The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organisations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the brotherhood of man.

Each year the foundation chooses the fields eligible for the next year's prizes, and determines the prize amount. These are generally announced in May, with the winners announced the September the following year. Since 2001 the prize money has increased to 1 million Swiss Francs per prize, on condition that half the money is used for projects involving young researchers. The Swiss franc (ISO 4217: CHF or 756) is the currency of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. ...

The Balzan Prize committee comprises twenty members of the prestigious learned societies of Europe. The Prize ranks close to the Nobel Prize and is one of the highest awards for science, culture and humanitarian achievement, but is less well known, despite Balzan's prize money for 2004 of 3 million US dollars exceeding Nobel's of 1.3 million (at 2004 exchange rates). Sir Edward Appletons medal Photographs of Nobel Prize Medals. ...

The assets behind the foundation were established by the Italian Eugenio Balzan(1874–1953), a part-owner of Corriere della Sera who had invested his assets in Switzerland and in 1933 had left Italy in protest against fascism. He left a substantial inheritance to his daughter Angela Lina Balzan (1892–1956), who at the time was suffering an incurable disease. Before her death, she left instructions for the foundation and since then it has two headquarters, the Prize aministered from Milan, the Fund from Zurich. Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper printed in Milan. ... 1933 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ...

The first award was in fact 1 million Swiss Francs to the Nobel foundation in 1961. After 1962 a gap of 16 years followed when prizes recommenced with an award of half a million Swiss Francs to Mother Teresa. Award ceremonies alternate between Bern and the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, and frequently winners have later won a Nobel Prize. Sir Edward Appletons medal Photographs of Nobel Prize Medals. ... 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, OM (August 27, 1910 – September 5, 1997) was an Albanian Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity. ... Location within Switzerland The city of Bern, English traditionally Berne (Bernese German Bärn , German Bern , French Berne , Italian Berna , Romansh Berna ), is the Bundesstadt (administrative capital) of Switzerland, and is the fourth most populous Swiss city (after Zürich, Geneva and Basel). ... The Accademia dei Lincei, (literally the Academy of the Lynxes, but also known as the Lincean Academy), is located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. ...

Four prizes have been awarded annually since 1978 for achievements in the categories: 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ...

• Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts
• Physics, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Medicine

Every 3 to 5 years the foundation also awards the Prize for humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples. The humanities are a group of academic subjects united by a commitment to studying aspects of the human condition and a qualitative approach that generally prevents a single paradigm from coming to define any discipline. ... The social sciences are a group of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world. ... A precise definition of the arts can be contentious, but the following areas of activity are usually included: Art / Visual arts Architecture Crafts Dance Design / Graphic design Drawing Film Literature Music Painting Photography Pottery Sculpture Theater In academia, the Arts are usually grouped with or a subset of the Humanities. ... Since antiquity, people have tried to understand the behavior of matter: why unsupported objects drop to the ground, why different materials have different properties, and so forth. ... Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Mathematics Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mathematics Look up Mathematics on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikimedia Commons has more media related to: Mathematics Bogomolny, Alexander: Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles. ... The term natural science as the way in which different fields of study are defined is determined as much by historical convention as by the present day meaning of the words. ... Medicine on the Web NLM (National Library of Medicine, contains resources for patients and healthcare professionals) Virtual Hospital (digital health sciences library by the University of Iowa) Online Medical Dictionary Collection of links to free medical resources Categories: Medicine | Health ...

All awards are decided by a single committee.

See also

• Prizes named after people

This is a list of prizes that are named after people. ...

External links

• The Balzan Foundation - Official site
• list of Balzan prizewinners