{{Short description|Group of four yearly awards of the French Academy}} {{more footnotes|date=September 2015}} thumb The '''Montyon Prize''' ({{langx|fr|Prix Montyon}}) is a series of prizes awarded annually by the French Academy of Sciences and the Académie française. They are endowed by the French benefactor Baron de Montyon.

==History== Prior to the start of the French Revolution, the Baron de Montyon established a series of prizes to be given away by the Académie Française, the Académie des Sciences, and the Académie Nationale de Médecine. These were abolished by the National Convention, but were taken up again when Baron de Montyon returned to France in 1815. When he died, he bequeathed a large sum of money for the perpetual endowment of four annual prizes. The endowed prizes were as follows:

* Making an industrial process less unhealthy * Perfecting of any technical improvement in a mechanical process * Book which during the year rendered the greatest service to humanity * The "prix de vertu" for the most courageous act on the part of a poor Frenchman

These prizes were considered by some to be a forerunner of the Nobel Prize.

==List of winners== {{Expand section|date=June 2008}} * A nurse named Lespagnier (1783)<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=Louisa Henrietta de Rivarol|date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23687 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |access-date=2023-08-30 |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/23687 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref> * Jean Guénisset (1820) * François-Xavier-Joseph Droz (1823) * Antoine Germain Labarraque (1825) * Friedrich Sertürner (1831)<ref name="Krishnamurti">{{cite journal |last1=Krishnamurti |first1=Chandrasekhar |last2=Rao |first2=SSCChakra |title=The isolation of morphine by Serturner |journal=Indian Journal of Anaesthesia |date=2016 |volume=60 |issue=11 |pages=861–862 |doi=10.4103/0019-5049.193696 |pmid=27942064 |pmc=5125194 |doi-access=free }}</ref> * Alexis de Tocqueville (1835) *Philippe Ricord (1842) * Jeanne Jugan (1845) * Louis Pasteur (1859) * Louis Melsens (1865) * Jules Verne (1867) * Joséphine Colomb (1875) * Mary Mapes Dodge (1876) * Axel Key (1878)<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Kock |first=Woljram |title=E Axel H Key |url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/Sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=11451 |access-date=2022-04-02 |website=Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon |language=sv}}</ref> * Hector Malot (1878) * George Henry Corliss (1879) * Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval (1882) * Augustin Charpentier (1885) * Victor André Cornil (1886) * Louis Fréchette * Charles Thomas Jackson * Jean-Henri Fabre * Marie Célestine Amélie d'Armaillé (1887)<ref>{{cite web |title=Marie Célestine Amélie d'ARMAILLÉ |url=https://www.academie-francaise.fr/node/16641 |website=www.academie-francaise.fr |publisher=Académie Française |access-date=21 January 2022}}</ref> * Claire Julie de Nanteuil (1888)<ref>{{cite web |title=Claire-Julie PASCALIS de NANTEUIL |publisher= Académie française |url=https://www.academie-francaise.fr/claire-julie-pascalis-de-nanteuil |website=www.academie-francaise.fr |access-date=24 January 2022 |language=fr}}</ref> * Claire Julie de Nanteuil (1890) * François Marie Galliot (1895) * Juliette Heuzey (1897) * Édouard Foà (1897 and 1901) * Ludovic de Contenson (1902).<ref name="Académie Française - Ludovic de CONTENSON">{{cite web |title=Académie Française - Ludovic de CONTENSON |publisher=Académie Française|url=http://www.academie-francaise.fr/node/15697|accessdate=8 May 2020}}</ref> * Claude Ferval (1903)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Claude FERVAL {{!}} Académie française |url=https://www.academie-francaise.fr/claude-ferval |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=www.academie-francaise.fr}}</ref> * Laure Conan (1903)<ref name="DCB">{{Cite web |last=Brunet |first=Manon |date=2005 |title=Angers, Felicite, known as Laure Conan |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/angers_felicite_15E.html |access-date=2022-07-06 |website=www.biographi.ca}}</ref> * Paul Acker (1904) * Charles Nicolle (1909, 1912, 1914) * Edward Tuck and Julia Stell (1916) * Victor Babeș (1924) * Suzanne Lacascade (1925)<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-07-15 |title=Suzanne Lacascade, aux origines féminines de la négritude |url=https://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/20200715-suzanne-lacascade-origines-f%C3%A9minines-la-n%C3%A9gritude |access-date=2025-09-30 |website=RFI |language=fr}}</ref> * Armand Praviel (1925)<ref name="AF1">Académie française. [http://www.academie-francaise.fr/node/14627 "Armand Praviel"]. Retrieved 16 February 2019 {{in lang|fr}}.</ref> * Suzanne Lavaud (1932) * Louise Thuliez (1935)<ref>{{cite web|title=Louise THULIEZ|url=http://www.academie-francaise.fr/louise-thuliez|website=www.academie-francaise.fr|accessdate=26 March 2018|language=fr}}</ref> * Valentine Thomson (1937) * Germaine Acremant (1940) * Ivan Đaja (1946) * Daniel Dugué (1947) * André Giroux (1949) * Alix André (1951)<ref>{{cite web |title=Andrée d'ALIX - Lac aux ours - 1951 |url=https://www.academie-francaise.fr/andree-dalix |website=www.academie-francaise.fr |publisher=Académie française |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref> * Nicolas Minorsky (1955) * Kitty Ponse<ref name=unige>{{cite web|url=https://biologie.unige.ch/en/the-section/the-hall-of-fame/|title=The Hall of Fame|publisher=Faculty of Science of the University of Geneva|accessdate=5 November 2021}}</ref> * Antoine de La Garanderie (1970) * Gaston Bouthoul (1971) * Bertrand de Margerie (1972) * Dominique-Marie Dauzet (1996) * Alexandre Jollien (2000) * Alberte van Herwynen (2001) * Charles-Nicolas Peaucellier * René Guitton (2002) * Michèle-Irène Brudny (2003) * Jacques Julliard (2004) * Joël Bouessée (2004) * Henri Hude (2005) * Renaud Girard (2006) * Marie-Frédérique Pellegrin (2007) * Jean-François Mattéi (2008) * Myriam Revault D'Allonnes (2009) * William Marx (2010) * Stéphane Chauvier (2011) * Bérénice Levet (2012) * Anca Vasiliu (2013) * Fabrice Wilhelm (2014) * Nathalie Heinich (2015) * Hervé Gaymard (2016) * Denis Lacorne (2017) * Gilles Lipovetsky (2018) * Isabelle de Lamberterie (2019) * Isabelle Mordant (2020) * Jean Seidengart (2021) * Neil MacGregor (2022)

==External links== * [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10552a.htm Catholic encyclopedia entry]

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Académie Française awards Category:Awards of the French Academy of Sciences