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The Crafoord Prize

Anna-Greta and Holger Crafoord's Fund was established in 1980 by a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from Anna-Greta and Holger Crafoord. The Crafoord Prize was awarded for the first time in 1982. The purpose of the Fund is to promote basic scientific research worldwide in the following disciplines:

Mathematics and Astronomy
Geosciences
Biosciences (with emphasis on ecology)
Polyarthritis (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis)

Support to research takes the form of an international prize awarded annually to outstanding scientists, and of research grants to individuals or institutions in Sweden. Both awards and grants are made according to the following order:

Year 1: Astronomy and Mathematics
Year 2: Geosciences
Year 3: Biosciences
(repeat)

Starting in 2012, there are two separate prizes in mathematics and astronomy awarded at the same time.

The laureates are announced in mid-January each year, and the prize is presented in April/May on the "Crafoord Days".

We list the winners of the Mathematics and Astronomy Prizes.

1. Crafoord Prize winners in mathematics:

1982 Vladimir Arnold
... for outstanding achievements in the theory of non-linear differential equations.
1982 Louis Nirenberg
... for outstanding achievements in the theory of non-linear differential equations.
1988 Pierre Deligne
... for fundamental research in algebraic geometry.
1988 Alexander Grothendieck
... for fundamental research in algebraic geometry.
1994 Simon Donaldson
... for his fundamental investigations in four-dimensional geometry through application of instantos in particular his new discovery of new differential invariants.
1994 Shing-Tung Yau
... for his development of non-linear techniques in differential geometry leading the solution of several outstanding problems.
2001 Alain Connes
... for penetrating work on the theory of operator algebras and for having been a founder of non-commutative geometry.
2008 Maxim Kontsevich
... for his important contributions to mathematics inspired by modern theoretical physics.
2008 Edward Witten
... for his important contributions to mathematics inspired by modern theoretical physics.
2012 Jean Bourgain
... for his brilliant and ground-breaking work in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, ergodic theory, number theory, combinatorics, functional analysis and theoretical computer science.
2012 Terence Tao
... for his brilliant and ground-breaking work in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, ergodic theory, number theory, combinatorics, functional analysis and theoretical computer science.
2016 Yakov Eliashberg
... for the development of contact and symplectic topology and groundbreaking discoveries of rigidity and flexibility phenomena.
2020 Enrico Bombieri
... for outstanding and influential contributions in all the major areas of mathematics, particularly number theory, analysis and algebraic geometry.
2024 Claire Voisin
.... for outstanding contributions to complex and algebraic geometry, including Hodge theory, algebraic cycles, and hyperkähler geometry.
2. Crafoord Prize winners in astronomy:

1985 Lyman Spitzer
... for fundamental pioneering studies of practically every aspect of the interstellar medium, culminating in the results obtained using the Copernicus satellite.
1991 Allan Sandage
... for his important contributions to the study of galaxies, their populations of stars, clusters and nebulae, their evolution, the velocity-distance relation (or Hubble relation), and its evolution over time.
1997 Fred Hoyle
... for pioneering contributions to the study of nuclear processes in stars and stellar evolution.
1997 Edwin Ernest Salpeter
... for pioneering contributions to the study of nuclear processes in stars and stellar evolution.
2005 James Peebles
... for contributions towards understanding the large-scale structure of the Universe.
2005 Martin Rees
... for contributions towards understanding the large-scale structure of the Universe.
2008 Rashid Alievich Sunyaev
... for his decisive contributions to high energy astrophysics and cosmology, in particular processes and dynamics around black holes and neutron stars and demonstration of the diagnostic power of structures in the background radiation.
2012 Reinhard Genzel
... for his observations of the stars orbiting the galactic centre, indicating the presence of a supermassive black hole.
2012 Andrea M Ghez
... for her observations of the stars orbiting the galactic centre, indicating the presence of a supermassive black hole.
2016 Roy Kerr
... for fundamental work concerning rotating black holes and their astrophysical consequences.
2016 Roger Blandford
... for fundamental work concerning rotating black holes and their astrophysical consequences.
2020 Eugene N Parker
... for pioneering and fundamental studies of the solar wind and magnetic fields from stellar to galactic scales.
2024 Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard
... for developing the methods of asteroseismology and their application to the study of the interior of the Sun and of other stars.
2024 Conny Aerts
... for developing the methods of asteroseismology and their application to the study of the interior of the Sun and of other stars.