6 Professors Are Named Winners of $1-Million Shaw Prizes

The Shaw Foundation, in Hong Kong, named six professors on Wednesday as the winners of the 2006 Shaw Prizes, which are worth $1-million in each of three categories. The annual awards honor breakthroughs in academic and scientific research, and are sometimes referred to as the “Nobels of the East.”

The prizes and winners are as follows:

Three academics -- Saul Perlmutter, a physics professor at the University of California at Berkeley; Adam Riess, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University; and Brian Schmidt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the Australian National University -- will share the prize in astronomy, for discovering that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating.

Xiaodong Wang, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, will receive the award in life science and medicine. Mr. Wang is being recognized for his work to uncover the biochemical basis of a process known as programmed cell death, which defends against cancer.

David Mumford, a professor of applied mathematics at Brown University, and Wu Wentsun, a director and researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing, will share the prize in mathematical sciences. Mr. Mumford is being recognized for his contributions to the new interdisciplinary fields of pattern theory and vision research. Mr. Wentsun is being honored for his contributions to the field of mathematics mechanization.

This year’s Shaw Prize laureates will be honored at a ceremony in Hong Kong on September 12.

Background article from The Chronicle:

• 4 Scholars Receive $1-Million Shaw Prizes Honoring Breakthroughs in Science (9/6/2005)