Dannie Heineman Prize
In 1961, the Minna James Heineman Foundation established the Dannie Heineman Prize in memory of its founder, with the aim of honouring outstanding achievements in the natural sciences and the humanities worldwide. From the outset, the prize was awarded in partnership with the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony.
Over the course of sixty years, the Academy selected exceptional researchers as recipients of the prize. Several laureates were later honoured with the Nobel Prize. In more recent years, the focus of the award increasingly shifted toward recognising the promising work of early-career researchers.
Following an internal reorganisation of the Minna James Heineman Foundation, the Dannie Heineman Prize will no longer be awarded. The Academy extends its sincere thanks to the Foundation for its long-standing support.
Recipients
2024
Prof Mayuko Yamashita, Kyoto University, receives the prize in recognition of her contributions to the mathematically precise description of anomalies in quantum field theories.
2021
Dr Viola Priesemann, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation Göttingen, is awarded for her contribution to the epidemiological modelling of the spread of the Sars-CoV2 virus and her extraordinary commitment to science communication in the context of the pandemic.
2019
Prof Oscar Randal-Williams, Ph.D., Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, UK, is awarded for his work on homological stability and its most significant applications.
2018
Junior Prof André Gröschel, Duisburg-Essen, is awarded for his work on self-organisation processes of colloids and hybrid nanoparticles, and particularly for the controlled production of novel structures from well-defined macromolecular building blocks.
2015
Prof Andrea Cavalleri, Hamburg, is awarded for his time-resolved measurements on light-induced phase transitions in strongly correlated electron systems.
2013
Prof Emmanuel Jean Candès, Stanford, USA, is awarded the prize as one of the architects of the compressive sensing principle, building a bridge between basic research and the many practical applications of this theory, thereby significantly shaping recent developments in mathematical statistics, applied mathematics, and related fields.
2012
Prof Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, University of Pittsburgh, receives the prize for his groundbreaking work on controlled polymerisations, especially for the development of the ATRP (Atom Transfer Radical Polymerisation) method, which is widely used for the synthesis of structurally faithful macromolecular compounds with precisely defined size and functionality.
2009
Prof Gerald F. Joyce, Ph.D., California, is awarded for his work “Self-Sustained Replication of an RNA Enzyme,” published jointly with Tracey A Lincoln, in Science 323 (2009), 1229–1232.
2007
Prof Bertrand I. Halperin, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. He is recognised for his numerous outstanding contributions to statistical physics and condensed matter theory, especially dynamical critical phenomena and low-dimensional electronic properties.
2005
Prof Richard Taylor, Department of Mathematics, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, is awarded for his work “On the Modularity of Elliptic Curves over Q.”
2003
Dr Michael Neuberger, MRC Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Division of Protein & Nucleic Acid Chemistry, Cambridge, UK; for his work “Generation of molecular diversity in the immune system through somatic hypermutation.”
2001
Prof Christopher C. Cummins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Chemistry, Cambridge, USA; for his fundamental work on the activation of small molecules by metal complexes, the isolation of reactive intermediates in these reactions, and the characterisation of the key steps in metal complex-mediated atom transfer reactions.
1999
Dr Wolfgang Ketterle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA; for his convincing demonstration of coherence in a Bose-Einstein condensate of ultracold sodium atoms.
1997
Regine Kahmann, Institute of Genetics and Microbiology, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich; for her experimentally demanding and pioneering molecular genetic studies in connection with the fungus Ustilago maydis.
1995
Dr Donald M. Eigler, IBM Fellow, IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, USA; for his groundbreaking studies on the quantum mechanical behaviour of devices with atomic dimensions.
1993
Richard N. Zare, Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, USA; for his fundamental work on the influence of excitation of specific internal degrees of freedom on the course of bimolecular chemical reactions.
1991
Jean-Pierre Demailly, Department of Mathematics, Grenoble; for his work “Champs magnétiques et inégalités de Morse pour la d''– cohomologie.”
1989
Dieter Oesterhelt, working in the field of biochemistry, Martinsried; for his fundamental contributions to membrane biochemistry, the understanding of photosynthesis, and for the crystallisation of the photosynthetic reaction centre.
1987
Alexander Müller and Georg Bednorz, Zurich, for their research in physics.
1986
Rudolf Thauer, Marburg, in recognition of his work in biochemistry.
1983
Gerd Faltings, Wuppertal, mathematics.
1981
Jacques Friedel, Paris, physics.
1979
Phillip A Griffiths, Cambridge, USA, mathematics.
1977
Albert Eschenmoser, Zurich, organic chemistry.
1975
Philip W. Anderson, Murray Hill (NJ), Theoretical Physics; for his important theoretical contributions to the physics of condensed matter, and especially for his pioneering work on localised states in disordered systems.
1973
Igor R. Shafarevich, Moscow; for his work in the field of algebra and number theory.
1971
Neil Bartlett, Berkeley, USA, inorganic chemistry; for his outstanding experimental investigations in the field of noble gas compounds which he pioneered.
1969
Alfred B. Pippard, Cambridge, UK; for his work on the dynamics of conduction electrons in metals, in particular the measurement of the Fermi surface of copper and the non-local extension of London’s electrodynamics of the superconductor.
1967
Gobind Khorana, Madison, USA, for his work on the synthesis of polynucleotides, which led to significant insights into the structure and function of nucleic acids and to the deciphering of the genetic code.
1967
Martin Schwarzschild, Princeton, USA, astronomy; for his work in the field of stellar evolution.
1965
Georg Wittig, Heidelberg; for his fundamental work in the field of organometallic chemistry and organic anion chemistry.
1963
Prof Edmund Hlawka, Vienna, mathematics; for his work in the field of the geometry of numbers.
1961
Prof James Franck, Durham, USA, physics; for his work in the field of photosynthesis.