---
title: "Marcel Benoist Prize"
chunk: 1/1
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Benoist_Prize"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:08:24.842171+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The Marcel Benoist Prize, offered by the Marcel Benoist Foundation, is a monetary prize that has been offered annually since 1920 to a scientist of Swiss nationality or residency who has made the most useful scientific discovery.  Emphasis is placed on those discoveries affecting human life. Since 1997, candidates in the humanities have also been eligible for the prize.
The Marcel Benoist Foundation was established by the will of the French lawyer Marcel Benoist, a wartime resident of Lausanne, who died in 1918. It is managed by a group of trustees comprising the Swiss interior minister and heads of the main Swiss universities. It has been dubbed the "Swiss Nobel Prize."


== History ==
The first award was given to immunologist Maurice Arthus (1862–1945) at the University of Lausanne.  Other winners have included computer scientist Niklaus Wirth, astronomer Michel Mayor, and cardiologist Max Holzmann. As of 2019, eleven Marcel Benoist winners have later also won the Nobel Prize: Paul Karrer, Leopold Ruzicka, Walter R. Hess, Tadeus Reichstein, Vladimir Prelog, Niels Kaj Jerne, Johannes G. Bednorz, Karl. Alexander Müller, Richard R. Ernst, Kurz Wüthrich, and Michel Mayor.
In 2009, Françoise Gisou van der Goot (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) was the first woman to win the Marcel Benoist Prize.


== Laureates ==


== See also ==
List of general science and technology awards
Science and technology in Switzerland
Prizes named after people
Latsis Foundation
Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine


== References ==


== External links ==
Official website (in English, German, French, and Italian)