The Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury Science Prize, [1] also known as the "Premio Fundación Empresas Polar" is the most important award offered by the private sector to contemporary scientists from Venezuela who have shown outstanding talent, creativity and productivity during a given period.
The prize was created in 1982 by "Fundación Empresas Polar" [2] and is named after the founder of Empresas Polar, [3] a Venezuelan corporation owning one of the largest breweries in the country but whose operations also include an array of industries, mostly related to food processing and packaging. The award was established as part of the Corporate social responsibility of the group. [4] Every two years since 1983 the prize has been systematically awarded to Venezuelan scientists in the fields of Biology, Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry and their interdisciplines. For each biennial edition, the Board of Directors of Empresas Polar Foundation appoints a Selection Committee composed of seven scientists having extensive academic experience in their respective research fields. This committee then propose candidates, evaluate nominees, select winners, and write and submit the verdict to the Board of Polar Foundation. The selection process evaluates the talent, creativity and productivity of each candidate in their respective specialties. Besides giving public recognition to the awardees, the prize also includes a diploma and a freely spendable amount of cash to each one of them.
Since the prize started its first edition in 1983, there have been 90 awardees, including 15 women, with the following specialties: Biology:32, Physics:21, Mathematics:18 and Chemistry:18. [5] [6] Awardees have been members of the following institutions:
The list of scientists who have received the prize is shown below:
Empresas Polar is a Venezuelan corporation that started as a brewery, founded in 1941 by Lorenzo Alejandro Mendoza Fleury, Juan Simon Mendoza, Rafael Lujan and Karl Eggers in Antímano "La Planta de Antimano", Caracas. It is the largest and best known brewery in Venezuela, but has since long diversified to an array of industries, mostly related to food processing and packaging, also covering markets abroad.
Lorenzo Alejandro Mendoza Giménez is a Venezuelan billionaire businessman, and CEO of Empresas Polar, Venezuela's largest privately held company, with $7 billion in annual sales. The company is owned by his family.
The Central University of Venezuela is a public university located in Caracas, Venezuela. The university is widely regarded as the highest ranking institution in the country. Founded in 1721, it is the oldest university in Venezuela and one of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere. It is ranked 18th among the universities in Latin America.
The National University of Cuyo is the largest center of higher education in the province of Mendoza, Argentina.
The Harina P.A.N., is the first brand of boiled maize flour in Venezuela. The brand itself became a synecdoche, as it became a noun commonly used to indicate any similar maize flour.
Eugenio Mendoza Goiticoa was a Venezuelan business tycoon who made important contributions in the modernization of the country during the 20th Century.
The Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC), or Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, is a scientific research institute and graduate training center in Venezuela founded by government decree on February 9, 1959. It has its origins in the Venezuelan Institute of Neurology and Brain Research, which Humberto Fernandez-Moran founded in 1955.
Science and technology in Venezuela includes research based on exploring Venezuela's diverse ecology and the lives of its indigenous peoples.
Luis Alfredo "Gaucho" Herrera Cometta is a Venezuelan relativity physicist, whose research focuses on the study of anisotropy, the extended thermodynamics, exact and semi numeric solutions, axial symmetric solutions, alternative approaches to detect gravitational radiation using gyroscopes and recently about the relevance of super energy and super Poynting in General Relativity. Herrera is Emeritus Professor in the Escuela de Física at Universidad Central de Venezuela and currently is Visiting Professor at the Instituto Universitario de Fisica Fundamental y Matematicas, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
National Prize of Plastic Arts of Venezuela is an annual award given to various artists from that country, specifically the field of drawing, printmaking and drawing pictorial. It is one of the National Culture Awards.
Carlos Eduardo Stolk Mendoza was a lawyer, diplomat and business magnate who is well-known for his role as a delegate during World War II, as a founding representative of the United Nations and as chairman to various of its strategic committees. Stolk contributed to the establishment of the State of Israel after voting in favor of Resolution 181 (1947) of the UN.
Alejandra Melfo is a Uruguayan-born Venezuelan physicist. She is known for her efforts studying and conserving glaciers, especially the Humboldt Corona, the last glacier in Venezuela.
Anamaría Font Villaroel is a Venezuelan theoretical physicist and professor of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). Her research has been focused on models about the primordial components of matter in the context of string theory.
The Bernardo Houssay Award is a distinction awarded by Argentina's Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation to honor outstanding work by scientists and researchers. The Ministry selects recipients annually through a jury of prominent scientists. Presented by the President of Argentina, it is one of the country's most prestigious prizes in the field of science and engineering.
Alberto E. Paniz-Mondolfi MD, MSc, PhD, FFTM RCPS (Glasg) is a Venezuelan pathologist, epidemiologist, and molecular medicine researcher. Currently he is a pathologist and assistant professor in New York City and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West Hospitals and Mount Sinai Hospital. Also, he is the Academic Director and Founder of The Venezuelan Science Incubator (incubadorave.org), a group focused on infectious diseases research and awareness based in Venezuela.
The Revolution of the Reforms was a military movement in Venezuela between June 7, 1835, and March 1, 1836, against the government of José María Vargas, the conservative Congress, and the influence of José Antonio Páez. It was led by outstanding independence heroes such as Santiago Mariño, Diego Ibarra, Pedro Briceño Méndez, José Laurencio Silva, José María Melo, Blas Bruzual, Luis Perú de Lacroix, Pedro Carujo, José Tadeo Monagas, Renato Beluche, Andrés Level de Goda, and Estanislao Rendon.
La Genuina was a military uprising in Venezuela, led by General Luciano Mendoza. It took place in Bolívar state in September 1867, and was held against Juan Crisóstomo Falcón. He was followed by General Miguel Antonio Rojas in Aragua State and also by Pedro Arana in Carabobo State.
During the 1908 Venezuelan coup d'état General Juan Vicente Gómez took power on December 19 during the absence of President Cipriano Castro. He ruled as a dictator until his death in 1935, either directly by having himself elected by Congress directly or indirectly through civilian puppet governments that obeyed him.
Leonor Giménez de Mendoza is a Venezuelan businesswoman and philanthropist. She was the president of Empresas Polar for five years and is president and founder of the Empresas Polar Foundation.
Núria Pilar Calvet Cuni is a Venezuelan astronomer who studies star formation and the evolution of protoplanetary disks around young stars. She is Helen Dodson Prince Collegiate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Michigan. She was the first woman to work as a professional astronomer in Venezuela.