# Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences

The Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences is awarded once a year by the Inamori Foundation. The Prize is one of three Kyoto Prize categories; the others are the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology and the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy. The first Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences was awarded to Claude Elwood Shannon, the “Establishment of Mathematical Foundation of Information Theory”. The Prize is regarded as a prestigious award available in fields which are traditionally not honored with a Nobel Prize.

## Fields

The Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences is awarded on a rotating basis to researchers in the following four fields:
* Mathematical sciences (including pure mathematics)
* Biological sciences (evolution, behavior, ecology, environment)
* Earth and planetary sciences, astronomy and astrophysics
* Cognitive science/Life sciences (molecular biology, cell biology, neurobiology)

## Laureates

Source: Kyoto Prize

### Biological sciences

| Year | Laureate | Laureate | Country | Country | |
| 1986 | – | George Evelyn Hutchinson | United States | 1903–1991 | Outstanding Contribution to Limnology and Community Ecology by Integrative Ecological Niche Theory |
| 1990 | | Jane Goodall | United Kingdom | born 1934 | Long-Term Study of Behavior, Sociology, and Ecology of Chimpanzees in the Wild |
| 1993 | – | William Donald Hamilton | United Kingdom | 1936–2000 | Proposal of Inclusive Fitness and the Establishment of Evolutionary Theory of Sociality and Cooperation |
| 1997 | | Daniel Hunt Janzen | United States | born 1939 | Pioneering Study of Biodiversity in Tropics and Its Maintenance Mechanisms |
| 2001 | | John Maynard Smith | United Kingdom | 1920–2004 | Contribution to Evolutionary Biology by Proposing the Idea of the Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS) |
| 2005 | | Simon Asher Levin | United States | born 1941 | Establishment of the field of spatial ecology and the proposition of the biosphere as a "complex adaptive system" |
| 2009 | | Barbara Rosemary Grant | United Kingdom | born 1936 | Demonstrating Rapid Evolution Caused by Natural Selection in Response to Environmental Changes |
| 2009 | | Peter Raymond Grant | United Kingdom | born 1936 | Demonstrating Rapid Evolution Caused by Natural Selection in Response to Environmental Changes |
| 2013 | | Masatoshi Nei | United States | born 1931 | Research on the Evolution of Biological Populations Using Quantitative Analyses of Genetic Variation and Evolutionary Time |
| 2017 | | Graham Farquhar | Australia | born 1947 | Development of Process-based Models of Photosynthesis and Their Contributions to the Science of Global Environmental Changes |
| 2022 | | Bryan Grenfell | United States | born 1954 | Development of an Innovative Methodology for Integrative Analysis of Pathogen Evolution and Epidemics. |

### Mathematical sciences

| Year | Laureate | Country | Country | |
| 1985 | Claude Elwood Shannon | United States | 1916–2001 | Establishment of Mathematical Foundation of Information Theory |
| 1989 | Izrail Moiseevich Gelfand | Soviet Union | 1913–2009 | Outstanding Contribution to Many Fields of Mathematical Sciences, Especially Pioneering Studies in Functional Analysis |
| 1994 | André Weil | France | 1906–1998 | Broad Contribution to the Modern Mathematics, Especially through the Foundational Works in Algebraic Geometry and Number Theory |
| 1998 | Kiyoshi Itō | Japan | 1915–2008 | Fundamental Contribution to the Stochastic Analysis, through His Invention of Stochastic Differential Equations, Which Have Been Applied in Various Sciences |
| 2002 | Mikhail Gromov | France | born 1943 | Contributions through dramatic developments in a range of mathematical fields by introducing the innovative method of a metric structure for families of various geometrical objects |
| 2006 | Hirotsugu Akaike | Japan | 1927–2009 | Major contribution to statistical science and modeling with the development of the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) |
| 2010 | László Lovász | Hungary | born 1948 | Outstanding Contributions to Mathematical Sciences Based on Discrete Optimization Algorithms |
| 2014 | Edward Witten | United States | born 1951 | Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Mathematical Sciences through the Exploration of Superstring Theory |
| 2018 | Masaki Kashiwara | Japan | born 1947 | Outstanding Contributions to a Broad Spectrum of Modern Mathematics: Advancement of D-module Theory from Its Foundation |
| 2023 | Elliott H. Lieb | United States | born 1932 | Pioneering Mathematical Research in Physics, Chemistry, and Quantum Information Science Based on Many-Body Physics |

