The Shaw Prize is an annual award first presented by the Shaw Prize Foundation in 2004. Established in 2002 in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, it honours living "individuals, 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 prize, widely regarded as the "Nobel of the East", is named after Sir Run Run Shaw

Run Run Shaw

Sir Run Run Shaw CBE, GBM is a Hong Kong media mogul.-Overview:Sir Run Run Shaw was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China in 1907. There has been no official or formal announcement on the exact day and month of his birth. According to A&C Black published Who's Who 2007, Shaw Run Run was born on 14...

 (邵逸夫), a leader in the Hong Kong media industry and a long-time philanthropist

Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

.

The prize is for recent achievements in the fields of astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

, life science

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

 and medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, and mathematical sciences

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

; it is not awarded posthumously. Nominations are submitted by invited individuals beginning each year in September. The award winners are then announced in the summer, and receive the prize at the ceremony in early autumn. The winners receive a medal and a certificate. The front of the medal bears a portrait of Shaw as well as the English and the Chinese name of the prize; the back bears the year, the category, the name of the winner and a Chinese quotation of philosopher Xun Zi

Xun Zi

Xun Zi was a Chinese Confucian philosopher who lived during the Warring States Period and contributed to one of the Hundred Schools of Thought. Xun Zi believed man's inborn tendencies need to be curbed through education and ritual, counter to Mencius's view that man is innately good...

 (制天命而用之, which means "Grasp the law of nature and make use of it"). In addition, the winner receives a sum of money, which is worth US$

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

1 million as of 2009.

As of 2011, 25 prizes have been awarded to 43 individuals. The inaugural winner for the Astronomy award was Canadian P. James E. Peebles

Jim Peebles

Phillip James Edwin Peebles is a Canadian-American physicist and theoretical cosmologist who is currently the Albert Einstein Professor Emeritus of Science at Princeton University. Peebles was born in Winnipeg and completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Manitoba...

; he was honoured for his contributions to cosmology

Physical cosmology

Physical cosmology, as a branch of astronomy, is the study of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and is concerned with fundamental questions about its formation and evolution. For most of human history, it was a branch of metaphysics and religion...

. Two inaugural prizes were awarded for the Life Science and Medicine category: Americans Stanley N. Cohen, Herbert W. Boyer and Yuet-Wai Kan

Yuet Wai Kan

Yuet Wai Kan FRS , is a Canadian and American medical scientist and physician. He is the current Louis K. Diamond Professor of Hematology and the head of the Division of Molecular Medicine and Diagnostics at the University of California, San Francisco...

 jointly won one of the prizes for their works pertaining to DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

 while British physiologist Sir Richard Doll

Richard Doll

Sir William Richard Shaboe Doll CH OBE FRS was a British physiologist who became the foremost epidemiologist of the 20th century, turning the subject into a rigorous science. He was a pioneer in research linking smoking to health problems...

 won the other for his contribution to cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 epidemiology

Epidemiology

Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...

. Shiing-Shen Chern

Shiing-Shen Chern

Shiing-Shen Chern was a Chinese American mathematician, one of the leaders in differential geometry of the twentieth century.-Early years in China:...

 of China won the inaugural Mathematical Sciences award for his work on differential geometry. There have been no female recipients.

Of note, five of the 2011 Nobel laureates - including Jules A. Hoffmann

Jules A. Hoffmann

Jules A. Hoffmann is a Luxembourgish-born French biologist. He is a research director and member of the board of administrators of the National Center of Scientific Research in Strasbourg, France. In 2007, he became President of the French Academy of Sciences...

, Bruce A. Beutler

Bruce A. Beutler

Bruce Alan Beutler is an American immunologist and geneticist. Together with Jules A. Hoffmann, they received one-half of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for "their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity" Bruce Alan Beutler (born December 29, 1957) is an American...

, Saul Perlmutter

Saul Perlmutter

Saul Perlmutter is an American astrophysicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of...

, Adam Riess

Adam Riess

Adam Guy Riess is an American astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute and is widely known for his research in using supernovae as Cosmological Probes. Riess shared both the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul...

 and
Brian P. Schmidt

Brian P. Schmidt

Brian P. Schmidt is a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the Australian National University Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is widely known for his research in using supernovae as Cosmological...

 - were previous laureates of the Shaw Prize.

Astronomy

Year	Laureate	Nationality	Rationale	Refs.
2004			for his contributions to cosmology Physical cosmology Physical cosmology, as a branch of astronomy, is the study of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and is concerned with fundamental questions about its formation and evolution. For most of human history, it was a branch of metaphysics and religion...
2005			for their contributions that led to the discovery of planetary system Planetary system A planetary system consists of the various non-stellar objects orbiting a star such as planets, dwarf planets , asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and cosmic dust... s
2006			for finding the expansion rate of the accelerating universe Accelerating universe The accelerating universe is the observation that the universe appears to be expanding at an increasing rate, which in formal terms means that the cosmic scale factor a has a positive second derivative, implying that the velocity at which a given galaxy is receding from us should be continually...  and the energy Vacuum energy Vacuum energy is an underlying background energy that exists in space even when the space is devoid of matter . The concept of vacuum energy has been deduced from the concept of virtual particles, which is itself derived from the energy-time uncertainty principle...  density of space
2007			for his achievements in theoretical astrophysics Astrophysics Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...  and planetary science Planetary science Planetary science is the scientific study of planets , moons, and planetary systems, in particular those of the Solar System and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation,... s
2008			for demonstrating that the Milky Way Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky... 's centre contains a supermassive black hole Black hole A black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
2009	(徐遐生)		for his life-long contributions to theoretical astronomy
2010			for their contributions to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe — also known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe , and Explorer 80 — is a spacecraft which measures differences in the temperature of the Big Bang's remnant radiant heat — the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation — across the full sky. Headed by Professor...  experiment, which helps to determine the geometry, age and composition of the universe
2011			for their leadership of space missions that enabled the demonstration of the cosmological origin of gamma ray bursts, the brightest sources known in the universe.

