Sir David Attenborough is the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award Laureate for the social sciences. In its decision, the jury says "His interest in the problems of our times, his permanent pursuit of excellence and the quality of his research have earned him the acknowledgement of the international academic community as well as making him a figure of great social renown thanks to the dissemination of his work in the major media, especially television." Nice one, Dave. Other award winners announced so far this year include another Brit, architect Norman Foster (the Arts), the World Health Organization (International Cooperation), the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Communication and Humanities), Martin Cooper and Raymond Samuel Tomlinson (Technical and Scientific Research), and Ismail Kadaré (Letters). The awards for Sports and Concord will be announced in September. See the next page for more about the Premios Principe de Asturias, 2009, plus a fabulous "Attenborough-moment" video.

If ever there was an award winner everyone could be pleased for, it must be Sir David Attenborough. I mean, you can imagine someone arguing against Norman Foster because he didn't like him or his work, but who could possibly not like David Attenborough? The video below shows why - his lucidity, his gentle respect for wildlife, his sense of humour (it seems this scene was voted TV viewers' "Number 1 Attenborough moment" - I don't know exactly who by):

The award for International Cooperation is often awarded collectively, so it is no surprise that it should go to the WHO. The joint award for Technical and Scientific Research is more curious: Martin Cooper "invented the first handheld mobile telephone" and Raymond Samuel Tomlinson was one of the pioneers of e-mail, especially when he "chose the @ sign to separate local from global e-mails in the mail address." The jury's statement about the award for Communication and Humanities mentions the fact that the National Autonomous University of Mexico "generously gave refuge to illustrious personalities in exile from post-war Spain." The figure unknown to me is Ismail Kadaré, though I have no doubt that he is rightly "regarded as one of the greatest European writers and intellectuals of the 20th century."

The Premios Principe de Asturias are a marvel of public relations, which does not mean I disapprove of them. But I have noted before that they go to a clever balance of world-famous names (Bob Dylan, Rafa Nadal, Google...) and less well-known, even obscure ones (Adolfo Suarez, the Biosphere Reserve network, Tzvetan Todorov...). And the Prince of Asturias awards are announced at intervals throughout the year, which also helps to maintain interest, before they are presented in the autumn, in the Campoamor Theatre in Oviedo.