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Drs. Peter and Rosemary Grant to Receive Inamori Foundation's 25th Annual Kyoto Prize for Lifetime Achievement in "Basic Sciences"
Princeton evolutionary biologists to receive $500,000 prize November 10 in Kyoto, Japan
KYOTO, JAPAN — June 19, 2009 – The Inamori Foundation (non-profit; President: Dr. Kazuo Inamori) today announced that Dr. Peter Raymond Grant and Dr. Barbara Rosemary Grant will be among the 25th annual laureates of its Kyoto Prize, an international award honoring significant contributions to the scientific, cultural and spiritual betterment of mankind.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Kyoto Prize – a major milestone in the history of the award, which is presented on November 10 each year in three categories.
For 2009, the Kyoto Prize in the category of "Basic Sciences" focuses on the field of Biological Sciences (Evolution, Behavior, Ecology, Environment). Drs. Peter and Rosemary Grant, both 72, will receive the award for documenting rapid evolution caused by natural selection in response to environmental changes.
The Grants are both professors emeriti at Princeton University, U.K. citizens, and permanent U.S. residents; they are also the first husband-and-wife team ever named to receive the Kyoto Prize. Over more than 35 years of field study on the Galápagos Islands, the Grants have demonstrated that natural selection allows the morphology and behavior of Darwin's finches to change rapidly in response to environmental fluctuations.
Their most significant achievements involve detailed study of ground finches (genus Geospiza). The Grants have revealed how beak size and shape evolve through natural selection within a dramatically changing environment, according to certain mechanisms and conditions. They were the first to closely trace evolution as it actually occurs in the field, and first to study, in detail, all aspects relating to the observed evolutionary changes – such as the ecological factors responsible for natural selection; evolutionary responses; the directions in which many traits evolve; and the mechanisms that maintain the genetic variation necessary for evolutionary change. The Grants' empirical research has made the most important contribution since Darwin toward making evolutionary biology a science in which proof is possible.
In addition to Drs. Peter and Rosemary Grant, this year's Kyoto Prize laureates include, in "Advanced Technology," Dr. Isamu Akasaki, 80, a semiconductor scientist, university professor at Nagoya University and professor at Meijo University in Japan; and, in "Arts and Philosophy," Mr. Pierre Boulez, 84, an internationally renowned composer, conductor and honorary director of the Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustic/Music (IRCAM) in France.
Each Kyoto Prize laureate will be presented with a diploma, a 20-karat-gold Kyoto Prize medal, and a cash gift totaling 50 million yen (approximately US$500,000) per prize category during a week of ceremonies beginning November 9, 2009, in Kyoto. The laureates will reconvene in San Diego, Calif., April 20-22, 2010, for the ninth annual Kyoto Prize Symposium.
About the Inamori Foundation
The non-profit Inamori Foundation was established in 1984 by Dr. Kazuo Inamori, founder and chairman emeritus of Kyocera and KDDI Corporation. The Kyoto Prize was founded in 1985, in line with Dr. Inamori's belief that a human being has no higher calling than to strive for the greater good of society, and that the future of humanity can be assured only when there is a balance between our scientific progress and our spiritual depth. An emblematic feature of the Kyoto Prize is that it is presented not only in recognition of outstanding achievements, but also in honor of the excellent personal characteristics that have shaped those achievements. The laureates are selected through a strict and impartial process considering candidates recommended from around the world. As of the 24th Kyoto Prize ceremony (on November 10, 2008), the Kyoto Prize has been awarded to 77 individuals and one group – collectively representing 13 nations, and ranging from scientists, engineers and researchers to philosophers, painters, architects, sculptors, musicians and film directors. The United States has produced the most recipients (33), followed by Japan (12), the United Kingdom (10), and France (7).