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F1000 Section Head David Tilman has been announced as the recipient of the 2014 Balzan Prize.

Aiming to “promote culture, the sciences and the most meritorious initiatives in the cause of humanity, peace and fraternity among peoples throughout the world” this prestigious award was created from the inheritance Lina Balzan to honor the memory of her father, Eugenio, part-owner of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, who left Italy for Switzerland in protest against fascism in 1933. Four prizes are awarded annually, in varying fields in both humanities and science, but with an emphasis on research.

David Tilman, Regents’ Professor at the University of Minnesota and McKnight Presidential Chair in Ecology, has headed the Community Ecology & Biodiversity section of F1000’s Ecology Faculty since 2004. He receives the prize for his “huge contributions to theoretical and experimental plant ecology, work that underpins much of our current understanding of how plant communities are structured and interact with their environment”.

More information can be read on the University of Minnesota’s Discover blog and on the International Balzan Prize Foundation website.

Our congratulations to all of this year’s winners!