### Earth and planetary sciences, astronomy and astrophysics

| Year | Laureate | Country | Country | |
| 1987 | Jan Hendrik Oort | Netherlands | 1900–1992 | Outstanding Contribution to Astronomy by the Elucidation of Structure and Dynamics of the Galaxy |
| 1991 | Edward Norton Lorenz | United States | 1917–2008 | Outstanding Contribution to Earth Science and Mathematical Science by the Development of Theoretical Basis of Numerical Study in Meteorology and the Discovery of Deterministic Chaos |
| 1995 | Chūshirō Hayashi | Japan | 1920–2010 | Outstanding Contribution to Astrophysics through the Theoretical Studies of the Stellar Formation and Evolution and the Formation of Solar System |
| 1999 | Walter Heinrich Munk | United States | 1917–2019 | Outstanding Contribution to the Earth Science by the Elucidation of Dynamical Mechanism of Ocean and Its Waves |
| 2003 | Eugene Newman Parker | United States | 1927–2022 | Contributions to Astrophysics through the Elucidation of the Solar Wind and Cosmical Magnetohydrodynamic Phenomena |
| 2007 | Hiroo Kanamori | Japan | born 1936 | Elucidation of Physical Processes of Earthquakes and Its Application to Hazard Mitigation |
| 2011 | Rashid Alievich Sunyaev | Russia  Germany | born 1943 | Proposal of the Theory of Fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation to Explore the Expanding Universe, and Outstanding Contribution to High-Energy Astronomy |
| 2015 | Michel Mayor | Switzerland | born 1942 | Outstanding Contributions in Evolving a New Vision of the Universe through the Discovery of Extrasolar Planet |
| 2019 | James E. Gunn | United States | born 1938 | Outstanding Contributions to the Elucidation of Cosmic History Based on a Large-Scale Wide-Field Observation. |
| 2024 | Paul F. Hoffman | Canada | born 1941 | Proving Snowball Earth Accelerating Life Evolution and Plate Tectonics Dating Back to the First Half of Earth's History. |

### Life sciences

| Year | Laureate | Laureate | Country | Country | |
| 1992 | | Yasutomi Nishizuka | Japan | 1932–2004 | Elucidation of Intracellular Signal Transduction System through the Discovery and Functional Analysis of the Protein Kinase C |
| 1996 | | Mario Renato Capecchi | United States | born 1937 | Production of Knockout Mice through the Development of Gene Targeting Technique and Outstanding Contribution to Elucidation of Gene Function |
| 2000 | | Walter Jakob Gehring | Switzerland | born 1939 | Discovery of Conserved Developmental Mechanisms |
| 2004 | | Alfred G. Knudson | United States | 1922–2016 | Seminal contribution to the establishment of the theory of the tumor suppressor gene in the mechanism of human carcinogenesis |
| 2008 | | Anthony James Pawson | Canada  United Kingdom | 1952–2013 | Proposing and Proving the Concept of Adapter Molecules in the Signal Transduction |
| 2012 | | Yoshinori Ohsumi | Japan | born 1945 | Outstanding Contribution to Elucidating the Molecular Mechanisms and Physiological Significance of Autophagy, a Cellular Adaptive System to Environment |
| 2016 | | Tasuku Honjo | Japan | born 1942 | Discovery of the Mechanism Responsible for the Functional Diversification of Antibodies, Immunoregulatory Molecules and Clinical Applications of PD-1 |
| 2020 | No award because of COVID-19 pandemic | No award because of COVID-19 pandemic | No award because of COVID-19 pandemic | No award because of COVID-19 pandemic | No award because of COVID-19 pandemic |
| 2021 | | Robert G. Roeder | United States | born 1942 | Discovery of the Principle of Gene Transcription Mechanisms in Eukaryotes |

### Cognitive science

| Year | Laureate | Laureate | Country | Country | |
| 1988 | | Avram Noam Chomsky | United States | born 1928 | Creation of the Theory of Generative Grammar and Substantial Contribution to the Formation and Development of Cognitive Science |