Nikki Keddie, Pierre Deligne, Sir Michael Marmot, and Colin Renfrew will receive the 2004 Balzan Awards.

The awards are given annually to four individuals who have earned international distinction in their fields. This year’s fields were 20th century Islamic studies, mathematics, epidemiology, and prehistoric archaeology.

Ms. Keddie, a Brooklyn-born Islamicist who heads the department of the History of the Middle East at UCLA, was cited for “a remarkable contribution to our knowledge of the Islamic World in the 20th Century, and particularly of the encounter between Muslim religion and thought and the spiritual and political values of the West.”

Pierre Deligne, a mathematician and professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, was recognized “for major contributions to several important domains of mathematics (like algebraic geometry, algebraic and analytic number theory, group theory, topology, Grothendieck theory of motives).” The foundation also praised the Belgian scholar for “the conciseness of his style and … the richness of his scientific production.”

Sir Michael Marmot, a professor of epidemiology and public health at the Royal Free and University College London, was cited for “seminal contributions to epidemiology establishing hitherto unsuspected links between social status and differences in health and life expectancy.”

Colin Renfrew (now Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn) is professor emeritus of archeology at Cambridge University and regarded as one of the most eminent personalities in the world of archeology. The Balzan Foundation noted his “brilliant works on central themes in European and world prehistory that are marked by great interpretative acumen … and his almost unequalled influence in the world of Western archaeology.”

The International Balzan Foundation was set up in 1956 by Angela Lina Balzan to honor the memory of her father, Eugenio, who was a leading Italian journalist and director of the Corriere della Sera. He fled Italy in the 1930s after opposing Fascist pressure on the press.

The prize honors achievement in science, culture and humanitarian causes and chooses different categories to honor each year. Each Balzan Prize is worth 1.3 million euros ($1.6 million). The foundation asks each recipient to allocate half of the award money for funding of research projects, preferably carried out by young scholars or scientists, in order to pursue the work of the prizewinners respective fields.

***

NOTES Samuel Sachs, the director of the Frick Collection from 1997 to 2003, has been named the president of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Located in Manhattan, the foundation provides financial assistance to individual working visual artists of established abilities.