The prize was instituted in 1995 in honour of Professor Francis Fontan, leading founding father of The European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. The prize has been awarded to postgraduate cardiac, cardio-thoracic or thoracic surgeons with postgraduate training as follows:
| 2008 | Munir Boodhwani, Ottawa, Canada |
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| 2007 | Michael W.A. Chu, London, Canada |
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| 2006 | Iki Adachi, Osaka, Japan |  |
| 2005 | Vijaya Nayak, Chennai, India |  |
| 2004 | György Lang, Budapest, Hungary |  |
| 2003 | Toth Zsolt, Pecs, Hungary |  |
| 2002 | Edvin Prifti, Tirana, Albania | 
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| 2001 | Qin Yan, Shanghai, China | |
| 2000 | Arpad Pereszlényi, Bratislava, Slovakia | |
| 1999 | Gordon Cohen, Los Angeles, USA | 
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| 1998 | Paolo Masetti, Modena, Italy | |
| 1997 | Malcolm Underwood, Bristol, United Kingdom | |
| 1996 | Rimantas Benetis, Kaunas Lituania |  |
| 1995 | Francisco Tritto, Napoli, Italy |  |
