SPAIN **24 Oct 2008 Prestigious Asturias prizes awarded. Honors to Google and Canadian author Margaret Atwood

Eight Prince of Asturias Foundation annual international awards will be presented by Filipe, Prince of Asturias, at a ceremony in Oviedo. Search engine Google will be awarded the Communication and Humanities award. Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood will receive the award for Letters. Past winners of the prize for Letters include Arthur Miller, Doris Lessing and Gunter Grass. The other awards -- Arts, International Cooperation, Technical and Scientific Research, Social Sciences, Sports and Concord -- will also be presented at the ceremony.

Winners receive a EUR 50,000 prize and a reproduction of a statuette designed by Joan Miró.

Google, created by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, was cited for "instantly and selectively making the enormous flood of information on the Internet available to hundreds of millions of people, ... [for] a gigantic cultural revolution ... [and] widespread access to knowledge."

Atwood's work includes titles such as The Edible Woman (1969), Surfacing (1972), Lady Oracle (1976), Life Before Man (1980), Cat's Eye (1988) and The Robber Bride (1993). She has also received the Brooker Prize, highest Literature and English Language Award (2000), the Association of Canadian Librarians Award (1997, 1989 and 1996), the Toronto Book Award (1977 and 1989) and many others.

The Letters jury cited Atwood's "outstanding literary work that has explored different genres with acuteness and irony, and because she cleverly assumes the classic tradition, defends women's dignity and denounces social unfairness."

In 2008 the Arts jury chose the Youth and Children Orchestras of Venezuela, founded 30 years ago by the composer and economist José Antonio Abreu. The jury noted that the orchestra has combined "within a single project, the highest artistic quality and a profound ethical conviction applied for the improvement of our social reality." The network, which incorporates 120 orchestras, has benefited more than 400,000 children. Some 250,000 children and young adults are currently involved.

Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan won the Arts award in 2007.

The award for International Cooperation was conferred on the organisations leading the fight in Africa against malaria: Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre (Tanzania), The Malaria Research and Training Center (Mali), Kintampo Health Research Centre (Ghana) and Manhiça Health Research Centre (Mozambique). The jury noted that it took into consideration the role played by these four centers "in encouraging research, achieving an effective vaccine and contributing to improvements in medical care in the countries in which they operate."

The Award for Technical and Scientific Research was awarded to five scientists "acknowledged as worldwide leaders in the fields of Materials Science and Nanotechnology. These scientists are Sumio Iijima, from Japan, and Shuji Nakamura, Robert Langer, George M. Whitesides and Tobin Marks, from the United States, who have discovered carbon nanotubes, light emitting diodes (LEDs), biomaterials that facilitate intelligent drug release and the production of tissue and organs for transplants, as well as the fabrication of nanoscale materials and the development of new plastics and recyclable materials, all of which constitute fundamental techniques for the sustainable development of the planet and the fight against poverty."

The Award for Social Sciences went to the French philologist and semiotician of Bulgarian origin, Tzvetan Todorov. The jury cited his "intellectual concern, his wisdom and erudition, surpasses all frontiers and seeks the middle ground, allowing him to study great issues of our time, such as the development of democracies, understanding between cultures, rootlessness, appreciation of others and the impact of violence on collective memory."

The Sports and Concord juries will meet in September to choose their winners. Jul/08

**date TBC 

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Prince of Asturias Foundation
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