Four distinct awards have been named for writer, chemist, and

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "human ...

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

. * The ''Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story Writing'', now known as the ''Dell Magazines Award,'' is an annual award open to undergraduate college students and given to the author of the best

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

. Established by the magazine ''

Asimov's Science Fiction ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publicatio ...

'' and the

International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA), founded in 1982 is a nonprofit association of scholars, writers, and publishers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in literature, film, and the other arts. Its principal acti ...

, the award is typically given for character-driven stories of the type published in that magazine. * The ''ASIMOV Prize'' () for popular science books, edited in the

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 8 ...

. Its organising committee is composed by several hundred of professors and PhD students from all over Italy. Originally established at

Gran Sasso Science Institute The ''Gran Sasso Science Institute'' (GSSI) is an international school for advanced studies located in L'Aquila, Italy. Founded in 2012 as a research institute and superior graduate school dependent on the National Institute of Nuclear Physic ...

, it grew and became a national prize thanks to

INFN The Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN; "National Institute for Nuclear Physics") is the coordinating institution for nuclear, particle, theoretical and astroparticle physics in Italy. History INFN was founded on 8 August 1951, to furt ...

and many other scientific institutions. The winner is selected by a large jury of high school students, about 3300 in the last edition. The 1st recipient (2016) was the chemist

Peter Atkins Peter William Atkins (born 10 August 1940) is an English chemist and a Fellow of Lincoln College at the University of Oxford. He retired in 2007. He is a prolific writer of popular chemistry textbooks, including ''Physical Chemistry'', ''I ...

, the 2nd one (2017) was the medical doctor Roberto Burioni, the 3rd ones (2018) are

Helen Czerski Helen Czerski is a British physicist and oceanographer and television presenter. She is a research fellow in the department of mechanical engineering at University College London. She was previously at the Institute for Sound and Vibration Re ...

and

Marco Malvaldi Marco Malvaldi (born 27 January 1974, in Pisa) is an Italian crime writer. Short biography Marco Malvaldi is an Italian chemist and novelist, who began his writing career in 2007 with his first mystery story ''La briscola in cinque'' (''Game ...

br>ex aequo
, the 4th one the neurophysiologist Lamberto Maffei. The winner of the 5th (2020) edition is the mathematician

Hannah Fry Hannah Fry (born February 1984) is a British mathematician, author, and radio and television presenter. She is Professor in the Mathematics of Cities at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. She studies the patterns of human behaviour, ...

. * The

skeptical Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

organization CSICOP created an ''Isaac Asimov Award'', established in 1994 "to honor Asimov for his extraordinary contributions to science and humanity". The first recipient was Asimov's friend

Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ex ...

Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould (; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Goul ...

was also a winner. * In 1998, the

American Humanist Association The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism. The American Humanist Association was founded in 1941 and currently provides legal assistance to defend the constituti ...

awarded its first ''Isaac Asimov Award'' to

Eugenie Scott Eugenie Carol Scott (born October 24, 1945) is an American physical anthropologist, a former university professor and educator who has been active in opposing the teaching of young Earth creationism and intelligent design in schools. She coined t ...

. Awardees since then have included

Robert Sapolsky Robert Morris Sapolsky (born April 6, 1957) is an American neuroendocrinology researcher and author. He is a professor of biology, and professor of neurology and neurological sciences and, by courtesy, neurosurgery, at Stanford University. In ad ...

Neil deGrasse Tyson Neil deGrasse Tyson ( or ; born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University. From 1991 to 1994, he was a p ...

Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and entrepreneur, technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve ...

Richard Leakey Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (19 December 1944 – 2 January 2022) was a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician. Leakey held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife conse ...

and Lynn J. Rothschild.

References

{{reflist

External links

Award information from ''Asimov's''

List of past winners of the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story Writing / Dell Magazines Award
American literary awards Isaac Asimov Asimov