PUBLIC VALUE
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
PUBLIC VALUE AWARD 2026
Hanna Damasio & Antonio Damasio
Hanna Damasio M.D. is University Professor, Dana Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Dana and David Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center at the University of Southern California. Using computerized tomography and magnetic resonance scanning, she has developed methods of investigating human brain structure and studied functions such as language, memory, emotion and feeling, and consciousness, using both the lesion method and functional neuroimaging. Her most recent work focuses on the effects of music training in the developing brain and demonstrates, conclusively, that music has an important influence in cognitive and neural maturation. [Google Scholar H-Index is 118; with 105,801 citations and Web of Science H-Index is 91; with 46,176 citations]
Damasio attended the University of Lisbon Medical School where she also trained in Neurology and Neuroanatomy. Recent articles include Damasio, H. and Damasio, A. (2024). Sensing, Feeling and Consciousness, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 379 (1908), https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0243; Damasio, H. and Damasio, A. (2024) Homeostatic Feelings and the Emergence of Consciousness, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 36(8), 1653-1659, doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_02119; Damasio, H. and Damasio, A. (2023) A Joint Interview of Neuron Special Issue: Neuroscience unbounded, Vol. 111(21), 3337-3340; Damasio, A. and Damasio, H. (2023). Sensing is a far cry from sentience, Animal Sentience, 33(16), DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1805; Damasio, A. and Damasio, H. (2023). Feelings are the Source of Consciousness, Neural Computation, (35)3, 277-286; Damasio, A. and Damasio, H. (2022). Homeostatic Feelings and the Biology of Consciousness, BRAIN, Oxford Academic, Vol. 145; 2231-2235. She is the author of the award-winning Lesion Analysis in Neuropsychology (Oxford University Press), and of Human Brain Anatomy in Computerized Images (also Oxford University Press), the first brain atlas based on computerized imaging data, now in its second edition.
Hanna Damasio is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Neurological Association. She shared the Signoret Prize and the Pessoa Prize with Antonio Damasio, and, among others, holds Honorary Doctorates from the Sorbonne (Université Paris Descartes), the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the Universities of Aachen and Lisbon, and the Open University of Catalonia. In January 2011, she was named USC University Professor.
The Center that she directs works closely with the Brain and Creativity Institute.
For more information go to the Dornsife Imaging Center website at https://dornsife.usc.edu/brainimaging and the Brain and Creativity Institute website at https://dornsife.usc.edu/bci/.
Antonio Damasio is Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology and Philosophy, and Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Trained as both neurologist and neuroscientist, Damasio has made seminal contributions to the understanding of brain processes underlying affect, decision-making and consciousness. His work has made a major impact in neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. He is the author of several hundred scientific articles and is one of the most eminent psychologists of the modern era (see Damasio, A. Feelings and Decisions. In: R. Sternberg, S. Fiske, D. Foss (Eds.), Scientists Making a Difference: One Hundred Eminent Behavioral and Brain Scientists Talk about Their Most Important Contributions, 2016). He is one of the most cited scientists worldwide. [Google Scholar H Index is 175; with 272,963 citations and Web of Science H Index is 102; with 59,438 citations].
Damasio’s recent work addresses the biology of consciousness, the role of life regulation in the generation of cultures, and the development of a new generation of vulnerable robots.
Recent articles include Singer, J. and Damasio, A. (2025). The Physiology of Interoception and Its Adaptive Role in Consciousness, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 380(1939), Damasio, H. and Damasio, A. (2024). Sensing, Feeling and Consciousness, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 379 (1908), https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0243; Damasio, H. and Damasio, A. (2024) Homeostatic Feelings and the Emergence of Consciousness, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 36(8), 1653-1659, doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_02119; Damasio, H. and Damasio, A. (2023) A Joint Interview of Neuron Special Issue: Neuroscience unbounded, Vol. 111(21), 3337-3340; Damasio, A. and Damasio, H. (2023). Sensing is a far cry from sentience, Animal Sentience, 33(16), DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1805; Damasio, A. and Damasio, H. (2023). Feelings are the Source of Consciousness, Neural Computation, (35)3, 277-286; Damasio, A. and Damasio, H. (2022). Homeostatic Feelings and the Biology of Consciousness, BRAIN, Oxford Academic, Vol. 145; 2231-2235; Carvalho, G. and Damasio, A. (2021). Interoception and the Origin of Feelings: A New Synthesis, BioEssays, https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202000261; Vaccaro, A., Kaplan, J., & Damasio, A. (2020). Bittersweet: The Neuroscience of Ambivalent Affect. Perspectives of Psychological Science. 15(5), 1187-1199; Man, K. and Damasio, A. (2019). Homeostasis and Soft Robotics in the Design of Feeling Machines. Nature Machine Intelligence, 1, 446–452. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-019-0103-7.
Damasio’s books include Descartes’ Error, The Feeling of What Happens, Looking for Spinoza, Self Comes to Mind, The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures, and Feeling and Knowing, which are translated worldwide and taught in numerous universities. His new book, Natural Intelligence & The Logic of Consciousness will be published in the US in September 2026 (translations have already been published in France, Portugal and Spain).
