$1-Million Shaw Prizes Go to 5 Researchers

The five winners of the international Shaw Prizes for 2009 were announced today, receiving recognition for their “distinguished and significant advances” in astronomy, life science and medicine, and mathematics. Each prize carries a $1-million award from the Shaw Prize Foundation, in Hong Kong.

Frank H. Shu won for his work in theoretical astronomy. He has served as president of National Tsinghua University, in Taiwan, and of the American Astronomical Society. Mr. Shu, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, is a professor of physics at the University of California at San Diego.

The award for life science and medicine is shared by Douglas L. Coleman, an emeritus scientist at the Jackson Laboratory, an independent organization in Bar Harbor, Me., and Jeffrey M. Friedman, a geneticist at Rockefeller University and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, in Chevy Chase, Md. They were recognized for work leading to the discovery of leptin, a hormone involved in regulating food intake and body weight.

Simon K. Donaldson, a research professor of pure mathematics at Imperial College London, and Clifford H. Taubes, a math professor at Harvard University, will share the math prize for their contributions to geometry in three and four dimensions.

The award ceremony will take place on October 7 in Hong Kong. —Marc Beja