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U of T Professor wins 2014 Balzan valued at $800,000

September 11, 2014

TORONTO, ON – Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus Ian Hack­ing is a win­ner of the 2014 Balzan prize, an $800,000 (US) award that rec­og­nizes schol­ars and sci­en­tists who have dis­tin­guished them­selves in their fields.

One of the fore­most philoso­phers in the world, Hack­ing is known for his work in the phi­los­o­phy of sci­ence, med­i­cine and psy­chol­o­gy; the log­ic and his­to­ry of sta­tis­tics; the his­to­ry of phi­los­o­phy and the phi­los­o­phy of lan­guage. He has writ­ten 14 books and more than 300 papers and reviews on a wide range of sub­jects. Hack­ing was the only Cana­di­an award­ed a prize this year.

“It’s quite unex­pect­ed,” said Hack­ing about the win. He not­ed that the Inter­na­tion­al Balzan Prize Foun­da­tion stip­u­lates that half the prize mon­ey be used for projects involv­ing younger researchers. “I ful­ly approve of that. Half of the mon­ey will be giv­en to the phi­los­o­phy grad­u­ate depart­ment to sup­port younger researchers.”

“On behalf of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, I con­grat­u­late Pro­fes­sor Hack­ing on win­ning this rich­ly-deserved award,” said U of T Pres­i­dent Mer­ic Gertler. “Ian Hack­ing is one of the great thinkers of our time. His schol­ar­ship is cel­e­brat­ed as both wide-rang­ing and pro­found­ly insight­ful. We are immense­ly proud that he has called the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to home for so many years.”

Prizes will be award­ed by the pres­i­dent of Italy on Nov. 20.
The Inter­na­tion­al Balzan Prize Foundation’s aim is to pro­mote cul­ture, the sci­ences and the most mer­i­to­ri­ous ini­tia­tives in the cause of human­i­ty, peace and fra­ter­ni­ty among peo­ples through­out the world.

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