ULg researcher Michaël Gillon has been honoured by the Italian-Swiss Balzan Foundation.
Michaël Gillon has won a prize in the category “Planets of the solar system and exoplanets” for his research on exoplanets, which has been deemed a major step towards discovering life beyond our the solar system. The prize will be presented by the president of the Swiss Confederation on 17 November in Bern.
The Foundation handed out five prizes this year instead of the usual four. Seven researchers were honoured: two Germans, one Indian, three Americans, and a Belgian.
Each of the prizes includes 750,000 Swiss francs (approx. €650,000). Half of this amount must go to finance research projects, preferably led by young researchers.
Set up in 1956, the Balzan Foundation awards four prizes each year to internationally renowned scientists and researchers. It offers the second highest amount in prize money after the Nobel prizes. The Foundation is named after the antifascist journalist and director of Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, Eugenio Balzan (1874-1953), who was exiled to Switzerland during the Second World War.
Source: L’Avenir.net
