THE MARCEL BENOIST FOUNDATION - A SHORT PRESENTATION

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The Marcel Benoist Foundation

The Marcel Benoist Foundation for the promotion of scientific research was founded in 1920 by the Swiss Federal Council to execute the last will and testament of Marcel Benoist, a French national living in Lausanne who had unexpectedly left most of his wealth to the Swiss Confederation under the condition that it be used to fund an annual scientific award.

In his testament written in 1914, he expressed his intent to endow a scientific award: "I give and bequeath to the Government of the Helvetic Republic all the assets which I have deposited in Switzerland, at the Swiss National Bank in Bern and at the Swiss Bank Corporation in Basle. The income from these assets shall be used to award every year a single prize to a scientist of Swiss nationality or a resident of Switzerland, who shall have made during the year the most useful scientific discovery or study, in particular in disciplines which are of significance for human life."

The wording of this quotation is very similar to the corresponding paragraph in Alfred Nobel's testament, suggesting that this may have been the inspiration of Marcel Benoist. Beyond this, there are no other indications of the motives which led a French lawyer to leave his wealth to the Swiss Confederation and establish what has since become the oldest annual scientific prize in Switzerland.

The Founding Ordinance enacted November 5, 1920 and the regulations adopted by the Swiss Federal Council also in November of the same year, both revised for the last time in 2008, define the charter of the Marcel Benoist Foundation and the procedures for awarding the Marcel Benoist Prize.

Under the supervision of the Federal Council, the foundation is managed by a Board of Trustees, consisting of the Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs as Chairperson, the Director of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), a representative of the French Ambassador in Switzerland, a representative of each of the cantonal universities of Basle, Berne, Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, Neuchatel, St. Gallen, Zurich and of Italian-speaking Switzerland, and a representative from each of the two Federal Institutes of Technology in Lausanne and Zurich.

The board meets once a year to elect the laureates and determine the amount of the award. A Managing Committee, consisting of the Chairman and three other members of the Board of Trustees, as well as an Executive Secretary take care of the day-to-day administration of the award.

Since 2010, the secretariat of the Marcel Benoist Foundation is located within the General Secretariat of the Federal Department of Home Affairs in Berne.

An information brochure in German or in French, published in 2007, can be obtained free of charge from the secretariat of the foundation (please click Contact).

In 1996, the Silva Casa Foundation, executor of the last will of the widow of Justin K. Thannhauser, an art collector and dealer, made a very significant contribution to the Marcel Benoist Foundation with the wish that candidates from the humanities and the social sciences should also be eligible for the Marcel Benoist Prize. Since 1997, this has indeed been the case.

The Board of Trustees of the Foundation

Chairman:

First Vice-Chairman:

Second Vice-Chairman:

Members:

Executive Secretary:

Past and Honorary Chairwoman and Chairmen:

Flavio Cotti
former Federal Councillor and former Head of the Department of Home Affairs

Alphons Egli
former Federal Councillor and former Head of the Department of Home Affairs
 

The Marcel Benoist Prize

In agreement with the will of its founder, a French lawyer who resided in Lausanne and who died in 1918, the Marcel Benoist Prize has been awarded every year since 1920 to scientists working in Switzerland who have made, as formulated in the founder's testament, "the most useful scientific discovery or study, in particular in disciplines which are of significance for human life."

With its administration tightly linked to the federal government, the Marcel Benoist Prize, as the oldest scientific award in Switzerland, has become to be regarded as the Swiss Confederation’s highest recognition for outstanding achievements in the sciences and the humanities. The distinction of the past and present laureates has further established this as an internationally recognized and prestigious award. Every Autumn, the Federal Councillor heading the Department of Home Affairs, as Chairman of the Marcel Benoist Foundation, presides over the award ceremony. The prize money comes from the revenues of the fortune Marcel Benoist bequeathed to the Swiss government, and the size of the award is determined each year by the foundation.

Nearly half of the laureates are from the basic medical sciences (physiology, endocrinology, anatomy, neurobiology, etc.) or clinical medicine (cardiology, ophthalmology, surgery, internal medicine, etc.). The other half come from a large array of fields, ranging from pure mathematics to physics, chemistry, geology, biology, and ecology. Since 1997, candidates from the humanities and the social sciences have become eligible for the award.

Following Marcel Benoist's last will, the significance of the work for human life has always been an important criterion for the selection of the Prize. Almost all the laureates come from the Swiss universities or the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology. Most are Swiss nationals, but several foreign scientists working in Switzerland have also been distinguished. With few exceptions, the laureates have been well-known scientists in mid-career, several of whom later received other prestigious honors for their contributions to sciences.

Of particular note are the winners of the Marcel Benoist Prize who were also honored with the Nobel Prize: Paul Karrer, 1937 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; Walter R. Hess, 1949 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine; Leopold Ruzicka, 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; Tadeus Reichstein, 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine; Vladimir Prelog, 1975 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; Nils K. Jerne, 1984 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine; Johannes G. Bednorz and Karl A. Müller, 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics; Richard R. Ernst, 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; Kurt Wüthrich, 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Likewise, the Marcel Benoist Prize winner for the year 1998, the Genevese astronomer Michel Mayor, was awarded the Balzan Prize 2000.

Past laureates