About the Award Winners 2013


Professor Sir Paul Nurse
The members of the Interdisciplinary Committee have chosen Professor Sir Paul Nurse, President Emeritus and head of the Laboratory of Yeast Genetics and Cell Biology at the Rockefeller University, U.S., as the winner of the 2013 Albert Einstein World Award of Science for his outstanding and continuing career as a scientific leader, as well as his accomplishments as one of the world’s leading biochemists and geneticists.

Paul Nurse´s achievements meet the criteria for the Science Award of bringing "true benefit and wellbeing to mankind" for his long-term work as a scientific leader of several prestigious organisations, with significant influence on both health and education, marked by a strong commitment to excellence in learning, research and knowledge transfer.


The Award recognises his contributions on how the eukaryotic cell cycle is controlled and how cell shape and cell dimensions are determined, along with his major work on cyclin-dependent protein kinases and how they regulate cell reproduction - research that has provided a wider understanding of biology and medicine in the field of cancer.

Professor Paul Nurse is one of the world’s foremost biochemists and geneticists. In the 1980s, he made a scientific breakthrough when he identified a number of key regulatory proteins that control the yeast cell cycle. His further studies have led to the currently widely accepted models that conclude strong similarities among proteins, their activities and their biochemical modes of regulation throughout all eukaryotic organisms. His research is especially important for the understanding of biology and medicine in respect to cancer and other serious diseases, bringing us closer to prevention and a cure.

Paul Nurse has received wide recognition for his scientific excellence. He received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2001 (shared with Tim Holt and Lee Hartwell) and has been awarded a number of other prizes and recognitions, including the Albert Lasker Award and the Royal Society’s Royal and Copley Medals. He was knighted in Great Britain in 1999 for his services in cancer research and cell biology and was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur in 2002. He was Professor of Microbiology at the University of Oxford, CEO of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research UK, as well as President of the Rockefeller University in New York. He is at present Director and Chief Executive of the Francis Crick Institute and President of the Royal Society.

The 2013 Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts will be granted to Professor Petteri Nisunen, Professor in Contemporary Art at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University, Finland, and to his colleague Mr Tommi Grönlund.

This recognition is for their contributions to contemporary arts, their interdisciplinary approach, inspiring innovation, creativity and their particular view of synthesis. Their interdisciplinary approach brings together art, design, architecture and science.


Their large-scale spatial interventions and public as well as gallery installations involve a variety of materials and technologies, from the use of objects to light and sound. Nisunen and Grönlund deal with space, be it physical, ethereal or sonic. Works tend to change or reshape space and stimulate sensory perception through direct intervention, often with complex technical installations. The artists are not committed to one medium only, but are endlessly curious, capable of moving between disciplines and changing approaches.

In addition to his artistic work, Nisunen teaches in the Art Department of Aalto University. He invites fellow artists from around the world to share their experience and knowledge in lectures and workshops. Nisunen has a background in architecture and combines artists’ hands-on experience with art history and theory. Nisunen and Grönlund have also curated exhibitions, for example at the Nordic Pavilion in the 2001 Venice Biennial. They often work in conjunction with other artists, musicians and different professionals, such as scientists or engineers. They have a long list of public commissions and have exhibited in several major venues around the world.

The works, often with a poetic quality, leave open space for the audience’s experience. They are not so much a matter of objects, but rather about grasping something invisible in the world that surrounds us.