Posts Tagged ‘famous journalists’

Relatively a new endeavor, the Dan David prize is one of the most esteemed awards handed every year. One unique feature about it is that it covers three time frames: past, present and future. Each one of these signifies a great accomplishment by one or more people.

The past refers to achievements that assist us in expanding our knowledge of the past.
The present refers to accomplishments that contribute to our modern society.
The future refers to achievements that have the greatest of potential for the improving our future.

This prize is not restricted to one field, or even to science alone, which is another feature that makes it exceptional. In every year a specific field is chosen for every time frame. Moreover, each award consists of 1 million dollars, though 10% of these are given by the laureates to students and scholars in the chosen field for the specific time dimension.

The year 2006 was a great year:
- The well known cellist Yo-Yo Ma won the award for the past, for preserving our cultural heritage.
- Four famous journalists: Goenawan Mohamad, Adam Michnik, Monica Gonzalez and Magdi Allam, were given the prize for the present, for for fighting and endangering their lives for free press.
- Two famous scientists: Dr. John Mendelsohn, and Dr. Joseph Schlessinger, were given the prize for the future, for their enormous contributions for treatment of cancer and cancer therapy.