Damasio is a member of several academies, among them the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa. He has received numerous prizes, among them the Paul MacLean Award for Outstanding Neuroscience Research in Psychosomatic Medicine [2019], the International Freud Medal [2017], the Grawemeyer Award [2014], the Honda Prize [2010], the Prince of Asturias Prize in Science and Technology [2005], the Nonino Prize as Master of Our Time [2003] and the Pessoa Prize [1992].
He holds Honorary Doctorates from leading universities, some shared with his wife Hanna, e.g., the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne [EPFL], 2011 and the Sorbonne [Université Paris Descartes], 2015.
In 2013 the Escola Secundária Antonio Damasio was dedicated in his native Lisbon. From 2016 to February of 2024, Damasio was a member of the Council of State of Portugal. In 2025 he received the Medal of Honor of the City of Lisbon.
PUBLIC VALUE AWARD 2025
Carlos Moreno
Carlos Moreno was honored with the prestigious Public Value Award at the Public Value Festival 2025.
Carlos Moreno is a university professor, Scientific Director of the “Entrepreneurship, Territory, Innovation” Chair at IAE Paris-Sorbonne, and a global authority on humane and sustainable cities. Creator of the influential concepts of the “15-Minute City” and “Half-Hour Territory,” he is a Knight of the French Legion of Honor and recipient of major international recognitions, including the 2021 Obel Award and the World Smart Cities Leadership Award.
Born in Colombia and based in France since the age of 20, Moreno has forged a multidisciplinary career spanning robotics, artificial intelligence, urban innovation, and public policy. A pioneer in smart city solutions, he founded the SINOVIA startup and later served as Scientific Advisor for GDF SUEZ’s Smart Cities program, promoting integrated, human-centered approaches to urban transformation.
An influential voice in shaping the cities of tomorrow, Carlos Moreno bridges academia, industry, and government. As a public intellectual and advisor, he champions innovation that serves the common good, inspiring new ways of thinking about urban life, proximity, and sustainability.
Through his work, he invites us to rethink how we live, move, and connect, putting people, communities, and the planet at the heart of the urban future.
PUBLIC VALUE AWARD 2024
Prof. Mariana Mazzucato
Prof. Marianna Mazzucato will be honored with the prestigious Public Value Award at the Public Value Festival 2024.
Mariana Mazzucato is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). Her previous posts include the RM Phillips Professorial Chair at the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University.
She is winner of international prizes including the Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 2021, Italy’s highest civilian honour, the 2020 John von Neumann Award, the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, and the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. Most recently, Pope Francis appointed her to the Pontifical Academy for Life for bringing ‘more humanity’ to the world.
She is the author of The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths (2013), The Value of Everything: making and taking in the global economy (2018), Mission Economy: a moonshot guide to changing capitalism (2021) and The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies (2023).
She advises policy makers around the world on innovation-led inclusive and sustainable growth. Her roles have included for example Co-Chair of the Group of Experts for the G20 Taskforce on a Global Mobilization against Climate Change, Chair of the World Health Organization’s Council on the Economics of Health for All, Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, Co-Chair on the Council on Urban Initiatives, and member of the South African President’s Economic Advisory Council. Previously, through her role as Special Advisor for the EC Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation (2017-2019), she authored the high-impact report on Mission-Oriented Research and Innovation in the European Union, turning “missions” into a crucial new instrument in the European Commission’s Horizon innovation programme, and more recently, authored a report with the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on Transformational Change in Latin America and the Caribbean: A mission-oriented approach.
PUBLIC VALUE AWARD 2023
Johan Rockström
Johan Rockström is an internationally recognized scientist on global sustainability issues. He led the development of the Planetary Boundaries framework for human development in the current era of rapid global change. He is a leading scientist on global water resources, with more than 25 years experience in applied water research in tropical regions, and more than 150 research publications in fields ranging from applied land and water management to global sustainability.
In addition to his research endeavours, which has been widely used to guide policy, Rockström is active as a consultant for several governments and business networks. He also acts as an advisor for sustainable development issues at international meetings including the World Economic Forum, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conferences (UNFCCC). Professor Rockström chairs the advisory board for the EAT Foundation and the Earth League and has been appointed as chair of the Earth Commission.
Johan Rockström was Chief Scientist of Conservation International, Chair of the Earth League, Co-Chair of the Future Earth Advisory Committee, and Chairman of the EAT Advisory Board.
PUBLIC VALUE AWARD 2022
Mark H. Moore
Mark H. Moore is a Research Professor of Public Management, currently focusing on the processes that enable social innovation and change to occur in response to changing political, economic, and social conditions.
His publications are spread across three broad fields. In the field of public management, his works include Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government; Recognizing Public Value, and the forthcoming Delivering Public Value: Operational Management in the Public Sector. In the field of criminal justice, his works include Dangerous Offenders: The Elusive Targets of Justice; Beyond 911: A New Era for Policing; and From Children to Citizens: The Mandate for Juvenile Justice. In the field of social innovation, he is trying to catch up with the modern age and is developing digital materials to support the course on “Sparking Social Change.”
Moore holds a B.A. from Yale University (Summa Cum Laude and Honors with Exceptional Distinction in Political Science and Economics), and a M.P.P. and Ph.D. from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
