The Shaw Prize honored five distinguished individuals at the 2024 Award Presentation Ceremony, which took place in the Grand Hall of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. While four were being recognized for the 2024 cohort, one received an award for achievements in 2021. This prestigious ceremony was hosted by the Hon. John KC Lee, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR, attended by Mr. Luo Yonggang, Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong, together with Mr. Li Yongsheng, Deputy Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in Hong Kong. Approximately 600 attendees from Hong Kong's government, political, business, academic, and scientific communities attended 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.
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 sat on the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences Selection Committee, said the Prize played a huge role in fostering research inside academia and science. He pointed to his own work as an example wherein the research specified by the Shaw Prize had been inspired by a conference way back in 2005 at Hangzhou. Professor Sarnak was recognized for pioneering the development of the arithmetic theory of thin groups and the affine sieve.
The gold medal of Professor Scott D. Emr, whom in 2021 received the award in the category of the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine, was also ceremonially presented to him during the ceremony. He had received the certificate of his award already in his home country last year. Each Shaw Prize is accompanied by a cash award of US$1.2 million.
