The world's leading teams researching into the human genome have been granted the Award. The teams are from The Sanger Centre in the United Kingdom, directed by John Sulston, from the National Human Genome Research Institute, under the leadership of Francis Collins, from Celera Genomics (U.S.A.) led by Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith and from Genoscope in France, under the directorship of Jean Weissenbach.

The complete mapping of the Genome is one of the most ambitious projects in the history of Science. Its conclusion will usher in a new era in the treatment of illnesses. Spectacular breakthroughs in the complete molecular and physiological analysis of genes and their interactions will bring genetic predisposition to suffering illnesses to light, thereby leading to better prevention policies to combat them.

Jean Weissenbach studied Mathematics and Pharmaceutics, and has a doctorate in Science from his hometown University of Strasbourg. He has been director of research at France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and is at present the director of Genoscope. He has made major contributions to molecular genetics and chromosome mapping which have been the foundation for positional cloning of human genes involved in numerous illnesses and for the further progress in the task of sequencing the human genome.