Volta Prize Volta Prize The Volta Prize (French: prix Volta) was originally established by Napoleon III during the Second French Empire in 1852 to honor Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist noted for developing the electric battery. This international prize awarded 50,000 French francs to extraordinary scientific discoveries related to electricity. The prize was instituted by the Ministry of Public Instruction with the personal funding of the French Emperor, the selection committee was usually constituted by members of the French Academy of Sciences. Notable recipients have included, Heinrich Ruhmkorff, who commercialised the induction coil, and Zénobe Gramme, inventor of the Gramme dynamo and
Edison Volta Prize Edison Volta Prize The Edison Volta Prize is awarded biannually by the European Physical Society (EPS) to individuals or groups of up to three people in recognition of outstanding achievements in physics. The award consists of a diploma, a medal, and 10,000 euros in prize money. The award has been established in 2012 by the Centro di Cultura Scientifica "Alessandro Volta", Edison S.p.A and the European Physical Society. 2016 - The 2016 EPS Edison Volta Prize as been awarded to for "seminal contributions to optical science, to the field of single-molecule spectroscopy and imaging (first single molecule detection by fluorescence