Craig Venter, John Sulston, Francis Collins, Hamilton Smith and Jean Weissenbach Prince of Asturias Award for Technical & Scientific Research 2001

The Jury for the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research 2001, convened in Oviedo, comprising José Luis Álvarez Margaride, María del Carmen Andrade Perdrix, Antonio Fernández-Rañada, Luis Fernández-Vega Sanz, Santiago Grisolía, María del Carmen Maroto Vela, Rafael Nájera Morrondo, César Nombela, Fernando Ortiz Maslloréns, Rafael Puyol, Francisco Sevilla, Guillermo Suárez Fernández, Raúl Villar, chaired by Julio Rodríguez Villanueva and with José Antonio Martínez-Álvarez as secretary has unanimously agreed to grant the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research to Dr. Francis Collins, Dr. Hamilton Smith, Dr. John Sulston, Dr. Craig Venter and Dr. Jean Weissenbach, whose teams lead the world research into the genome.

Their research centres are the Sanger Centre, in the United Kingdom, the National Human Genome Research Institute and Celera Genomics, in the U.S.A., and Genoscope, in France.

The discovering of the human genome sequence, the fruits of the efforts of a large number of scientists, is an event in Science that is of momentous importance to Mankind. Powerful, large-scale gene analysis methodologies, ranging from detailed chromosome mapping to rapid DNA fragment sequencing and assembly had first to be developed for such a breakthrough to be made.

Oviedo, 16th May 2001