts) and in the sciences (medicine and the physical, mathematical, and natural sciences), so as to give priority to innovative research.
The Balzan Prizewinners 2011 were announced on September 5 in Milan by the Chairman of the Balzan General Prize Committee, Salvatore Veca, together with the President of the Balzan Prize Foundation, Ambassador Bruno Bottai.
The profiles of the winners and the citations (the Prizes will be presented during the award ceremony to be held in Berne on November 18) were presented by prestigious members of the General Prize Committee. Bengt Gustafsson (Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Uppsala; Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters) read the citation for the assignment of the Prize for the Early Universe (From the Planck Time to the First Galaxies) to Joseph Silk:
“For his pioneering work on the early evolution of the universe, by studying the effects of various physical processes and phenomena such as dark matter and space curvature on the fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background and the formation of galaxies of different types”.
The International Balzan Foundation, founded in 1957, operates through two separate institutions. The International Balzan Foundation “Prize” (chaired in Milan by Ambassador Bruno Bottai) selects the subjects to be awarded and the candidates through its General Prize Committee. The Balzan Foundation “Fund” (chaired in Zurich by Achille Casanova) administers the estate left by Eugenio Balzan.
