The Shaw Prize Award Presentation Ceremony 2012 will take place in Hong Kong on Monday,17 September 2012. The Honourable CY Leung, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, People’s Republic of China has kindly consented to officiate at the ceremony.

The Shaw Laureates for 2012 had been announced earlier. Details of the Shaw Laureates are as follows:

The Shaw Prize in Astronomy is awarded in equal shares to

Professor David C Jewitt
Professor of Astronomy and Director of Institute for Planets and Exoplanets, University of California, Los Angeles, USA and

Professor Jane Luu
Technical Staff of Lincoln Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

for their discovery and characterization of trans-Neptunian bodies, an archeological treasure dating back to the formation of the solar system and the long-sought source of short period comets.

The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine is awarded in equal shares to

Professor Franz-Ulrich Hartl
Director, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany and

Professor Arthur L Horwich
Sterling Professor of Genetics, Yale University, USA

for their contributions to the understanding of the molecular mechanism of protein folding.  Proper protein folding is essential for many cellular functions.

The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences is awarded to

Professor Maxim Kontsevich
Permanent Professor at l’Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, France

for his pioneering works in algebra, geometry and mathematical physics and in particular deformation quantization, motivic integration and mirror symmetry.

A 5-minute segment will be uplinked via satellite transmission at Hong Kong time 2230-2300 (GMT 1430-1500). Photos of the ceremony will also be uploaded onto the website www.shawprize.org at Hong Kong time 2230 (GMT 1430) 17 September 2012 onwards.

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