Robert Koch Prize

The Robert Koch Medal and Award are two prizes awarded annually for excellence in the biomedical sciences. These awards grew out of early attempts by Robert Koch to generate funding to support his research into the cause and cure for tuberculosis. Koch discovered the bacteria ("Mycobacterium tuberculosis") responsible for the dreaded disease and rapidly acquired international support, including 500,000 gold marks from the Scottish-American philanthopist Andrew Carnegie.

The Koch Prize

Since 1970, the Koch Foundation has awarded prizes for major advances in the biomedical sciences, particularly in the fields of microbiology and immunology. The prestige of this award has grown over the past decades so that it is now widely regarded as the leading international scientific prize in microbiology. As has been described by a jury member for the prize, the committee often asks, What would Robert Koch work on today?” to decide on research that should be granted recognition.

The more specific Koch Prize is commonly considered one of the stepping-stones (along with other prizes such as the Lasker Award) to eventual Nobel Prize recognition for scientists in the fields of microbiology and immunology, and a number of Koch Prize winners subsequently became Nobel laureates, such as René Dubos, Cesar Milstein and Susumu Tonegawa. Other notable awardees include Albert Sabin, Jonas Salk and John Enders for their pioneering work on the development of polio vaccines. Only Enders was recognized with a Nobel Prize, together with Thomas Huckle Weller and Frederick Chapman Robbins.

Two separate Robert Koch Awards are presented annually: The Gold Koch Medallion for accumulated excellence in biomedical research and the Koch Prize, €100,000, for a major discovery in biomedical science.

Koch Prize Winners since 1970

* 1970 William M. Hutchinson (United Kingdom), Jorgen C. Siim (Denmark)
* 1971 Gertrude Henle and Werner Henle (USA)
* 1972 Hubertus Berrens (Netherlands), Alain L. de Weck (Switzerland)
* 1973 Jean Lindenmann (Switzerland), Hans G. Schwick (Germany)
* 1974 Norbert Hilschmann (Germany)
* 1975 Harald zur Hausen (Germany), Heinz-G. Wittmann (Germany)
* 1976 Richard A. Finkelstein (USA), Mark H. Richmond (United Kingdom)
* 1977 Jean Dausset (France), Jan J. van Rood (Netherlands)
* 1978 Albrecht K. Kleinschmidt (Germany), Heinz L. Sänger (Germany)
* 1979 Ruth Arnon (Israel), Peter Starlinger (Germany)
* 1980 César Milstein (United Kingdom), Lewis W. Wannamaker (USA)
* 1981 Robert M. Chanock (USA),Lars Å. Hanson (Sweden)
* 1982 Raymond L. Erikson (USA), Franz Oesch (Germany)
* 1983 Werner Goebel (Germany), Robert A. Weinberg (USA)
* 1984 Walter Doerfler (Germany), Stuart F. Schlossman (USA)
* 1985 Stefania Jablonska (Poland), Gérard Ch. J. Orth (France)
* 1986 Susumu Tonegawa (Japan)
* 1987 Mario Rizzetto (Italy), Rudolf Rott (Germany), John J. Skehel (United Kingdom)
* 1988 Donald Metcalf (Australia)
* 1989 Irun R. Cohen (Israel), Alex J. van der Eb (Netherlands)
* 1990 Lloyd J. Old (USA)
* 1991 Walter Fiers (Belgium), Tadatsugu Taniguchi (Japan)
* 1992 Kary B. Mullis (USA)
* 1993 Hans-Georg Rammensee (Germany), Daniel W. Bradley (USA), Michael Houghton (USA)
* 1994 Volkmar Braun (Germany), Manuel Elkin Patarroyo Murillo (Colombia)
* 1995 Shigekazu Nagata (Japan), Peter H. Krammer (Germany)
* 1996 Fritz Melchers (Switzerland), Klaus Rajewsky (Germany)
* 1997 Philippe J. Sansonetti (France)
* 1998 Yuan Chang (USA), Patrick S. Moore (USA)
* 1999 Ralph M. Steinman (USA)
* 2000 Stanley Falkow (USA)
* 2001 Axel Ullrich (Germany)
* 2002 Rudolf Jaenisch (USA)
* 2003 Adriano Aguzzi (Switzerland)
* 2004 Shizuo Akira (Japan), Bruce A. Beutler (USA), Jules A. Hoffmann (France)
* 2005 Brain J. Druker (USA)
* 2006 Peter Palese, Yoshihiro Kawaoka (Japan)
* 2007 Pascale Cossart (France)
* 2008 Hans Robert Schöler (Germany), Irving Weissman (USA), Shinya Yamanaka (Japan)

Koch Gold Medal winners since 1960

* 1960 Hugo Braun (Germany), René Dubos (USA), Toshiaki Ebina (Japan), Ludwig Heilmeyer (Germany), Franz Redeker (Germany), Josef Tomczik (Switzerland)
* 1962 John Franklin Enders (USA), Albert Sabin (USA), Jonas Salk (USA)
* 1963 Tomizo Yoshida (Japan)
* 1974 Paul Kallós (Sweden)
* 1977 Pierre Grabar (France)
* 1978 Theodor v. Brand (Germany), Saul Krugman (USA)
* 1979 Sir Christopher Andrews (United Kingdom)
* 1980 Emmy Klieneberg-Nobel (United Kingdom)
* 1981 Maclyn McCarty
* 1982 Edgar Lederer (France), Walter Pagel (United Kingdom), Karl Styblo (Netherlands)
* 1985 Richard M. Krause (USA)
* 1986 Ernst Ruska (Germany)
* 1987 Hans J. Müller-Eberhard (USA)
* 1988 Willy Burgdorfer (USA)
* 1989 Maurice Hilleman (USA)
* 1990 Ernst L. Wynder (USA)
* 1991 Werner Schäfer (Germany)
* 1992 Piet Borst (Netherlands), Howard C. Goodmann (USA)
* 1993 Karl Lennert (Germany), Otto Westphal (Switzerland)
* 1994 Paul Klein (Germany)
* 1995 Charles Weissmann (Switzerland)
* 1996 Sir Gustav Nossal (Australia)
* 1997 Satoshi Omura (Japan)
* 1998 George Klein (Sweden)
* 1999 Barry R. Bloom (USA)
* 2000 Marco Baggiolini (Switzerland)
* 2001 Avrion Mitchison (United Kingdom)
* 2002 Agnes Ullmann (France)
* 2003 Tadamitsu Kishimoto (Japan)
* 2004 Heinz Schaller (Germany)
* 2005 Emil R. Unanue
* 2006 Hans-Dieter Klenk (Germany)
* 2007 Brigitte A. Askonas (United Kingdom)

External links

* [http://www.robert-koch-stiftung.de/ Koch Foundation]

Sources

* [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1369179 Embo Reports]
* [http://www.robert-koch-stiftung.de/ Robert-Koch-Stiftung] (German)