The philosopher Thomas Nagel, New York University, NY, USA, the mathematician Endre Szemerédi, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, NJ, USA, the artist Mona Hatoum and the musician Gidon Kremer have been awarded the Rolf Schock Prizes 2008.
Press release 12 May 2008
Rolf Schock unites Science, the Arts and Music
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts and The Royal Academy of Music have decided that the Rolf Schock Prizes of 2008, a sum of 2 million SEK, should be awarded in the fields of:
Logic and Philosophy
to THOMAS NAGEL (born in the former Yugoslavia), New York University, NY, USA,
“for his systematic investigation of the tension between subjective and objective perspectives on reality and of how this tension gives rise to fundamental philosophical problems”.
Mathematics
to ENDRE SZEMERÉDI (born in Hungary), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, NJ, USA and the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary,
“for his deep and pioneering work from 1975 on arithmetic progressions in subsets of the integers, which has led to great progress and discoveries in several branches of mathematics”.
The Visual Arts
to MONA HATOUM (born in Lebanon),
“for a rich and multi-faceted artistic oeuvre which mirrors experiences involving exile and gender. In a highly sensitive way, Mona Hatoum has availed herself of recent developments as regards means of artistic expression and choice of materials in order to set forth ideas of great urgency and deep personal experiences”.
Musical Arts
to GIDON KREMER (born in Latvia),
“for his artistic integrity and tireless curiosity in constantly re-evaluating his experiences and challenging his audiences with innovative interpretations of both contemporary music and older repertoires”.
The Rolf Schock Prizes are triennial and are awarded in the fields of logic and philosophy, mathematics, the visual arts and musical arts. The prize amount is SEK 500,000 per category, making a total of SEK 2 million.
The prize-awarding ceremony will take place on 22 October, 2008 in Grünewaldssalen, Konserthuset (The Concert Hall), Kungsgatan 43, Stockholm. There will be a press meeting (breakfast) on the same day at 10 am in Ledamotssalen, Kungl. Musikaliska Akademien (The Royal Academy of Music), Nybrokajen 11, Stockholm.