The Shaw Prize Award Presentation Ceremony 2015 Press Release

24 Sep 2015

Thursday, 24 September 2015. At today’s presentation ceremony of The Shaw Prize at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Honourable C Y Leung, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, People’s Republic of China, presented the awards to the five Laureates.

After several months of deliberation, the international prize committee selected the Shaw Laureates and announced the results at the press conference on 1 June 2015.

Details of this year’s Shaw Laureates are as follows:

The Shaw Prize in Astronomy is awarded to

William J Borucki
Principal Investigator for the Kepler Mission, Ames Research Center, NASA, USA

for elucidating the molecular mechanism of quorum sensing, a process whereby bacteria communicate with each other and which offers innovative ways to interfere with bacterial pathogens or to modulate the microbiome for health applications.

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

Bonnie L Bassler
Squibb Professor and Chair, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University and
Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA and

E Peter Greenberg
Professor of Microbiology, University of Washington, USA

for elucidating the molecular mechanism of quorum sensing, a process whereby bacteria communicate with each other and which offers innovative ways to interfere with bacterial pathogens or to modulate the microbiome for health applications.

The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences is awarded in equal shares to

Gerd Faltings
Managing Director, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics, Germany and

Henryk Iwaniec
New Jersey Professor of Mathematics, Rutgers University, USA

for their introduction and development of fundamental tools in number theory, allowing them as well as others to resolve some longstanding classical problems.


The Shaw Prize was established under the auspices of Mr Run Run Shaw in November 2002 to honour individuals, regardless of race, nationality, gender and religious belief, who have recently achieved significant breakthrough in academic and scientific research or applications 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 twelve year that the Prize has been awarded.

Highlight of the 2015 ceremony will be released worldwide via satellite between Hong Kong time 2230–2300 (GMT 1430–1500). Photographs will be uploaded the same day at Hong Kong time 2230 (GMT 1430) on the website www.shawprize.org. The ceremony programme will be broadcast on HKTVB Jade and Pearl Channels on 3 October at Hong Kong time 2230–2300 and on 5 October at Hong Kong time 1900–1925 respectively

 

24 September 2015   Hong Kong