Past Recipients

The Inamori Ethics Prize has been honoring international ethics leaders, whose actions and influence have helped change the world, since 2008.

Recipients of the international ethics award include:

2010: Stan Brock

Stan Brock's Remote Area Medical (RAM) delivers free health care services to communities in the United States and isolated regions around the world. A humanitarian, conservationist and former co-host of the TV show "Wild Kingdom," Brock founded RAM in 1985.

Staffed by volunteer doctors, dentists, nurses and veterinarians, RAM has served hundreds of thousands of patients at its free clinics. RAM conducts these medical missions wherever they are needed, regardless of danger or difficult conditions—from the hills of Appalachia near its home base in Tennessee to the mountains of Nepal. Brock himself makes no salary and lives without luxury, devoting his time and energy exclusively to RAM's mission.

2009: Mary Robinson

Former U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights Mary Robinson was the second honoree of the international ethics award. Noted for her work as an advocate for global human rights, health care, sustainability and corporate responsibility, Robinson was instrumental in changing the face of Anglo-Irish relations when she was Ireland's first woman president. She is one of 12 world leaders who make up The Elders—an organization formed by Nelson Mandela to contribute wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackling some of the world’s greatest challenges.

Most recently, Robinson founded the nonprofit organization Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, which promotes equitable trade, humane practices in the work environment, corporate responsibility and women's leadership.

A professor of practice in international affairs at Columbia University, Robinson chairs the GAVI Alliance Board to improve children’s health around the world, is the honorary president of Oxfam International and recently served as honorary chair of the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit.

2008: Dr. Francis S. Collins

The inaugural Inamori Ethics Prize was awarded in 2008 to physician-geneticist Francis S. Collins, who was recognized for his principled leadership of the Human Genome Project and understanding of the project’s potential for improvement of humankind. Noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, Collins serves as the National Human Genome Research Institute Director at the National Institutes for Health, where his laboratory is dedicated to researching rare and common gene-related diseases. His laboratory has discovered genes responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibrosis, Huntington’s Disease, adult-onset diabetes and Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome.