- 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 philanthopistAndrew 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 andimmunology . 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 eventualNobel Prize recognition for scientists in the fields of microbiology and immunology, and a number of Koch Prize winners subsequently became Nobel laureates, such asRené Dubos ,Cesar Milstein andSusumu Tonegawa . Other notable awardees includeAlbert Sabin ,Jonas Salk andJohn 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)
* 1971Gertrude Henle andWerner Henle (USA)
* 1972Hubertus Berrens (Netherlands),Alain L. de Weck (Switzerland)
* 1973Jean Lindenmann (Switzerland),Hans G. Schwick (Germany)
* 1974Norbert Hilschmann (Germany)
* 1975Harald zur Hausen (Germany),Heinz-G. Wittmann (Germany)
* 1976Richard A. Finkelstein (USA),Mark H. Richmond (United Kingdom)
* 1977Jean Dausset (France),Jan J. van Rood (Netherlands)
* 1978Albrecht K. Kleinschmidt (Germany),Heinz L. Sänger (Germany)
* 1979Ruth Arnon (Israel), Peter Starlinger (Germany)
* 1980César Milstein (United Kingdom),Lewis W. Wannamaker (USA)
* 1981Robert M. Chanock (USA),Lars Å. Hanson (Sweden)
* 1982Raymond L. Erikson (USA), Franz Oesch (Germany)
* 1983Werner Goebel (Germany),Robert A. Weinberg (USA)
* 1984Walter Doerfler (Germany),Stuart F. Schlossman (USA)
* 1985Stefania Jablonska (Poland),Gérard Ch. J. Orth (France)
* 1986Susumu Tonegawa (Japan)
* 1987Mario Rizzetto (Italy),Rudolf Rott (Germany),John J. Skehel (United Kingdom)
* 1988Donald Metcalf (Australia)
* 1989Irun R. Cohen (Israel),Alex J. van der Eb (Netherlands)
* 1990Lloyd J. Old (USA)
* 1991Walter Fiers (Belgium),Tadatsugu Taniguchi (Japan)
* 1992Kary B. Mullis (USA)
* 1993Hans-Georg Rammensee (Germany),Daniel W. Bradley (USA),Michael Houghton (USA)
* 1994Volkmar Braun (Germany),Manuel Elkin Patarroyo Murillo (Colombia)
* 1995Shigekazu Nagata (Japan),Peter H. Krammer (Germany)
* 1996Fritz Melchers (Switzerland),Klaus Rajewsky (Germany)
* 1997Philippe J. Sansonetti (France)
* 1998Yuan Chang (USA),Patrick S. Moore (USA)
* 1999Ralph M. Steinman (USA)
* 2000Stanley Falkow (USA)
* 2001Axel Ullrich (Germany)
* 2002Rudolf Jaenisch (USA)
* 2003Adriano Aguzzi (Switzerland)
* 2004Shizuo Akira (Japan),Bruce A. Beutler (USA),Jules A. Hoffmann (France)
* 2005Brain J. Druker (USA)
* 2006Peter Palese ,Yoshihiro Kawaoka (Japan)
* 2007Pascale Cossart (France)
* 2008Hans 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)
* 1962John 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)
* 1981Maclyn McCarty
* 1982 Edgar Lederer (France), Walter Pagel (United Kingdom), Karl Styblo (Netherlands)
* 1985 Richard M. Krause (USA)
* 1986Ernst Ruska (Germany)
* 1987Hans J. Müller-Eberhard (USA)
* 1988Willy Burgdorfer (USA)
* 1989Maurice 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)
* 1995Charles Weissmann (Switzerland)
* 1996 SirGustav Nossal (Australia)
* 1997 Satoshi Omura (Japan)
* 1998 George Klein (Sweden)
* 1999 Barry R. Bloom (USA)
* 2000 Marco Baggiolini (Switzerland)
* 2001Avrion Mitchison (United Kingdom)
* 2002 Agnes Ullmann (France)
* 2003Tadamitsu Kishimoto (Japan)
* 2004 Heinz Schaller (Germany)
* 2005Emil 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)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.