Wednesday, 25 September 2019. At today’s presentation ceremony of The Shaw Prize at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Honourable Mrs Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, People’s Republic of China, presented the awards to the three Laureates.

After several months of deliberation, the international prize committee selected the Shaw Laureates and announced the results at the press conference on 21 May 2019.

Details of this year’s Shaw Laureates are as follows:

The Shaw Prize in Astronomy is awarded to

Edward C Stone
David Morrisroe Professor of Physics and Vice Provost for Special Projects, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA

for his leadership in the Voyager project, which has, over the past four decades, transformed our understanding of the four giant planets and the outer solar system, and has now begun to explore interstellar space.

The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine is awarded in equal shares to

Maria Jasin
Member, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Professor, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Cornell University, USA

for her work showing that localized double strand breaks in DNA stimulate recombination in mammalian cells. This seminal work was essential for and led directly to the tools enabling editing at specific sites in mammalian genomes.

The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciencesis awarded in equal shares to

Michel Talagrand
Former Senior Researcher, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France

for his work on concentration inequalities, on suprema of stochastic processes and on rigorous results for spin glasses.

The Shaw Prize was established under the auspices of Mr Run Run Shaw in November 2002 to honour individuals, regardless of race, nationality, gender and religious belief, who have recently achieved significant breakthrough in academic and scientific research or applications and whose work has resulted in a positive and profound impact on mankind. The Shaw Prize consists of three annual prizes: Astronomy, Life Science and Medicine, and Mathematical Sciences, each bearing a monetary award of US$1.2 million. This is the sixteenth year that the Prize has been awarded.

Highlight of the 2019 ceremony will be released worldwide via satellite transmission between Hong Kong time 2230–2300 (GMT 1430–1500). Photographs will be uploaded the same day at Hong Kong time 2230 (GMT 1430) on the website www.shawprize.org. The ceremony programme will be broadcast on HKTVB Jade and Pearl Channels on 28 September at Hong Kong time 2300–2330 and on 30 September at Hong Kong time 1805–1830 respectively.