Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, has been named one of the winners of the 2022 Balzan Prizes.

The prizes are awarded by the Balzan Foundation to “scholars, artists, and scientists who have distinguished themselves in their fields on an international level.” They are awarded in four different fields each year. Professor Nussbaum was recognized for “her sustained contribution to a wide range of philosophical topics that together redefine our understanding of our ethical being; for her transformative reconception of the goals of social justice, both globally and locally; and for her willingness to bridge the divide between the academy and the wider community.”

The prize includes 750,000 Swiss Francs (approximately $780,000), with half of the amount of each Prize to be “invested in an innovative research project carried out by young people under the guidance of the winner.”

You can view a list of previous winners of the Balzan Prizes here.

Professor Nussbaum may be the most decorated philosopher of our era, having also won the 2021 Holberg Prize ($700,000), the 2018 Berggruen Prize ($1 million), the 2016 Kyoto Prize ($480,000), the 2012 Prince of Asturias Award for Contributions to the Social Sciences ($50,000), among many other awards and recognitions, including being selected to deliver the 2017 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities (“the highest honor the [U.S.] federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities”).