The annual Marcel Benoist Science Prize is Switzerland’s most prestigious research prize. It honours scientists whose work is outstanding not only in terms of quality, innovation and originality, but also in terms of its usefulness and relevance to human life.
On behalf of the Marcel Benoist Foundation and with the support of the Swiss Confederation, the SNSF has been responsible since 2018 for evaluating all the nominees and selecting the winner. An innovation is the annual rotation of the prize between the humanities and social sciences, mathematics, natural sciences and engineering, biology and medicine. In 2019, the prize will be awarded to a researcher from the fields of mathematics, natural sciences or engineering.
New Chairman of the Foundation
Since 2013, former Federal Councillor Johann N. Schneider-Ammann has chaired the Marcel Benoist Foundation. His commitment has raised the profile of the prize. Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin, head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, will be the new Chairman of the Foundation.
Call for nominations until 8 April 2019
The nomination procedure is open to the entire Swiss research community. Researchers, leading members of research institutions and representatives of other public or private institutions may submit their proposals by 8 April. Potential award winners are researchers who live in Switzerland and work at least 50% at a Swiss research institution. The majority of the relevant research work must have been carried out while working in Switzerland.
Nominations can be submitted from now until 8 April: Link