The Shaw Prize - Top prizes for astronomy, life science and mathematics

Tuesday, 28 May 2013. At today’s press conference in Hong Kong, The Shaw Prize Foundation announced the Shaw Laureates for 2013. Information was posted on the website www.shawprize.org at Hong Kong time 15:30 (GMT 07:30).

The Shaw Prize consists of three annual prizes: Astronomy, Life Science and Medicine, and Mathematical Sciences, each bearing a monetary award of one million US dollars. This will be the tenth year that the Prize has been awarded and the presentation ceremony is scheduled for Monday, 23 September 2013.

The Shaw Laureates

The Shaw Prize in Astronomy is awarded in equal shares to
Professor Steven A Balbus
      Savilian Professor of Astronomy, University of Oxford, UK and
Professor John F Hawley
      Associate Dean for the Sciences, and
      VITA Professor and Chair of Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, USA

for their discovery and study of the magnetorotational instability, and for demonstrating that this instability leads to turbulence and is a viable mechanism for angular momentum transport in astrophysical accretion disks.

     ■ Press Release on The Prize in Astronomy

The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine is awarded in equal shares to
Professor Jeffrey C Hall
      Professor Emeritus, Brandeis University, USA,
Professor Michael Rosbash
      Professor of Biology and Investigator of HHMI, Brandeis University, USA and
Professor Michael W Young
      Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor, Rockefeller University, USA

for their discovery of molecular mechanisms underlying circadian rhythms.

     ■ Press Release on The Prize in Life Science and Medicine

The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences is awarded to
Professor David L Donoho
      Anne T and Robert M Bass Professor of the Humanities and Sciences, and
      Professor of Statistics, Stanford University, USA

for his profound contributions to modern mathematical statistics and in particular the development of optimal algorithms for statistical estimation in the presence of noise and of efficient techniques for sparse representation and recovery in large data-sets.

     ■ Press Release on The Prize in Mathematical Sciences

28 May 2013   Hong Kong