Onora O’Neill Wins Holberg Prize for Academic Research

Onora Sylvia O’Neill, a British author, scholar and professor known for her research on political philosophy and ethics, has won Norway’s Holberg Prize, an annual award for outstanding research in the arts, humanities, social sciences, law or theology.

Ms. O’Neill, an honorary professor of philosophy, emeritus, at the University of Cambridge, received the prize for her “distinguished and influential role in the field of philosophy and for shedding light on pressing intellectual and ethical questions of our time,” the Holberg board wrote in a statement. The prize comes with a financial award of 4.5 million Norwegian kroner (about $525,000).

In the announcement, the board described Ms. O’Neill’s work on the pioneering philosopher Immanuel Kant as “transformative,” and highlighted her exploration of the relationship between the requirements of public reason and trust and accountability in everyday life. Ms. O’Neill elaborated on this topic in a 2013 TED Talk, “What We Don’t Understand About Trust.”

“Not only has she transformed our understanding of Kant, she has also demonstrated how to do philosophy in a way that measures up to the complex moral demands of the world,” said Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, chairman of the Holberg Academic Committee. “Her philosophical work is rigorous, yet gracious in its articulation and profoundly moved by a deep and abiding concern for humanity.”

Ms. O’Neill studied philosophy, psychology and physiology at the University of Oxford and received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1969. She taught at Barnard College and the University of Essex in Britain before serving for 14 years as the principal of Newnham College at the University of Cambridge. In 2015 she won the International Kant Prize.