Awards, Mar 22, 2007

The following awards have been presented for work in advocacy, fund raising, nonprofit leadership, philanthropy, and other areas:

Humanitarianism. The Charles Bronfman Prize (New York) has presented its 2007 humanitarian award to Amitai Ziv, founder and director of the Israel Center for Medical Simulation and deputy director of the Sheba Medical Center (Tel Hashomer, Israel). The award, which carries a $100,000 cash prize, is bestowed upon people younger than age 50 whose “Jewish values infuse their humanitarian accomplishments and provide inspiration to the next generations.”

Leadership. Paul Farmer, a professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School (Boston) and a founding director of Partners In Health (Boston), is the recipient of the 2007 Austin College Leadership Award. The award, which comes with a $100,000 prize was created to honor an individual who has applied his or her leadership skills to make a positive impact on society.

Research. The Dan David Foundation (Tel Aviv) has announced the recipients of its 2007 Dan David Prizes, which recognize individuals for innovative interdisciplinary research on the past, present, and future of the arts, humanities, science, and technology. Each year the foundation chooses a field within each of the three time periods; this year’s selections are historians and authors of major works of history (past), contemporary music (present), and the quest for energy (future). Each prize carries a $1-million cash award, of which $100,000 goes to support scholarships for young researchers in the winner’s field. The recipients:

— Past. Jacques Le Goff, a historian and author of more than 30 books on the European Middle Ages, who has also served as a director of studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris) and in that capacity has advised and supervised former students and others in their research and professional careers.

— Present. Zubin Mehta, music adviser and chief conductor of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence, Italy), for his efforts to use music to bring peace to people in war-torn regions, including Sarajevo and the Palestinian territories, and Pascal Dusapin, a composer who has tutored young people through the international academy for orchestral composition that he founded.

— Future. James Hansen, a scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (New York), for his research on the natural forces that control the escape of energy to space, and Sarah R. Kurtz and Jerry M. Olson, principal scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Golden, Colo.), for developing a solar cell that is twice as efficient in converting solar power to energy as traditional silicon cells.