7 Shaw Prize winners reveal inspiration for groundbreaking work in astronomy, life science and medicine, and mathematical sciences
- Matthew Bailes, Duncan Lorimer, Maura McLaughlin, Patrick Cramer, Eva Nogales, Vladimir Drinfeld and Yau Shing-tung honoured for outstanding contributions in academic and scientific research
- Each prize, accompanied by an award of US$1.2 million, is ‘dedicated to furthering societal progress, enhancing quality of life, and enriching humanity’s spiritual civilisation’
Some people imagine the world of scientific discovery involves a “eureka moment”– a sudden cry in a laboratory in the middle of the night – as someone suddenly understands something important. But in reality it can often take months or years of painstaking research by teams of people to achieve breakthroughs that can change the world.
Yet the work is far from mundane, and often littered with pithy anecdotes, about scientists deriving inspiration from innovative television programmes about space exploration, research hiccups – including how a simple thing such as a microwave reheating food interfered with the use of radio telescopes – and ultimately triumphant breakthroughs.
The devastating Covid-19 pandemic, deadly global conflicts, heated gender debates and concerns about the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in society are all issues that have shaped the lives of research scientists and academics striving to make fresh discoveries.
This year the Shaw Prize – a prestigious international award established in 2002 by the late entertainment tycoon and philanthropist Sir Run Run Shaw and first presented in 2004 – will honour seven individuals who have recently made invaluable contributions to modern civilisation through their academic and scientific work in the fields of astronomy, life science and medicine, and mathematics.
We take a closer look at these distinguished Shaw Laureates, who will receive their Prize and a monetary reward of US$1.2 million at a Hong Kong ceremony in November, and find out what makes them tick.
1. Matthew Bailes
Matthew Bailes and his fellow astrophysicists and co-laureates, Duncan Lorimer and Maura McLaughlin, have won the Shaw Prize in Astronomy for their work discovering powerful radio emissions called Fast Radio Bursts, or FRBs. These split-second radio bursts, which contain as much energy as the Sun emits over months, are among the most extreme and mysterious phenomena in astronomy, the Shaw Prize organisers say.
