Tuesday, September 9. At today's presentation ceremony of The Shaw Prize at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Mr. Chee-Hwa Tung, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, accompanied by Sir Run Run Shaw, Patron of the Prize, presented the awards to the six laureates of the three prizes. (Information about the laureates attached.)

After several months of deliberation, the international prize committee selected the Shaw Laureates and announced the results at the news conference in May 2004.

Details of the inaugural laureates are as follows:

The Shaw Prize in Astronomy 2004- Professor P. James E. Peebles of Princeton University.

The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine 2004 (Two Prizes)
Prize One- is half jointly awarded to Professor Stanley N. Cohen of Stanford University and Professor Herbert W. Boyer of University of California, San Francisco; the other half goes to Professor Yuet-Wai Kan of University of California, San Francisco.
Prize Two- Sir Richard Doll of Oxford University.

The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences 2004 -Professor Shiing-Shen Chern of Nankai University.

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 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 first year the Prize is awarded.

The 2004 presentation ceremony will be released worldwide via satellite between HK time 2200-2230 (GMT 1400-1430). Photographs will be uploaded the same day at HK time 2200 (GMT 1400) at website www.shawprize.org. The ceremony will be broadcasted at HKTVB Jade Channel on September 11.

September 7, 2004 Hong Kong






The Shaw Prize in Astronomy 2004 will be awarded to
Professor P. James E. Peebles
for his groundbreaking contributions to cosmology. He has laid the foundations for almost all modern investigations in cosmology, both theoretical and observational, transforming a highly speculative field into a precision science.

Biographical Note: Professor P. James E. Peebles was born in 1935 in Canada. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba in 1958. He then went to Princeton University as a graduate student in physics, and he has been there ever since. He is currently Albert Einstein Professor of Science Emeritus.

The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine ¡V Two Prizes
Prize One:
The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine 2004 will be awarded, half jointly to
Professor Stanley N. Cohen & Professor Herbert W. Boyer
for their discoveries on DNA cloning and genetic engineering;

Biographical Notes:
Professor Stanley N. Cohen was born in 1935 in the United States. He received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He is Professor of Genetics and of Medicine, and Principal Investigator of Stanley N. Cohen Lab at Stanford University.

Professor Herbert W. Boyer was born in 1936 in the United States. He received his master degree and doctorate in bacteriology in 1960 and 1963 respectively from the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco.

and the other half to
Professor Yuet-Wai Kan
for his discoveries on DNA polymorphism and its influence on human genetics.

Biographical Note: Professor Yuet-Wai Kan was born in 1936 in Hong Kong. He graduated from the University of Hong Kong Medical School in 1958 and received a D.Sc. from the University of Hong Kong in 1980. In 1972, he moved to the University of California at San Francisco and he is currently Louis K. Diamond Professor of the University of California, San Francisco.

Prize Two
The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine 2004 will be awarded to
Sir Richard Doll
for his contribution to modern cancer epidemiology.

Biographical Note: Sir Richard Doll was born in 1912 in United Kingdom. He qualified in medicine at St Thomas Hospital Medical School, University of London in 1937. He worked in the Medical Research Council's Statistical Research Unit from 1948 and was Regius Professor of Medicine in Oxford from 1969 to 1979. He is currently an honorary member of the Clinical Trials Service Unit and the Epidemiological Studies Unit.

The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences 2004 will be awarded to
Professor Shiing-Shen Chern
for his initiation of the field of global differential geometry and his continued leadership of the field, resulting in beautiful developments that are at the centre of contemporary mathematics, with deep connections to topology, algebra and analysis, in short, to all major branches of mathematics of the last sixty years.

Biographical Note: Professor Shiing-Shen Chern was born in 1911 in China. He graduated from Nankai University in 1930 and the graduate school of Tsinghua University in 1934. He then furthered studies at the University of Hamburg. He has been professor at the Southwest Associated University, Kunming, China, the University of Chicago, and the University of California at Berkeley. He founded the mathematics research institute at Nankai and is the honorary director since 1992.