2 US scientists, Indian economist among 2017 Balzan Prize awardees

The International Balzan Foundation on 11 September 2017 announced the winners of the 2017 Balzan Prize.

This year, Indian economist Bina Agarwal was recognised among other awardees for her work on women's contributions to agriculture in India.

Here's the list of 2017 Balzan Prize awardees
• James P Allison of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Robert D Schreiber of the Washington University School of Medicine were awarded for Immunological Approaches in Cancer Therapy that enhanced the survival of patients with metastatic melanoma.
• Indian Economist Bina Agarwal of University of Manchester (UK) was recognised in the Gender Studies category for her heroic work studying women's contributions to agriculture in India.
• Belgian astrophysicist Michael Gillon was awarded for his work that has helped in finding new solar systems of planet Earth using robotic telescopes, instead of much more costly satellites.
• German couple Germans Aleida and Jan Assmann were recognised for presenting collective memory as a requirement for the formation of the identity of religious and political communities.

Besides, this year, the Balzan Foundation awarded 2016 Balzan Prize for International Relations, History and Theory to Robert O Keohane of Princeton University, who is best known for his influential book "After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy."

This award was not presented last year as the committee failed to reach on an agreement regarding the winner.

Each recipient will receive 750000 Swiss francs (USD 790000) as prize money on 17 November 2017 in the award ceremony that will take place in Bern, Switzerland. Half of the prize money will be used for research, preferably by young scholars or scientists.