The Shaw Prize Foundation announced the list of winners of the Shaw Prize for 2024 in Hong Kong on the 21st. Four scientists won three awards in astronomy, life sciences and medicine, and mathematical sciences, with each award receiving US$1.2 million.
At a press conference held on the same day, Yang Gangkai, Chairman of the Shaw Prize Council and Vice Chairman of the Judging Committee, introduced that the Shaw Prize is an international award to honor scientists who have made groundbreaking achievements in academic and scientific research or applications and have had a profound impact on human life.
The Shaw Prize in Astronomy 2024 is awarded to Shrinivas Kulkarni, Chair Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science at the California Institute of Technology, in recognition of his groundbreaking discoveries on gamma-ray bursts and supernovae.
The Life Science and Medicine Prize was awarded equally to Rueil Deng, a senior researcher and director of the National Institutes of Health, and Stuart Okin, a professor at Harvard Medical School, in recognition of their discoveries of the genetic and molecular mechanisms of the conversion of hemoglobin from fetus to adult, which will help treat sickle cell anemia and beta thalassemia.
The Mathematical Sciences Award was awarded to Peter Sanak, professor of mathematics at Princeton University in the United States, in recognition of his combination of number theory, dynamics and geometry to develop arithmetic theory and affine sieve method.
The Shaw Prize was established in November 2002 and is managed and executed by the Shaw Prize Foundation. The prize has three awards, namely astronomy, life sciences and medicine, and mathematical sciences. Since 2004, the Shaw Prize has been awarded once a year. It is reported that this year's award ceremony will be held in Hong Kong on November 12.