Hong Kong Science Museum’s “The Shaw Prize 2023 Exhibition” showcases laureates’ achievements in scientific research (with photos)
The Hong Kong Science Museum launched “The Shaw Prize 2023 Exhibition” today (November 10) to introduce the Shaw Laureates this year and their outstanding contributions. The exhibition also features basic science knowledge in the laureates’ respective academic fields to enable visitors to understand more about the major efforts and achievements in scientific research by top-notch scientists worldwide.
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Established in 2002, the Shaw Prize consists of three annual awards, namely the Prize in Astronomy, the Prize in Life Science and Medicine and the Prize in Mathematical Sciences. It is an international award to honour individuals who are currently active in their respective fields, have made outstanding contributions in academic and scientific research or applications, have recently achieved distinguished and significant advances, or have achieved excellence in other domains.
The three Shaw Prize laureates in Astronomy 2023 are Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, Professor Matthew Bailes; Professor and Interim Chair of Physics and Astronomy and Associate Dean for Research at Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University, the United States, Professor Duncan Lorimer; and Eberly Family Distinguished Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Director of the Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology at West Virginia University, the United States, Professor Maura McLaughlin. They discovered the first fast radio burst and deduced many of the properties of its source, in particular its extreme distance, small size, and enormous energy. They also estimated the cosmic rate of production of fast radio bursts and highlighted their potential as cosmological probes.
The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine 2023 is awarded in equal shares to Director of Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences and President of the Max Planck Society, Germany, Professor Patrick Cramer, and Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, the United States, Professor Eva Nogales. They pioneered structural biology that enabled visualisation, at the level of individual atoms, of the protein machines responsible for gene transcription, one of life’s fundamental processes. They revealed the mechanism underlying each step in gene transcription, how proper gene transcription promotes health, and how dysregulation causes disease.
The two Shaw Prize laureates in Mathematical Sciences 2023 are Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor of Mathematics at the University of Chicago, the United States, Professor Vladimir Drinfeld, and Chair Professor at Tsinghua University, Professor Yau Shing-Tung, for their contributions related to mathematical physics, to arithmetic geometry, to differential geometry and to Kähler geometry. Professor Vladimir Drinfeld launched the geometric Langlands program while Professor Yau worked on mathematical problems arising from general relativity and string theory.
The exhibition is jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Shaw Prize Foundation, and is jointly organised by the Hong Kong Science Museum, the Hong Kong Space Museum, the Education Bureau and the Hong Kong Education City.
The exhibition will run from today until January 10, 2024, at the main lobby of the Hong Kong Science Museum (2 Science Museum Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East, Kowloon). For exhibition details, please visit hk.science.museum/en/web/scm/exhibition/shawprize.html, or call 2732 3232 for enquiries.
