The Frontiers of Knowledge Awards return to Bilbao to celebrate the universal value of science and culture

Since their creation in 2008, the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards have recognized contributions of exceptional impact in scientific research and artistic creation, particularly those that significantly expand the boundaries of knowledge, open up new fields, or result from the interaction of different disciplines.

In their 18th edition, physicists Allan MacDonald (University of Texas at Austin, USA) and Pablo Jarillo-Herrero (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, USA) have been recognized in the Basic Sciences category for their discoveries regarding the so-called “magic angle,” which enables the transformation and control of the behavior of new materials.

In Biology and Biomedicine, Carl June (University of Pennsylvania, USA) and Michel Sadelain (Columbia University, USA) have been recognized for revolutionizing cancer treatment through immunotherapy based on the patient’s own genetically modified cells.

Joan Daemen (Radboud University, Netherlands) and Vincent Rijmen (KU Leuven, Belgium and the University of Bergen, Norway) have received the award in the Information and Communication Technologies category for designing the cryptographic system that safeguards the security of electronic devices and digital communications worldwide.

In the Climate Change and Environmental Sciences category, Carl Wunsch (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, USA) has been honored for contributions to research that have revealed the impact of global warming on the world’s oceans.

Charles Manski (Northwestern University, Chicago, USA) has been recognized in the Economics, Finance and Management category for incorporating uncertainty into economic research and its application to public policy analysis.

In the Humanities category, Nancy Cartwright (Durham University, United Kingdom and the University of California San Diego, USA) has been recognized for strengthening scientific rationality through philosophy, and for providing a foundation for effective evidence-based public policies.

The Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan (USA) and NORC at the University of Chicago (USA) have been recognized in the Social Sciences category for their global leadership and continuous innovation in the scientific measurement of public opinion and social life.

Finally, in Music and Opera, South Korean composer Unsuk Chin has been recognized for developing a personal voice that has achieved global resonance in contemporary music by virtue of its innovative virtuosity and vivid sonic imagination.

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 its transmission to society, along with the recognition of talent through families of awards organized alone or in conjunction with scientific societies and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

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, social sciences, economics, the 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 tool at our command to confront the defining 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 those who have achieved particularly significant advances in science and in music. 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.

34 Frontiers awardees have gone on to win the Nobel Prize

An external indicator of the excellence of the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards is that 34 researchers recognized by the BBVA Foundation’s awards subsequently went on to receive the Nobel Prize.

Fourteen 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), Daron Acemoglu (2024) and Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt (2025).

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 seven Frontiers awardees: Robert J. Lefkowitz in 2012, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna in 2020, David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper in 2024, and Omar Yaghi in 2025.