SIGHT Award – new global health prize inaugurated
Today the newly established SIGHT Award is publicly announced for the first time. The Swedish professor Andreas Mårtensson receives the prize for his pioneering work to find strategies to fight malaria.
Swedish Institute for Global Health Transformation, SIGHT, has initiated SIGHT Award to reward ”excellent scientific achievement within global health”.
The prize of SEK 100 000 has been enabled with support from the Einhorn Family Foundation and is presented by Melinda Gates in Stockholm on November 15tth.
The first SIGHT Award is presented at The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on November 15th at an interdisciplinary student event: ”Youth, Health and the Global Goals: A Dialogue with Melinda Gates.
The prize of SEK 100 000 has been enabled with support from the Einhorn Family Foundation to support and inspire younger scientists within global health. The award rewards efforts of major scientific value considering research together with universities in low- and middle-income countries to improve health where it is most needed.
Peter Friberg, SIGHT director:
“We are so happy to present the SIGHT Award for the first time. Congratulations to the awardee! The award is a way to highlight successful research within global health– important contributions to the world to reach the UN global sustainable development goals. I also want to thank the Einhorn family to have made the SIGHT Award possible”.
Professor Andreas Mårtensson, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University:
“To be appointed as the first awardee is extremely inspiring. It is encouraging for me and the people I work with, especially for us who work interdisciplinary. Simple tools has proven to be very efficient to fight malaria”.
Profile page:
http://katalog.uu.se/profile/?id=N15-1467
2017 SIGHT Award justification:
”Andreas Mårtensson undertakes interdisciplinary global health research of high quality in cooperation with institutions in East Africa, including pioneering work resulting in a radical decrease of malaria prevalence in Zanzibar.”
The decision on awardee for the 2017 SIGHT Award was taken by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, under the leadership of Secretary General Göran K. Hansson.
More information:
Facts: SIGHT, Swedish Institute for Global Health Transformation, was established at The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in January 2017 to strengthen global health research and education and knowledge dissemination. The initial grant of the institute was financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. http://sight.kva.se
Contact
Awardee Andreas Mårtensson: andreas.martensson@kbh.uu.se, +46 73 745 40 34
Peter Friberg, director SIGHT, peter.friberg@gu.se, +46 70 676 00 13 or
Erik Johannesson, communications, erik.johannesson@kva.se, +46 73 328 54 61
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.