12 November 2024 – The Shaw Prize presented its awards to five Shaw Laureates today at the 2024 Award Presentation Ceremony, held in the Grand Hall of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Among the five Shaw Laureates, four are from the current year, 2024, and one is from 2021. The Ceremony was officiated by the Hon John KC Lee, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China, and was graced by the presence of Mr Luo Yonggang, Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong SAR, and Mr Li Yongsheng, Deputy Commissioner of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Hong Kong SAR. Approximately 600 guests from the HKSAR Government, and political, business, science and education sectors participated in the event.

In his opening remarks, Professor Kenneth Young, Chair of The Shaw Prize Council, reflected on the enduring legacy of the late Mr Run Run Shaw, founder of the Shaw Prize, and Mrs Mona Shaw, whose philanthropic efforts largely impacted the development of healthcare, education, and the arts and culture in Hong Kong, mainland China and beyond. As the Shaw Prize enters its third decade, said Professor Young, new activities will be launched this year to engage local young science enthusiasts, hoping to nurture a new generation of scientists, and encourage broader engagement in science communication among the society. These activities include a student engagement programme that offers local secondary school students an opportunity to take part in a heart-to-heart conversation with the Shaw Laureates, and a roundtable that aims to foster cross-disciplinary discussion between the laureates and local young scholars.

The Hon John KC Lee, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, People’s Republic of China, congratulated the Shaw Laureates on their remarkable scientific contributions. Mr Lee reiterated that the HKSAR Government is determined to develop Hong Kong into an international innovation and technology centre, and an international hub for post-secondary education. He emphasised the Government’s priority on science and technology in Hong Kong’s education system, and expressed gratitude to the Shaw Prize for showing the youth the promise and possibilities of science as a career, and also a way of life.

Professor Shrinivas R Kulkarni, Shaw Laureate in Astronomy 2024; Dr Swee Lay Thein and Professor Stuart Orkin, Shaw Laureates in Life Science and Medicine 2024; and Professor Peter Sarnak, Shaw Laureate in Mathematical Science 2024, were then presented with their awards by Professor Reinhard Genzel, Chair of the Board of Adjudicators.

During his acceptance speech, Professor Kulkarni thanked the Caltech Optical Observatories and the key members of the Zwicky Transient Facility, the project that was recognised by the Shaw Prize. He also expressed gratitude to his students, postdoctoral fellows and senior colleagues who helped exploit the data, resulting in an explosion of discoveries and papers.

Dr Thein and Professor Orkin, recognised for their discovery of the genetics and molecular mechanisms underlying sickle cell anaemia and β thalassaemia, emphasised that although significant strides have been made in gene-editing therapies for these blood disorders, they remained largely out of reach for many of the affected individuals. They expressed hope for treatments that would be universally accessible to all patients.

Professor Sarnak, who once served on the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences Selection Committee, commended the Prize for its support for academic and scientific research. The work cited by the Shaw Prize, he recalled, was born at a conference in Hangzhou in 2005. Professor Sarnak was recognised for his development of the arithmetic theory of thin groups and the affine sieve.

During the ceremony, Professor Scott D Emr, Shaw Laureate in Life Science and Medicine 2021, was also presented with his gold medal. He received the certificate in his home country back in 2021. Each Shaw Prize also carries a monetary award of US$1.2 million.

The Shaw Prize in Astronomy 2024 is awarded to

Shrinivas R Kulkarni
George Ellery Hale Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Division of Physics,
Mathematics and Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, USA

for his ground-breaking discoveries about millisecond pulsars, gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and other variable or transient astronomical objects. His contributions to time-domain astronomy culminated in the conception, construction and leadership of the Palomar Transient Factory and its successor, the Zwicky Transient Facility, which have revolutionised our understanding of the time-variable optical sky.

The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine 2024 is awarded in equal shares to

Swee Lay Thein
Senior Investigator and Chief of the Sickle Cell Branch of National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, USA and

Stuart Orkin
David G Nathan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, USA

for their discovery of the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the fetal-to-adult hemoglobin switch, making possible a revolutionary and highly effective genome-editing therapy for sickle cell anemia and  thalassemia, devastating blood diseases that affect millions of people worldwide.

The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences 2024 is awarded to

Peter Sarnak
Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University and Professor Emeritus, School of Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA

for his development of the arithmetic theory of thin groups and the affine sieve, by bringing together number theory, analysis, combinatorics, dynamics, geometry and spectral theory.

About the Shaw Prize

The Shaw Prize was established under the auspices of Mr Run Run Shaw in November 2002 and was first presented in 2004 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 twenty-first year that the Prize has been awarded.