Wednesday, 28 September 2011. At today’s presentation ceremony of The Shaw Prize at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre,the Honourable Donald Tsang Yam-Kuen, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, People’s Republic of China accompanied by Mr Run Run Shaw, Patron of the Prize, presented the awards to the seven Laureates.
After several months of deliberation, the international prize committee selected the Shaw Laureates and announced the results at the press conference on 7 June 2011.
Details of this year’s Shaw Laureates are as follows:
The Shaw Prize in Astronomy is awarded in equal shares to
Dr Enrico Costa
Director of Research at the Institute of Space Astrophysics and Cosmic Physics (Rome) of the National Institute of Astrophysics, Italy and
Dr Gerald J Fishman
Senior Astrophysicist at the NASA – Marshall Space Flight Center, USA
for their leadership of space missions that enabled the demonstration of the cosmological origin of gamma ray bursts, the brightest sources known in the universe.
The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine is awarded in equal shares to
Professor Jules A Hoffmann
of University of Strasbourg, France
Professor Ruslan M Medzhitov
David W Wallace Professor of Immunobiology, Yale University, USA and
Professor Bruce A Beutler
Raymond and Ellen Willie Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research, and Director of Center for Genetics of Host Defense, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, USA
for their discovery of the molecular mechanism of innate immunity, the first line of defense against pathogens.
The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences is awarded in equal shares to
Professor Demetrios Christodoulou
Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the ETH, Zurich, Switzerland and
Professor Richard S Hamilton
Davies Professor of Mathematics, Columbia University, USA
for their highly innovative works on nonlinear partial differential equations in Lorentzian and Riemannian geometry and their applications to general relativity and topology.
The Shaw Prize was established under the auspices of Mr Run Run Shaw in November 2002 to honour scientists, regardless of race, nationality and religious belief, who have recently achieved significant breakthrough in academic and scientific research or application 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 prize bearing a monetary award of one million US dollars. This is the eighth year that the Prize has been awarded.
Highlight of the 2011 ceremony will be released worldwide via satellite between HK 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 program will be broadcast on HKTVB Jade and Pearl Channels on 1 October at Hong Kong time 2300 – 2330 and on 8 October at Hong Kong time 1850 – 1920 respectively.
28 September 2011 Hong Kong
