The Frontiers Awards celebrate the knowledge that unites and enriches us as a species.

At a time when the value of expert knowledge is increasingly questioned, when some political leaders are questioning the value of solidarity, and when the world seems to be becoming incomprehensible, the ceremony for the 17th BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards showed that there is still hope. The event, held at Euskalduna Bilbao, celebrated the collective pursuit of knowledge to make sense of a complex world and produce results that improve everyone's lives.

BBVA Foundation President Carlos Torres Vila said the event “represents an exceptional opportunity to highlight what truly unites and enriches us as a species: the ability to generate new knowledge to interpret physical, biological, and social reality, providing innovative, evidence-based conceptual perspectives and projecting rational and sustainable solutions to the major challenges and expectations of our time.” Vila described the 20 award winners as “highly innovative individuals” who “allow us to draw, through scientific rationality and artistic creativity, a roadmap for making the best decisions at the individual and collective levels, serving the general interests and preserving the diversity of life on Earth.”

The ceremony, presided over by Torres and the president of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Eloísa del Pino , included an opening address by the mayor of Bilbao, Juan Mari Aburto, and was closed by the Lehendakari of the Basque Government, Imanol Pradales .

The laureates' speeches prominently reflected a concern for science to impact human well-being and society. In the field of chemistry, John F. Hartwig emphasized that "catalytic reactions account for more than a third of global GDP, producing products ranging from fuels to food, pharmaceuticals, and everything in between." Hartwig spoke on behalf of himself and the other laureates in the Basic Sciences category : Avelino Corma (Institute of Chemical Technology, Polytechnic University of Valencia-CSIC) and Helmut Schwarz (Technical University of Berlin, Germany). They received the award for laying the foundations for catalysts that have made chemistry more efficient and sustainable.

Highlighting the potential benefits to humanity, Daniel Drucker (Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada) stated that the discovery of GLP-1, a hormone that regulates appetite and blood glucose, has led to "new classes of metabolic drugs." Svetlana Mojsov (Rockefeller University, New York, USA), who, along with Drucker and Jens Juul Holst (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), was honored for making fundamental biological discoveries that have led to the creation of a new therapeutic arsenal against diabetes and obesity, added that the new drugs made possible by their work also have the ability to lower blood pressure and decrease the rate of myocardial infarction, thus improving "the quality of life and health of people affected by a wide variety of metabolic disorders."

In Information and Communications Technologies, Michael I. Jordan highlighted that machine learning has had a “major impact on science, technology, and society,” with everyday applications ranging “from unlocking your mobile phone to making secure payments or traveling safely and easily.” Jordan, who received the award alongside Anil Jain (Michigan State University, USA), said that new AI-based engineering, according to Jordan, includes “human preferences, values, and decisions as key ingredients,” impacting “commerce, healthcare, transportation, and entertainment.” Jain and Jordan were recognized for their key contributions to enabling computers to identify patterns and make predictions from high-dimensional data sets.

In the Social Sciences category, Dolores Albarracín , who won the award alongside Icek Ajzen (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Mahzarin Banaji (Harvard University), Anthony Greenwald (University of Washington), and Richard Petty (Ohio State University) for understanding how our evaluations of the world around us are formed, modified, and translated into behavior, spoke on behalf of all of them. The University of Pennsylvania researcher explained that the study of attitudes “offers a compelling framework for understanding and influencing human behavior, from consumer preferences to racial prejudice, voting, decisions about health, environmental conservation, and violence.”

In Economics, Michael Woodford highlighted how his work with neo-Keynesian models in economic policymaking contributed to "stability, both in prices and economic activity." The Columbia University economist received the award alongside Olivier Blanchard (Paris School of Economics and MIT) and Jordi Galí (Research Center for International Economics and Pompeu Fabra University) for having "profoundly influenced modern macroeconomic analysis by establishing rigorous foundations for the study of business cycle fluctuations." Among the most influential contributions of this framework, Woodford highlighted its ability to justify the need for transparency, credibility, and effective communication on the part of monetary authorities. "Private sector expectations are crucial to macroeconomic outcomes," he argued, and this places communication strategy at the center of the award.

Philip Kitcher, a Humanities laureate , emphasized that the pursuit of knowledge is oriented toward promoting the common good. “Research is valuable not because it accrues more wealth to a fortunate few, but because of the benefits it brings to the citizens of a society, or rather, to humanity as a whole,” stated the professor at Columbia University (USA). The British philosopher, who has pursued knowledge in various disciplines throughout his career, asserted that “ethical living has amplified an evolutionary capacity: to identify the agendas of our fellow human beings and facilitate them,” and that “the sciences and humanities must complement each other in the project of human progress.”

In Climate Change and Environmental Sciences, Camille Parmesan (French National Center for Scientific Research) highlighted how "climate change is already causing suffering to human beings, especially the most vulnerable." Parmesan was awarded for pioneering the demonstration that wild species modify their geographic distribution in response to climate change.

Finally, Toshio Hosokawa, winner of the Music and Opera Award for the extraordinary international reach of his work, having built a bridge between Japanese musical tradition and contemporary Western aesthetics, stated that with his music he attempts to decipher “the grand and infinite 'sea of ​​sounds' hidden in the depths of each person's heart.” The Japanese composer illustrated how, during his creative process, he conceives of himself as a point of union between nature and sound: “From the waves of that sea, words and music are born. That sea can be the 'collective unconscious,' according to Western psychology, or the 'Alaya consciousness,' according to Buddhism. My composition consists of transcribing onto a musical staff the sounds born from the waves of that sea. My ego does not compose; rather, I become a medium who listens to the voice of the sea.”

Furthermore, the awardees highlighted the importance of basic research as a foundation for practical advances, the need for collaboration and collective effort for scientific advancement, and the role of new generations as future bearers of the flame of knowledge, so that they maintain their dedication, enthusiasm, and focus on the well-being of their fellow human beings and the planet.