Alternative to Nobel prize in science

Nobel science prizes will face a “more daring” rival from 2008 with $1 million awards for research into everything from the “big bang” to the brain, a Norwegian-born philanthropist said on Monday.

Fred Kavli, a physicist who left Norway in 1955 with $300 and turned it into a $340 million fortune in California, said he was setting up three prizes for astrophysics, neuroscience and nanotechnology — the use of molecule-sized devices.

“We want to spread the word of science and get more students interested … In many parts of the world that’s a problem, from Norway to the United States,” Kavli told Reuters.

It is a noble venture. However I doubt students will be interested in science solely on the illusive dream of getting a prize.

Guardians of Nobel science prizes, first awarded in 1901, are sometimes criticized for rewarding elderly professors for work long ago even though founder Alfred Nobel once said he wanted to encourage “dreamers” who lacked funding.

Not to mention that the prizes are often given posthumously.

The new awards, to be made every second year from 2008, would rival some of the annual $1.4 million Nobel prizes

Alfred Noble mysteriously ignored the mathematicians. Looks like they are left out this time too. Poor guys!

Link