Newswise — EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University today (April 13) announced the winners of the 2018 Nemmers Prizes in four disciplines -- earth sciences, economics, mathematics and music composition -- recognizing top scholars for their outstanding achievements, their contributions to new knowledge and development of significant new analysis.
The cross-disciplinary awards, given every other year, carry some of the largest monetary stipends in their fields. Winners of the prizes in earth sciences, economics and mathematics each receive $200,000, and the winner in music composition receives $100,000. A fifth winner, in medical science, will receive $200,000. That prize will be awarded later this year, bringing the total stipend in 2018 to $900,000.
All of the winners are invited to the Northwestern campus to deliver public lectures and participate in other scholarly activities during the 2018-2019 academic year. The winners in economics, mathematics and earth sciences will all spend one quarter on campus. The winner in music composition will conduct two residencies at Northwestern, one in October 2018, the other in February 2020.
Northwestern Provost Jonathan Holloway said the prizes demonstrate the University’s commitment to research and academic excellence.
“At Northwestern, it is our ambition to attract the world’s most transformative experts on topics of global importance and demonstrate our commitment to research and academic eminence,” Holloway said. “We seek to reflect and engage the world in all of its diversity through these Nemmers Prize winners, as well as our own world-leading faculty. I look forward to welcoming the renowned recipients to our campus.”
The winners
The winner of the 2018 Nemmers Prize in Earth Sciences is Francis Albarède, who is honored for his fundamental applications of geochemistry to the earth sciences. This marks the first year a Nemmers Prize has been awarded in earth sciences.
Albarède is a professor of Geochemistry at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon in Lyon, France. He is a world leader in using geochemistry to understand the history of Earth and the solar system. His analytical contributions have led to insights into meteorites, mantle geochemistry, global geochemical cycles, archaeometry and medical studies.
The winner of the 2018 Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics is David Kreps, who is recognized for his work in game theory, decision theory and finance, which profoundly shaped the direction of economic research by providing rigorous foundations and inspirations for new models and applied theoretical economics.
Kreps is the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Seven of the last 12 Nemmers economics prize winners have gone on to win a Nobel Prize.
The winner of the 2018 Frederick Esser Nemmers Prize in Mathematics is Assaf Naor, who was selected for his profound work on the geometry of metric spaces, which has led to breakthroughs in the theory of algorithms.
Naor is a professor of mathematics at Princeton University. His specialty is analysis and geometry, with additional interest in related questions in combinatorics, probability and theoretical computer science.
The winner of the 2018 Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition is Jennifer Higdon, who is a Pulitzer Prize recipient and two-time Grammy Award winner and holds the Rock Chair in Composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
Higdon’s first on-campus residency will be October 15-20 and will features multiple performances of her music by students in the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music. She will also lead coaching sessions with Bienen ensembles and chamber groups, conduct lessons and seminars with composition students and participate in an interdisciplinary panel discussion of LGBTQI in the arts, among other activities. As the Nemmers Prize winner, Higdon will also have one of her works performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
About the Nemmers Prize
Erwin Nemmers served as a faculty member in the Kellogg School of Management from 1957 until he retired in 1986. He persuaded his brother, Frederic E. Nemmers, to join him in making a significant contribution to Northwestern. Their gifts, totaling $14 million, were designated by the brothers for the establishment of the Nemmers Prizes and of four endowed professorships in Kellogg.
Both brothers have since passed away, but the Nemmers Prizes have continued to grow. The Prizes in Economics and Mathematics were established in 1994; the Prize in Music Composition was created in 2004; the Prize in Medical Science in 2015; and the Prize in Earth Sciences in 2016.
The Mechthild Esser Nemmers Prize in Medical Science will be announced later this year.
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