The ceremony of the 17th edition of the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards will be held on June 19 in Bilbao

The Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, established in 2008, recognize and reward contributions of singular impact in science, art and the humanities, privileging those that significantly expand the frontiers of the known world, open up new fields, or emerge from the interaction of various disciplinary areas.

In their 17th edition, chemists Avelino Corma, John Hartwig and Helmut Schwarz have won the award in Basic Sciences for their foundational work on the catalysts that are enabling a more efficient, sustainable chemistry.

The award in the Biology and Biomedicine category has been granted to Daniel Drucker, Joel Habener, Jens Juul Holst and Svetlana Mojsov for fundamental biological discoveries that have driven the development of new generation drugs against diabetes and obesity.

Anil Jain and Michael I. Jordan have won the award in Information and Communication Technologies for core contributions in machine learning that have powered the development of biometrics and artificial intelligence.

In the Climate Change and Environmental Sciences category, the award goes to Camille Parmesan for demonstrating the impact of climate change on the geographical displacement of species round the globe.

The award in Economics, Finance and Management has gone to Olivier Blanchard, Jordi Galí and Michael Woodford in recognition of their profound influence on modern macroeconomics and the design of monetary and fiscal policy rules.

The award in Humanities has gone to Philip Kitcher, whose philosophical output has addressed a broad spectrum of the core questions of our time.

Icek Ajzen, Dolores Albarracín, Mahzarin Banaji, Anthony Greenwald and Richard Petty have received the award in the Social Sciences category for contributions that have revolutionized attitude theory and its practical applications.

Finally, in Music and Opera this year’s winner is composer Toshio Hosokawa for the extraordinary reach of his music, which tends a bridge between the Japanese tradition and contemporary Western aesthetics.

About the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards

The BBVA Foundation centers its activity on the promotion of world-class scientific research and cultural creation, and the recognition of talent.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, funded with 400,000 euros in each of their eight categories, recognize and reward contributions of singular impact in basic sciences, biomedicine, environmental sciences and climate change, information and communication technologies, social sciences, economics, humanities and music. The goal of the awards, established in 2008, is to celebrate and promote the value of knowledge as a global public good, the best instrument to confront the great challenges of our time and expand individual worldviews. Their eight categories are congruent with the knowledge map of the 21st century.

The BBVA Foundation is partnered in these awards by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the country’s premier public research organization. CSIC appoints evaluation support panels made up of leading experts in the corresponding knowledge area, who are charged with undertaking an initial assessment of candidates and drawing up a reasoned shortlist for the consideration of the award committees. CSIC is also responsible for designating each committee’s chair across the eight prize categories and participates in the selection of remaining members, helping to ensure objectivity in the recognition of innovation and scientific excellence. The presidency of CSIC also has a prominent role in the awards ceremony held each year in Bilbao, the permanent home of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards.

31 Frontiers laureates have later won the Nobel Prize

An external indicator of the excellence in the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards is that 31 researchers who have won the BBVA Foundation awards have later received the Nobel Prize.

Twelve Frontiers awardees have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics: Lars Peter Hansen (2013), Jean Tirole (2014), Angus Deaton (2015),  William Nordhaus (2018), Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo (2019), Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson (2020),  David Card (2021), Ben Bernanke (2022), Claudia Goldin (2023) and Daron Acemoglu (2024).

In the case of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, six Frontiers laureates were subsequently distinguished by the Swedish Academy:  Shinya Yamanaka (2011), James P. Allison (2018), David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian (2021) and Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman (2023).

The Nobel Prize in Physics has found its way to seven previous Frontiers awardees: Didier Queloz and Michel G. E. Mayor (2019), Klaus Hasselman and Syukuru Manabe (2021) Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier (2023), and Geoffrey Hinton (2024).

Finally, in the case of the Chemistry Nobel, the Swedish Academy has recognized the work of six Frontiers awardees: Robert J. Lefkowitz in 2012, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna in 2020, and David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper in 2024.