Inaugural Kavli Prize ceremony and symposia: Sept. 8-11 (Oslo, Norway)

Overview: The inaugural year of The Kavli Prize will be celebrated with a special ceremony that features H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon Magnus presenting the prize to the seven Kavli laureates. Acclaimed scientists in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience will give lectures throughout the week.

Note: The award ceremony, lectures and symposia are open to media. There will be a press briefing at 11.15 AM (CET), September 9, in Oslo Concert Hall prior to the ceremony, to be attended by the Kavli Prize Laureates and dignitaries.

THE KAVLI PRIZE CEREMONY
September 9, 2008: 2:00-3:30pm (CET)
Oslo Concert Hall (Oslo, Norway)

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research host a ceremony honoring the 2008 Kavli Prize laureates – the inaugural recipients of the prize, which are giving for the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. This formal, invitation-only event will be attended by: the Kavli Prize laureates; His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon of Norway; Fred Kavli, founder of The Kavli Foundation; Reidun Sirevåg, Secretary General, the Norwegian Academy; Tora Aasland, Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education; Kavli prize committee chairs and approximately 900 invited scientists and guests from around the world.

A press conference will be held approximately 1 hour prior to the ceremony.

KAVLI PRIZE WEEK

September 8-11
Oslo, Stavanger and Trondheim

Throughout the week, the Kavli Prize is celebrated with lectures, panel discussions and presentations from acclaimed scientists in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. A complete list of events can be found at: www.kavliprize.no. Among the speakers who will be presenting during the weeklong celebration:

ASTROPHYSICS (alphabetically listed)

• Jocelyn Bell Burnell (University of Bath, UK). Topic: "Pulsars and Extreme Physics"
• Catherine Cesarsky. Topic: "Luminous Infrared Galaxies and the History of Star Formation in the Universe "
• Bengt Gustafsson (Uppsala University, Sweden). Topic: "Do We Understand the Stars?"
• Donald Lynden-Bell (Cambridge University, UK). Topic: "Kavli Laureate Lecture"
• Jill Tarter (Center for SETI Research, USA). Topic: "The Quest To Find Inhabitants Of Habitable Worlds"
• Alan Title (Stanford University, USA). Topic: "Toward Understanding the Origins and Effects of the Sun's Magnetic"
• Scott Tremaine (Princeton University, USA). Topic: "Black Holes in the Centers of Galaxies"
• Michael Turner (University of Chicago, USA). Topic: "The Frontiers of Cosmology: From Before the Big Bang to the End of Time"
• Maarten Schmidt (California Institute of Technology, USA). Topic: Kavli Laureate Lecture

NANOSCIENCE (alphabetically listed)

• Thomas Ebbesen (Louis Pasteur University, France). Topic: "What is Nanoscience?"
• Boris Altshuler (Columbia University, USA):"What is Special about Quantum Mechanics at Nano-scale?"
• Angela Belcher (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA). Topic: "Biological Synthesis and Assembly of Nanomaterials for Energy and the Environment"
• Louis E. Brus (Columbia University, USA). Topic: "Kavli Laureate Lecture"
• Mildred Dresselhaus (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA). Topic: "Probing Carbon Nanostructures"
• Sumio Iijima (Meijo University, Japan). Topic: "Kavli Laureate Lecture"
• Hans Mooij (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands). Topic: "Nanoelectronics: Towards Quantum Coherence"
• Seigo Tarucha (University of Tokyo, Japan):"Quantum devices and Quantum Dots"
• David A. Weitz (Harvard University, USA). Topic: "Nanoscience and Biotechnology: Making Nanotechnology Practical"

NEUROSCIENCE (alphabetically listed)

• Per Andersen (University of Oslo, Norway). Topic: "The Brain - The Essence of Man"
• Tim Bliss (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UK). Topic: "The future of the past: new approaches to exploring the role of the hippocampus in memory"
• Fred Gage (Salk Institute, USA). Topic: "Regulation and function of neurogenesis in the adult mammalian brain"
• Eric Gouaux (Oregon Health & Science University, USA). Topic: "Structure and mechanism of neurotransmitter receptors and transporters"
• Sten Grillner (Karolinska Institute, Sweden). Topic: "Kavli Laureate Lecture"
• Thomas Jessell (Columbia University, USA). Topic: "Kavli Laureate Lecture"
• Eve Marder (Brandeis University, USA). Topic: "Homeostasis, variability, and compensation in neurons and networks"
• Pasko Rakic, (Yale University School of Medicine, USA). Topic: "Kavli Laureate Lecture"
• Peter Seeburg (Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Germany). Topic: "Mice with altered glutamate receptor channels: synaptic plasticity, place fields and spatial learning"
• Carla J. Shatz (Stanford University, USA). Topic: "Tuning up the brain: immune genes, brain waves and critical periods"
• Susumu Tonegawa (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA). Topic: "Hippocampal circuits and episodic learning and memory"

BACKGROUND

Science prizes for the 21st century, the Kavli Prizes recognize scientists for their seminal advances in three research areas: astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. Consisting of a scroll, medal and cash award of one million dollars, a prize in each of these areas is awarded every two years beginning in 2008. The Kavli Prizes are presented in cooperation with the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The prizes are awarded at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway – Kavli's native country – with the President of the Norwegian Academy presiding.

Astrophysics Laureates:

Maarten Schmidt, of the California Institute of Technology, US
Donald Lynden-Bell, of Cambridge University

Nanoscience Laureates:

Louis E. Brus, of Columbia University, US
Sumio Iijima, of Meijo University in Japan

Neuroscience Laureates:

Pasko Rakic, Yale University School of Medicine, US
Thomas Jessell, of Columbia University, US
Sten Grillner, of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden

For additional information, media should contact:

Anne-Marie Astad, Norwegian Academy of Science and Arts
Office: + 47 22 12 10 92
Mobile : +47 41 56 74 06
Email: anne.marie.astad@dnva.no

or

Jim Cohen, The Kavli Foundation
Office: (805) 278-7495
Mobile: (310) 666-2289
Email: cohen@kavlifoundation.org

For more about the Kavli Prize, including a schedule of all lectures and events, visit: www.kavliprize.no.