The Shaw Prize is an international award to honour individuals, regardless of race, nationality, gender and religious belief, who are currently active in their respective fields and who have recently achieved distinguished and significant advances, who have made outstanding contributions in academic and scientific research or applications, or who in other domains have achieved excellence. The award is dedicated to furthering societal progress, enhancing quality of life, and enriching humanity’s spiritual civilisation.
Preference is to be given to individuals whose significant works were recently achieved and who are currently active in their respective fields.
Nomination for Shaw Prize shall only be submitted by invited nominators. The nominators shall include laureates of major prizes, scientists and senior personnel of the world’s key research institutions and universities, as well as members of different National Academies of Sciences and professional organizations.
1
All nominations must be completely confidential.
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Nominations for The Shaw Prize must be completed in English and shall only be submitted by invited nominators through the Shaw Prize Nomination web page.
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Letter of reference, self-nominations and nominations by uninvited persons shall be discarded.
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Each nominator may make only one nomination citing one contribution.
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The nomination of a person already deceased shall not be considered.
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A nomination shall be valid only if it is received by The Shaw Prize Secretariat on or before the deadline stated in the invitation letter and on the nomination form.
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A nomination may be invalidated if it does not comply with the rules stipulated in the invitation letter and on the nomination form.
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A nomination validly submitted and accepted in a nomination year shall be considered only for that particular year.
The Board of Adjudicators comprises a Chair, a Vice Chair and three Members. Under the Board of Adjudicators there shall be three individual Selection Committees, each comprising a Chair and Members, who shall select the winners from the nominations for each category of the Prize. The Chair of each Selection Committee shall be a Member of the Board of Adjudicators. This Board shall be responsible for supervising the Selection Committees and for reviewing the proposals for the award of The Shaw Prize submitted by the Selection Committees. It shall consider the proposals of the Selection Committees and recommend to the Council the prize winners.
There are currently three Selection Committees, one for each category of The Shaw Prize, namely, Astronomy, Life Science and Medicine, and Mathematical Sciences. The Astronomy and the Mathematical Sciences Selection Committees shall each have four to five members plus a Chair, and the Life Science and Medicine Selection Committee shall have six members plus a Chair. The Selection Committees shall select from the valid nominations received the most suitable and most worthy nominee(s) of the year and recommend to the Board of Adjudicators the list of candidate(s) for the awards.
Scott D Tremaine
Gilles Chabrier
You-Hua Chu
Eiichiro Komatsu
Elaine M Sadler
Bonnie L Bassler
Michael N Hall
Dennis YM Lo
Joan A Steitz
Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Fiona M Watt
Huda Y Zoghbi
Hélène Esnault
Ngaiming Mok
Hee Oh
Horng-Tzer Yau
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The Nomination Period starts from early September and ends on the last day of November each year.
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Each year in September, the Chair of the respective Selection Committee will send invitations to the nominators inviting nominations for the next year’s Prize. Valid nominations received on or before the deadline of 30 November will be sent to the respective Selection Committees for deliberation.
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The Selection Committee for each Prize shall consider all candidates who have been validly nominated and all discussions shall be kept strictly confidential.
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Members of the Selection Committee are not eligible to be considered. Members of the Board of Adjudicators and of the Shaw Prize Council are likewise ineligible.
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Each Selection Committee Chair shall submit the name(s) of the Committee’s proposed laureate(s) to the Council through the Chair of the Board of Adjudicators.
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The Council will consider the proposals of the Selection Committees and announce its final decisions on the Prizes at the official press announcement in May/June.
