Goal and issues

The International Balzan Foundation „Prize“ and the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences organise in Switzerland for the first time a Balzan Prizewinners Interdisciplinary Forum on the occasion of the award ceremony of the International Balzan Prizes 2009.
The Forum – within an interdisciplinary framework – aims to focus on the implications of the prize-winners’ achievements for science as a whole. We will do this by concentrating on the following three issues:

• How do the prizewinners’ scientific contributions help to overcome the boundaries between the disciplines?
• How do the distinguished projects promote a dialogue between the disciplines?
• What consequences do the findings entail for the other disciplines?
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Opening by Dieter Imboden, President of the Swiss National Foundation
Welcome by Salvatore Veca, Chairman of the Balzan Prize Committee

Subsequent presentation of the winners' projects. After each presentation, junior scientists will comment on the projects and raise points to be discussed. Finally, a panel with the winners will take place.

The detailed programme will be sent out beginning of October.

Bruno Bottai, President of the International Balzan Foundation “Prize”, Ambassador of Italy
Nicola Cabibbo, Member of the Balzan Prize Committee, Professor of Physics at the University La Sapienza, Rome
Terence Cave, Balzan Prizewinner 2009 «Literature since 1500», Emeritus Research Fellow at the St John’s College, Oxford
René Dändliker, President of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences
Dominique de Quervain, Director of the Division of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Basel
Michael Grätzel, Balzan Prizewinner 2009 «Science of New Materials», Director of the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, Lausanne
Dieter Imboden, President of the Swiss National Science Foundation Research Council
Lord Krebs of Wytham, Member of the Balzan Prize Committee, Principal of Jesus College, Ox-ford
Brenda Milner, Balzan Prizewinner 2009 «Cognitive Neurosciences», Professor of Psychology in the Montreal Neurological Institute, Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the McGill University
M.E.H. Nicolette Mout, Vice president of the Balzan Prize Committee, Professor of Modern His-tory and Professor of Central European Studies at the University of Leiden
Frank Nüesch, Head Functional Polymers at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research EMPA
Paolo Rossi Monti, Balzan Prizewinner 2009 «History of Science», Professor emeritus of the University of Florence
Raphael Scholl, Institute of Philosophy at the University of Berne
Karlheinz Stierle, Member of the Balzan Prize Committee, Professor emeritus of Romance literatures of the University of Constance
Peter Suter, President of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences
Frédéric Tinguely, Director of the Department of modern French language and literature at the University of Geneva
Salvatore Veca, Chairman of the Balzan Prize Committee, Professor of political Philosophy of the University of Pavia