Where the money goes
A new prize with an old name
www.knaw.nl
NOVEMBER 2005
Dr. Paul C. Lauterbur, inventor of magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) was the first Heineken Prize
winner in medicine (1989) to go on to win a Nobel
Prize, also in medicine, in 2003
Sir Paul M. Nurse accepting his Nobel Prize
Dr. Thomas Cech, winner of the 1988 prize, won the
Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1989
Distinguished Awards lists more than 20 science awards with prizes above
USD 100,000. Many of those could be considered precursors to the
awarding of a Nobel Prize.
The Heineken scientific prizes award each USD 150,000 every two years.
There are no restrictions on how that money can be spent. "As far as we
know, most has been spent on scientific research, developing programmes,
hiring doctoral students, etc. Some money has also been used to develop a
laboratory," says de Ruiter.
At the time of his Heineken Prize in 1998, Marshall was moving his lab
to Perth: "The award eased the transition back to Australia and assisted a
travel scholarship I funded to Dr. Hans Kusters' research laboratory in
Amsterdam," he recalls.
But when it comes to spending prize money, nobody tops Sir Paul
M. Nurse, the 1996 Heineken recipient in biochemistry and biophysics.
When asked about what he would do with his Nobel Prize award in 2001,
he famously answered, "Buy a motorbike." He explained later in a New York
Times article. "They always ask you what you are going to do with the
money. They want to know if you are going to do something worthy or pay
off the mortgage. I thought responding in a human way, saying you could
do something you always wanted to do, would make science more human."
And, yes, he bought the bike.
Although the first Heineken Prize was named for his father Dr. H.P.
Heineken (for biochemistry and biophysics), the others bear Freddy
Heineken's own name, the Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for medicine, for
environmental sciences, for history and for art. This was, at first,
uncomfortable for the founder of the prizes. "We have named the prize,
but it disturbs me nevertheless to have my own name attached to it," the
modest Heineken professed. "I see Mr. Nobel already has his own prize," he
once grumbled.
In fact, at one point he was asked if it really was such a coincidence that
the prizes were both named after an Alfred. "I find it amusing, but don't
make much of it."
As he became more comfortable with his name on the prizes, he soon
realised that being "the Dutch variant of his namesake, Alfred Nobel,"
allowed him to "set a good example" for other people of means-
wondering in a humorous bent at one point, why journalists didn't give him
the name of "Noble Alfred." (Of course, at this prompting from a genius in
branding, the journalists took up the nickname.)
The newest Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize, for cognitive science, was announced
in September. Cognitive science is a relatively new field of research, which
is enjoying its first successes with answers to the age-old question of the
working of the human mind. Although both the Kyoto Prize and the Nobel
Prize have recognised work in the field, the Heineken Prize is the first
important international award for research into how intelligence comes
about.
This is the first time that a prize has not been created by mr. Alfred
Heineken himself. With regard to the new prize, his daughter, Mrs. C.L. de
Carvalho-Heineken, who succeeded him as chair of the Alfred Heineken
Fondsen Foundation committee, says, "My father was fascinated by the
working of the human mind. If, by instituting this prize, we can make a
contribution to the development of scientific research in this field, it will be
entirely within the spirit of the Heineken Prizes."
Deadline for nominations for this newest prize is January 1st, 2006.
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