The Inamori Foundation has announced the 2024 Kyoto Prize Laureates, who will travel to Oxford in May 2025 for the Kyoto Prize at Oxford.
Honoured for their immense contributions to materials science and engineering, earth and planetary sciences, astronomy and astrophysics, and theatre and cinema, the 2024 Kyoto Prize Laureates will travel to Japan in November this year for a ceremony celebrating their contributions to the betterment of humankind.
The Kyoto Prize Laureates for 2024 are:
- Sir John Pendry (Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology) is Professor of Theoretical Solid State Physics, Imperial College London, theoretically demonstrated that materials with electromagnetic properties not found in nature, such as negative-refractive-index materials (metamaterials) can be realised by designing microstructures smaller than the wavelength of the target electromagnetic waves, thereby laying the groundwork for creating innovative materials such as ‘superlenses’ with subwavelength resolution and ‘invisibility cloaks.’
- Paul F Hoffman (Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences) is Adjunct Professor, University of Victoria, and Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology, Emeritus, Harvard University. Based on geological evidence obtained over 50 years of extensive and precise field research in Arctic Canada and Africa, Paul F Hoffman has accomplished landmark achievements regarding snowball Earth and plate tectonics in Earth’s early history that led to the present surface environment teeming with diverse life.
- William Forsythe (Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy) is the choreographer who opened a new horizon of performing arts by radically renewing methodologies and aesthetics of ballet and dance. He radically questions and deconstructs the structure and style of traditional ballet to create new methodologies and aesthetics of theatrical dance. He continues to go beyond the conventional concept of choreography and to extend the potential of the art form using human bodies through various innovative works.
About the Kyoto Prize
The Kyoto Prize is an international award presented to individuals who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural, and spiritual betterment of humankind. The traditional Kyoto Prize Presentation Ceremony will take place in Kyoto, Japan in November where Commemorative Lectures by the three Laureates will be delivered. Details of these lectures will be announced in due course on the Inamori Foundation's Kyoto Prize website.
The laureates then travel to San Diego in March 2025 for the Kyoto Prize Symposium, and Oxford in May 2025 for the Kyoto Prize at Oxford.