MOSCOW--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Winners of the prestigious Zimin Foundation's Enlightenment and Enlightenment.Digital prizes will be announced on November 21st, 2019 in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 2008 by scientist, entrepreneur and philanthropist Dr Dmitry Zimin and his son Boris, the Enlightenment and Enlightenment.Digital Prizes facilitate greater access to scientific knowledge by promoting the publication of non-fiction literature and digital content in Russian.
The Enlightenment Prize (Premia Prosvetitel in Russian) has just entered its twelfth year. It has fundamentally transformed scientific literacy in post-Soviet Russia by encouraging academics to effectively articulate their work to the general public. The content and books entered into the competition “can be devoted to ideas, theories, interesting facts, and new discoveries in the area of the natural and exact sciences, linguistics, economics and history. It is important that even the most complex scientific theories be accessible to laymen”.
Book entries will be assessed in two categories: Natural and Exact Sciences and Humanities. Across the two categories, 25 longlisted books were shortlisted to 8 contenders. A broad spectrum of topics were submitted, which included the history of DNA, Tsarist Russia and the history of music.
This year, a new prize, Enlightenment.Digital, has been introduced to reflect the development of online learning and digital educational projects, in the continuity of the Zimin Foundation’s commitment to widen access to scientific knowledge across a variety of platforms. The special jury assessed 30 digital projects in Sound, Text and Video categories for the Enlightenment.Digital award.
Laureates of both book categories and the Enlightenment.Digital Prize will be announced at the ceremony in Moscow and each will receive a 700,000-ruble prize (approximately $11,000). The jury will also award special nominations in the Enlightenment.Digital category aside from the main prize.
The winners of the two awards will be chosen by two teams of judges. The jury of the Enlightenment Prize is comprised of experts in the sciences and the arts. These include the chairman of the jury Alexei Semikhatov, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, leading researcher of the Lebedev Physical institute, scientific curator of the Polytechnic Museum; Maria Falikman, the Head of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Higher School of Economics (HSE), Lead Researcher in Cognitive Research at HSE; Evgeniy Bynimovich, a poet, publicist, Deputy of Moscow State Duma, Chairman of the Commission on Science and Education at the Moscow State Duma since 2009 and; Dilshat Harman, Member of the Association of Art Critics, and 2018 winner of the Enlightenment Prize in the Humanities category.
The jury of the Enlightenment.Digital award is headed by Anna Kachkayeva, Director at the HSE University Centre for Digital Cultures and Media Literacy, Professor at the HSE University Faculty of Communications, Media and Design, and journalist. Other members of the jury include: Anton Skulachev, philologist, chairperson of the Guild of Philologists, teacher of literature, and Karen Shainyan, co-founder of the Future History studio, journalist, and co-author of the projects “1968.Digital”, “Project 1917 – Free History”.
Dr Dmitry Zimin believes that “popularising science and making it accessible to everybody, particularly empowering young people, can have a profound global impact changing lives.”
About the Zimin Foundation
The Zimin Foundation is a philanthropic organisation established by Dr Dmitry Zimin and his son Boris, with the aim to support education and science. Building on its longstanding legacy in Russia, the Foundation now operates globally. The Zimin Foundation encourages scientific education, helps young talent and supports projects with high potential for real-world impact. More information on ziminfoundation.org.