Life science and medicine

Year	Laureate	Nationality	Rationale	Refs.
2004			for their contributions to DNA DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...  cloning Cloning Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...  and genetic engineering Genetic engineering Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
	(簡悅威)		for his works on DNA polymorphism Polymorphism (biology) Polymorphism in biology occurs when two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species — in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph...
2004	Sir Richard Doll Richard Doll Sir William Richard Shaboe Doll CH OBE FRS was a British physiologist who became the foremost epidemiologist of the 20th century, turning the subject into a rigorous science. He was a pioneer in research linking smoking to health problems...		for his contributions to the epidemiology Epidemiology Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...  of cancer Cancer Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
2005	Sir Michael Berridge Michael Berridge Sir Michael John Berridge, FRS FMedSci is a Rhodesian-born British physiologist and biochemist. He is best known for his work on cellular transmembrane signalling, in particular the discovery that inositol trisphosphate acts as a second messenger, linking events at the plasma membrane with the...		for his works on calcium signalling Calcium signaling Calcium is a common signaling mechanism, as once it enters the cytoplasm it exerts allosteric regulatory effects on many enzymes and proteins... , a process that regulate the activity of cell Cell (biology) The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos.... s
2006	(王曉東)		for his works on programmed cell death Programmed cell death Programmed cell-death is death of a cell in any form, mediated by an intracellular program. PCD is carried out in a regulated process which generally confers advantage during an organism's life-cycle...
2007			for his works on G protein-coupled receptor G protein-coupled receptor G protein-coupled receptors , also known as seven-transmembrane domain receptors, 7TM receptors, heptahelical receptors, serpentine receptor, and G protein-linked receptors , comprise a large protein family of transmembrane receptors that sense molecules outside the cell and activate inside signal...
2008			for their works on the cell differentiation in mammals, a process that advances our knowledge of developmental biology Developmental biology Developmental biology is the study of the process by which organisms grow and develop. Modern developmental biology studies the genetic control of cell growth, differentiation and "morphogenesis", which is the process that gives rise to tissues, organs and anatomy.- Related fields of study...
	Sir Ian Wilmut Ian Wilmut Sir Ian Wilmut, OBE FRS FMedSci FRSE is an English embryologist and is currently Director of the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic...
	(山中伸弥)
2009			for their discovery of leptin Leptin Leptin is a 16 kDa protein hormone that plays a key role in regulating energy intake and energy expenditure, including appetite and metabolism. It is one of the most important adipose derived hormones...
2010			for his discovery of molecular mechanisms by which the skin senses painful stimuli
2011			for their discovery of the molecular mechanism of innate immunity, the first line of defense against pathogens.

Mathematical sciences

Year	Laureate	Nationality	Rationale	Refs.
2004	(陳省身)		for his initiation and pioneering of global differential geometry
2005			for his proof Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem is a proof of the modularity theorem for semistable elliptic curves released by Andrew Wiles, which, together with Ribet's theorem, provides a proof for Fermat's Last Theorem. Wiles first announced his proof in June 1993 in a version that was soon recognized...  of Fermat's Last Theorem Fermat's Last Theorem In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem states that no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than two....
2006			for his contributions to pattern theory Pattern theory Pattern theory, formulated by Ulf Grenander, is a mathematical formalism to describe knowledge of the world as patterns. It differs from other approaches to artificial intelligence in that it does not begin by prescribing algorithms and machinery to recognize and classify patterns; rather, it...  and vision research
	(吳文俊)		for his contributions to mathematics mechanisation
2007			for the development of the Langlands program Langlands program The Langlands program is a web of far-reaching and influential conjectures that relate Galois groups in algebraic number theory to automorphic forms and representation theory of algebraic groups over local fields and adeles. It was proposed by .... , a program that connects prime numbers with symmetry
2008			for their contributions to mathematical physics Mathematical physics Mathematical physics refers to development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The Journal of Mathematical Physics defines this area as: "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the development of mathematical methods suitable for such applications and...
2009			for their contributions to the geometry of 3 and 4 dimensions
2010			for his work in mathematical analysis Mathematical analysis Mathematical analysis, which mathematicians refer to simply as analysis, has its beginnings in the rigorous formulation of infinitesimal calculus. It is a branch of pure mathematics that includes the theories of differentiation, integration and measure, limits, infinite series, and analytic functions...  and its application to fields ranging from partial differential equation Partial differential equation In mathematics, partial differential equations are a type of differential equation, i.e., a relation involving an unknown function of several independent variables and their partial derivatives with respect to those variables... s to theoretical computer science Theoretical computer science Theoretical computer science is a division or subset of general computer science and mathematics which focuses on more abstract or mathematical aspects of computing....
2011			for their highly innovative works on nonlinear partial differential equations in Lorentzian and Riemannian geometry and their applications to general relativity and topology.