Berggruen Prize Announces Antonio Damasio as Chair of Jury

The Berggruen Institute today announced renowned thinker Antonio Damasio as Chair of its Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture, the annual award established by philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen to recognize humanistic thinkers whose ideas have shaped society and provided wisdom in a rapidly transforming world. Antonio Damasio has served on the Berggruen Prize Jury since its inception and takes over for Kwame Anthony Appiah as Jury Chair. Appiah, the inaugural head of the Jury, led the international group comprised of former Nobel laureates, authors, and thinkers from 2016-2022.

The Berggruen Prize Jury recently named Peter Singer as its sixth winner in 2021, adding to a prestigious group of laureates including Paul Farmer (2020), former Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (2019), Martha Nussbaum (2018), Onora O’Neill (2017), and Charles Taylor (2016).

Antonio Damasio is an award-winning scholar, thinker, and author. Damasio is University Professor, David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, and Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California. He has made seminal contributions to the understanding of brain processes underlying emotions, feelings, decision-making and consciousness and he is one of the most highly cited scientists in his field. Damasio has described his discoveries in several books: Descartes’ Error, The Feeling of What Happens, Looking for Spinoza, Self Comes to Mind, The Strange Order of Things and Feeling and Knowing. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the recipient of major prizes, among them the Prince of Asturias Prize in Science and Technology, and the Honda and Grawemeyer prizes.