Templeton Prize facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Templeton Prize
Bernard d'Espagnat receiving the Templeton Prize from the Duke of Edinburgh in 2009
Presented by	Templeton Foundation
Country	United States
Reward	£1.1 million (2019)
First awarded	1973
Currently held by	Edna Adan Ismail

The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind's place and purpose within it." It was established, funded and administered by John Templeton starting in 1972. It is now co-funded by the John Templeton Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, and Templeton World Charity Foundation, and administered by the John Templeton Foundation.

The prize was originally awarded to people working in the field of religion (Mother Teresa was the first winner), but in the 1980s the scope broadened to include people working at the intersection of science and religion. Until 2001, the name of the prize was "Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion", and from 2002 to 2008 it was called the "Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities". Hindus, Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Muslims have been on the panel of judges and have been recipients of the prize.

The monetary value of the prize is adjusted so that it exceeds that of the Nobel Prizes; Templeton felt, according to The Economist, that "spirituality was ignored" in the Nobel Prizes. As of 2019^[update], it is £1.1 million. It has typically been presented by Prince Philip in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

The prize has been referred to as prestigious and coveted, with The Washington Post calling it the most prestigious award in religion. Atheist scientists Richard Dawkins, Harry Kroto and Jerry Coyne have criticized the prize as "blurring [religion's] well-demarcated border with science" and being awarded "to scientists who are either religious themselves or say nice things about religion", a criticism rejected by 2011 laureate Martin Rees, who pointed to his own and other laureates' atheism and that their research in fields such as psychology, evolutionary biology, and economy can hardly be classified as the "promotion of religion".

Laureates

Year	Laureate		Notes	Ref(s)
1973	Mother Teresa	Mother Teresa	Founder of the Missionaries of Charity; 1979 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
1974	Frere Roger	Frère Roger	Founder of the Taizé Community
1975	Radhakrishnana	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	Former President of India, advocate of non-aggression with Pakistan
1976	Suenens	Leo Joseph Suenens	Pioneer in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement
1977	Lubich	Chiara Lubich	Founder of the Focolare Movement
1978	Torrance —	Thomas F. Torrance	Former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
1979	Niwano	Nikkyō Niwano	Co-founder of the Risshō Kōsei Kai
1980	Burhoe —	Ralph Wendell Burhoe	Founder of the journal Zygon
1981	Saunders	Cicely Saunders	Founder of the hospice and palliative care movement
1982	Graham	Billy Graham	Evangelist
1983	Solzhenitsyn	Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn	Soviet dissident novelist; Nobel laureate
1984	Bourdeaux —	Michael Bourdeaux	Founder of the Keston Institute
1985	Hardy —	Sir Alister Hardy	Founder of the Religious Experience Research Centre
1986	McCord —	James I. McCord	Former president, Princeton Theological Seminary
1987	Father Jaki	Stanley Jaki	Benedictine priest; professor of astrophysics, Seton Hall University
1988	Khan —	Inamullah Khan	Former secretary-general, Modern World Muslim Congress
1989	Weizsacker	Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker	Physicist and philosopher
	MacLeod —	George MacLeod	Founder of the Iona Community
1990	Baba Amte	Baba Amte	Developer of modern communities for people suffering from leprosy
	Birch —	Charles Birch	Emeritus professor, University of Sydney
1991	Jakobvits	Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits	Former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth
1992	Han	Kyung-Chik Han	Evangelist and founder of Youngnak Presbyterian Church, Seoul. From northern Korea.
1993	Colson	Charles Colson	Founder of the Prison Fellowship
1994	Novak	Michael Novak	Philosopher and diplomat
1995	Davies	Paul Davies	Theoretical physicist
1996	Bright	Bill Bright	Founder of the Campus Crusade for Christ
1997	Athavale —	Pandurang Shastri Athavale	Social reformer and philosopher, founder of the Swadhyay Movement
1998	Sternberg —	Sir Sigmund Sternberg	Philanthropist; founder of the Three Faith Forum
1999	Barbour —	Ian Barbour	Former professor of science, technology and society, Carleton College
2000	Dyson	Freeman Dyson	Theoretical and mathematical physicist, mathematician, and statistician
2001	Peacocke —	Arthur Peacocke	Former dean, Clare College, Cambridge
2002	Polkinghorne	John Polkinghorne	Physicist and theologian
2003	Rolston	Holmes Rolston III	Philosopher
2004	Ellis	George F. R. Ellis	Cosmologist and philosopher
2005	Townes	Charles Hard Townes	Nobel laureate and physicist
2006	Barrow	John D. Barrow	Cosmologist and theoretical physicist
2007	Taylor	Charles Taylor	Philosopher
2008	Heller	Michał Heller	Physicist and philosopher
2009	d'Espagnat	Bernard d'Espagnat	Physicist
2010	Ayala	Francisco J. Ayala	Biologist
2011	Rees	Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow	Cosmologist and astrophysicist
2012	Tenzin	14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso	Spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
2013	Tutu	Desmond Tutu	Nobel laureate, social rights activist and retired Anglican archbishop
2014	Halik	Tomáš Halík	Roman Catholic priest, theologian, philosopher
2015	Vanier	Jean Vanier	Catholic theologian, humanitarian and founder of L'Arche and Faith and Light
2016	Sacks	Jonathan Sacks	Former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, philosopher, and scholar of Judaism
2017	Plantinga	Alvin Plantinga	American scholar, philosopher, and writer
2018	Abdullah	Abdullah II of Jordan	King of Jordan
2019	Gleiser	Marcelo Gleiser	Brazilian physicist and astronomer, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College
2020	Collins	Francis Collins	Geneticist and physician
2021	Goodall	Jane Goodall	Ethologist, activist and renowned chimpanzee researcher
2022	Wilczek	Frank Wilczek	Theoretical physicist
2023	Ismail	Edna Adan Ismail	Health-care advocate

See also

In Spanish: Premio Templeton para niños

• List of religion-related awards