The Robert Koch Medal and Award are two prizes awarded annually by the German Robert Koch Foundation [de] for excellence in the biomedical sciences. These awards grew out of early attempts by German physician Robert Koch to generate funding to support his research into the cause and cure for tuberculosis. Koch discovered the bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) responsible for the dreaded disease and rapidly acquired international support, including 500,000 gold marks from the Scottish-American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
Since 1970, the Robert Koch Foundation has awarded prizes for major advances in the biomedical sciences, particularly in the fields of microbiology and immunology. The prestige of this award has grown over the past decades so that it is now widely regarded as the leading international scientific prize in microbiology. As has been described by a jury member for the prize, the committee often asks, "What would Robert Koch work on today?” to decide on research that should be granted recognition.
The more specific Robert Koch Prize is commonly considered one of the stepping-stones (along with other prizes such as the Lasker Award) to eventual Nobel Prize recognition for scientists in the fields of microbiology and immunology, and a number of Robert Koch Prize winners subsequently became Nobel laureates, such as César Milstein, Susumu Tonegawa and Harald zur Hausen. Other notable awardees include Albert Sabin, Jonas Salk and John Enders for their pioneering work on the development of polio vaccines. Only Enders was recognized with a Nobel Prize, together with Thomas Huckle Weller and Frederick Chapman Robbins.
Two separate Robert Koch Awards are presented annually: The Gold Robert Koch Gold Medal for accumulated excellence in biomedical research and the Robert Koch Prize, worth €120,000, for a major discovery in biomedical science.
Source:[1]
- 1960 Hugo Braun [de] (Germany), René Dubos (USA), Toshiaki Ebina [de] (Japan), Ludwig Heilmeyer [de] (Germany), Franz Redeker [de] (Germany), Josef Tomczik [de] (Switzerland)[2]
- 1962 John Franklin Enders (USA), Albert Sabin (USA), Jonas Salk (USA)
- 1963 Tomizo Yoshida (Japan)
- 1965 Gertrud Meißner
- 1966 Karl Bartmann [de]
- 1968 Heinz Stolp [de], Arthur Brockhaus [de], Hans-Werner Schlipköter [de]
- 1970 William M. Hutchison [de] (United Kingdom), Pirjo Mäkelä [de] (Finland), Jørgen C. Siim [de] (Denmark)
- 1971 Gertrude Henle and Werner Henle (USA)
- 1972 Lubertus Berrens [de] (Netherlands), Alain de Weck (Switzerland)
- 1973 Jean Lindenmann (Switzerland), Hans Gerhard Schwick [de] (Germany)
- 1974 Norbert Hilschmann [de] (Germany)
- 1975 Harald zur Hausen (Germany), Heinz-G. Wittmann (Germany)
- 1976 Richard A. Finkelstein [de] (USA), Mark Richmond (United Kingdom)
- 1977 Jean Dausset (France), Jon J. van Rood (Netherlands)
- 1978 Albrecht Kleinschmidt [de] (Germany), Heinz Ludwig Sänger [de] (Germany)
- 1979 Ruth Arnon (Israel), Peter Starlinger (Germany)
- 1980 César Milstein (Argentina), Lewis W. Wannamaker (USA)
- 1981 Robert M. Chanock (USA), Lars Å. Hanson [de] (Sweden)
- 1982 Raymond L. Erikson (USA), Franz Oesch (Germany)
- 1983 Werner Goebel [de] (Germany), Robert A. Weinberg (USA)
- 1984 Walter Doerfler [de] (Germany), Stuart F. Schlossman [de] (USA)
- 1985 Stefania Jabłońska (Poland), Gérard Orth (France)
- 1986 Susumu Tonegawa (Japan)
- 1987 Mario Rizzetto (Italy), Rodulf Rott [de] (Germany), John Skehel (United Kingdom)
- 1988 Donald Metcalf (Australia)
- 1989 Irun R. Cohen (Israel), Alex J. van der Eb (Netherlands)
- 1990 Lloyd J. Old (USA)
- 1991 Walter Fiers (Belgium), Tadatsugu Taniguchi (Japan)
- 1992 Kary B. Mullis (USA)
- 1993 Hans-Georg Rammensee (Germany), Daniel W. Bradley (USA), Michael Houghton (USA)
- 1994 Volkmar Braun [de] (Germany), Manuel Elkin Patarroyo Murillo (Colombia)
- 1995 Shigekazu Nagata (Japan), Peter H. Krammer (Germany)
- 1996 Fritz Melchers [de] (Switzerland), Klaus Rajewsky (Germany)
- 1997 Philippe Sansonetti (France)
- 1998 Yuan Chang (USA), Patrick S. Moore (USA)
- 1999 Ralph M. Steinman (USA)
- 2000 Stanley Falkow (USA)
- 2001 Axel Ullrich (Germany)
- 2002 Rudolf Jaenisch (USA)
- 2003 Adriano Aguzzi [de] (Switzerland)
- 2004 Shizuo Akira (Japan), Bruce A. Beutler (USA), Jules A. Hoffmann (France)
- 2005 Brian J. Druker (USA)
- 2006 Peter Palese (USA), Yoshihiro Kawaoka (Japan)
- 2007 Pascale Cossart (France)[3]
- 2008 Hans Robert Schöler (Germany), Irving Weissman (USA), Shinya Yamanaka (Japan)
- 2009 Carl F. Nathan (USA)
- 2010 Max Dale Cooper (USA)
- 2011 Jorge E. Galán (Argentina)
- 2012 Tasuku Honjo (Japan)
- 2013 Jeffrey I. Gordon (USA)
- 2014 Jean-Laurent Casanova [fr] (France), Alain Fischer (France)
- 2015 Ralf Bartenschlager (Germany),[4] Charles M. Rice (USA)
- 2016 Alberto Mantovani (Italy), Michel C. Nussenzweig (USA)
- 2017 Rafi Ahmed (India / USA), Antonio Lanzavecchia (Italy / Switzerland)
- 2018 Jeffrey V. Ravetch (USA)[5]
- 2019 Rino Rappuoli (Italy)
- 2020 Shimon Sakaguchi (Japan)[6]
- 2021 Yasmine Belkaid (Algeria / USA), Andreas J. Bäumler (Germany / USA)[7][8]
- 2022 Philip Felgner (USA),[9] Drew Weissman (USA)[10]
- 2023 Timothy A. Springer (USA), Francisco Sánchez Madrid (Spain)[11]
- 2024 Lalita Ramakrishnan (USA / UK)[12]
"Home". Robert-Koch-Stiftung. Retrieved 2021-11-28.