The three most recent recipients of a Kyoto Prize, awarded by the Inamori Foundation, will participate March 5 to 7 in the second Kyoto Laureate Symposium at the University of San Diego’s Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice.

The Inamori Foundation was established in 1984 by Dr. Kazuo Inamori, founder and chairman emeritus of Kyocera Corp. The following year, after consultation with the Nobel Foundation of Sweden, Inamori established the Kyoto Prizes to be given annually in three categories: Advanced Technology, Basic Sciences and Arts & Philosophy.

The 2002 laureates are Dr. Leroy Edward Hood of Seattle, president and director of the Institute for Systems Biology; Mikhael Leonidovich Gromov, professor at the Institute des Hautes Études Scientifiques near Paris and professor at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences; and Tadao Ando, a self-taught Japanese architect and professor at the University of Tokyo.

Their appearance at next month’s symposium provides a platform for them to present their pioneering work to a diverse audience with opportunity for discussion and interaction. A concluding panel will focus on issues of peace and justice and how those concepts relate to their work.

The Inamori Foundation reflects its founder’s belief that human beings are called upon to strive for the greater good of humanity. The Kyoto Prizes were not established to compete with the Nobel Prizes, the founder says, but to complement them.

“It is my hope that the Kyoto Prizes will encourage balanced development of both our scientific and our spiritual sides,” Inamori says.

Hood, recipient of the prize for advanced technology, was named for his role in the successful mapping of the human genome during the 1990s. He developed automated instruments for the synthesis and determination of protein and DNA sequences. His automatic peptide sequencer was 100 times more sensitive than previous instruments. His contributions have helped to greatly advance study of the genetic code of DNA.

French mathematician Gromov was a recipient for work that has contributed to the development of geometry and other mathematical fields by introducing a metric structure for families of geometric objects. He has toppled the traditional approaches to geometry by proposing an idea to consider the distances between a set of spaces.

The third laureate, Tadao Ando, is known for applying unique architectural designs to homes, churches and museums in many nations. In the United States, he is known for his design of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis and the Modern Museum of Art at Fort Worth, Texas. His creative style seeks a fusion with nature, exhibiting a modernist signature while maintaining natural traditions of Japanese architecture.

Several San Diegans joined more than 1,000 international dignitaries, including Japan’s Imperial Family, for presentation of the awards last year. They included Bruce Blakely, senior managing partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers; Dr. Frank Lazarus, provost and vice president of the USD; and Rodney Lanthorne, president of Kyocera International Inc.

Since inception of the awards, 60 laureates from 12 countries have been honored, 26 of them from the United States. The newest honorees received a diploma, a gold medal and a cash gift of about $400,000.

The foundation was established as a not-for-profit organization by Inamori. It has been endowed with a gift of 20 billion yen of his own money. With subsequent contributions, the foundation’s assets are around 64.5 billion yen, or roughly $500 million in U.S. currency. The first prize awarded in 1985 was a special commemorative to the Nobel Foundation.