Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize

Research Prize 2011

The Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize 2011 goes to Professor Michael Tomasello, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
The central findings of Professor Michael Tomasello’s research show that even one-year-old children who cannot yet speak are capable of cooperating and helping other children. This behaviour exists without being taught by adults. Professor Tomasello’s comparative research into communicative behaviour and learning processes of preschool-aged children on the one hand, and those of the great apes on the other, provides evidence that humans are born to cooperate – and that this is a primary difference between humans and great apes. Young children do not perceive space, quantity or logical correlations any better than great apes do, but they are able to learn more easily with others and can recognize the intentions of others more quickly. This is the primary basis for the ability to speak. The Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize 2011, endowed with 1 million Swiss francs is a spur for Professor Michael Tomasello’s future work in his research field: “The money allows you to do some research things that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. In particular, it allows you to plan larger research projects with a greater time horizon.”