In pics | Richard Dawkins Award past winners - Javed Akhtar to Stephen Fry
Here is a list of past winners of Richard Dawkins Award.
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James Randi received the first Richard Dawkins Award in 2003. Randi is a Canadian-American. The retired stage magician and scientific skeptic has extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Randi is the co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. (CSI). (Wikipedia)
2/18

In 2004, Ann Druyan received the Richard Dawkins Award. Druyan is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning American writer, producer, and director specialising in the communication of science. She co-wrote the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos, hosted by Carl Sagan, whom she married in 1981. She is the creator, producer, and writer of the 2014 sequel, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and its sequel series, Cosmos: Possible Worlds, as well as the book of the same name. She is credited with directing episodes of both series as well. (Reuters)
3/18

In 2005, Penn & Teller were awarded the Richard Dawkins Award. Penn & Teller are American magicians and entertainers who have performed together since the late 1970s, noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic. The duo has been featured in numerous stage and television shows such as Penn & Teller: Fool Us and they currently perform in Las Vegas at The Rio, the longest-running headliners to play at the same hotel in Las Vegas history. (Reuters)
4/18

Daniel Clement Dennett was the fifth to receive the Richard Dawkins Award. Dennett is an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. (Reuters)
5/18
![Julia Sweeney won Richard Dawkins Award in 2006. Sweeney is an American actress, comedian and author. She was a cast member on the Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1994. She played Mrs. Keeper in the film Stuart Little and voiced Brittany in Father of the Pride.[3] She currently co-stars in the Hulu series Shrill and the Showtime series Work in Progress. Julia Sweeney won Richard Dawkins Award in 2006. Sweeney is an American actress, comedian and author. She was a cast member on the Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1994. She played Mrs. Keeper in the film Stuart Little and voiced Brittany in Father of the Pride.[3] She currently co-stars in the Hulu series Shrill and the Showtime series Work in Progress.](https://images.moneycontrol.com/static-mcnews/2020/06/Sweeney_julia_.jpg)
Julia Sweeney won Richard Dawkins Award in 2006. Sweeney is an American actress, comedian and author. She was a cast member on the Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1994. She played Mrs. Keeper in the film Stuart Little and voiced Brittany in Father of the Pride. She currently co-stars in the Hulu series Shrill and the Showtime series Work in Progress.(Wikipedia)
6/18

In 2008, Ayaan Hirsi Ali was awarded the Richard Dawkins Prize (2008) by the Atheist Alliance International. Ali is a Somali-born Dutch-American activist, feminist, author, scholar and former politician.She received international attention as a critic of Islam and advocate for the rights and self-determination of Muslim women, actively opposing forced marriage, honour violence, child marriage and female genital mutilation. (Wikipedia)
7/18

Bill Maher received the 2009 Richard Dawkins Award. Maher is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher (2003–present) and the similar late-night show called Politically Incorrect (1993–2002), originally on Comedy Central and later on ABC. (Reuters)
8/18

Susan Jacoby was awarded The Richard Dawkins Award by Atheist Alliance International in 2010. Susan Jacoby is an American author. Her 2008 book about American anti-intellectualism, The Age of American Unreason was a New York Times best seller. She is an atheist and a secularist. Jacoby graduated from Michigan State University in 1965. She lives in New York City and is program director of the New York branch of the Center for Inquiry. (Wikipedia)
9/18

Christopher Hitchens was awarded the Richard Dawkins Award in 2011, the same year when he passed away. Hitchens was an English-American intellectual, philosopher and social critic. (Wikipedia)
10/18

The Richard Dawkins Award was presented to Eugenie Scott in 2012. Scott is an American physical anthropologist, former university professor and educator who has been active in opposing the teaching of young Earth creationism and intelligent design in schools. (Reuters)
11/18

Steven Pinker received the Richard Dawkins Award. Pinker is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, linguist, and popular science author. He is a Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University and is known for his advocacy of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. (Reuters)
12/18

In 2014, Rebecca Goldstein was awarded the Richard Dawkins Award. Goldstein is an American philosopher, novelist and public intellectual. She has written ten books, both fiction and nonfiction. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy of science from Princeton University and is sometimes grouped with novelists such as Richard Powers and Alan Lightman, who create fiction that is knowledgeable of, and sympathetic toward, science. (Wikipedia)
13/18

Jerry Coyne was awarded the Richard Dawkins Award in 2015. Coyne is an American biologist known for his work on speciation and his commentary on intelligent design. A prolific scientist and author, he has published numerous papers elucidating the theory of evolution. (Wikipedia)
14/18

Richard Dawkins Award in 2016 awarded to Lawrence M. Krauss. Krauss is an American-Canadian theoretical physicist and cosmologist who previously taught at Arizona State University, Yale University, and Case Western Reserve University. He founded ASU's Origins Project, now called ASU Interplanetary Initiative, to investigate fundamental questions about the universe and served as the project's director. (Wikipedia)
15/18

In 2017, The Richard Dawkins Award was awarded to David Silverman. Silverman is an American secular advocate and previously served as the president of American Atheists, a non-profit organization supporting the rights of atheists and the removal of expressions of religion in government, from 2010 to 2018. (Wikipedia)
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The Richard Dawkins Award was given to Stephen Fry in 2018. Fry is an English actor, comedian and writer. He and Hugh Laurie are the comic double - Fry and Laurie, who starred in A Bit of Fry & Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster. (Reuters)
17/18

Ricky Gervais was awarded the 2019 Richard Dawkins Award. Gervais is an English comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director. He is best known for co-creating, writing, and acting in the British television series The Office (2001–2003). (Reuters)
18/18

In 2020, Javed Akhtar was the first Indian to receive the Richard Dawkins Award for his contribution to secularism, free thinking, critical thinking and for holding religious dogma up to scrutiny, advancing human progress and humanist values. Akhtar is an Indian political activist, poet, lyricist and screenwriter, originally from Gwalior area. He is a recipient of the Padma Shri (1999), Padma Bhushan (2007), the Sahitya Akademi Award as well as five National Film Awards. (Reuters)
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