Six professors were named today as winners of the 2008 Shaw Prizes, international awards known as the “Nobels of the East.” The three annual $1-million prizes are awarded by the Shaw Prize Foundation, in Hong Kong, in recognition of academic and scientific accomplishments. The winners are as follows:
Reinhard Genzel, director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, in Germany, will receive the prize in astronomy for his contribution to the finding of a supermassive black hole, a few million times as big as the Sun, at the heart of the Milky Way. Astronomers had theorized about the existence of such a giant black hole since the late 1960s, but the interstellar dust obscuring the center of the galaxy impeded its observation.
The life-science and medicine award will be shared by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell, and Shinya Yamanaka for their recent demonstration that adult mammalian cells can be reprogrammed into stem cells. Sir Ian is director of reproductive biology at the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine of the University of Edinburgh; Mr. Campbell is a professor of animal development at the University of Nottingham, in England; and Dr. Yamanaka is a professor in the Institute for Frontier Medical Science at Kyoto University, in Japan.
Their findings “hold great promise for the treatment of human diseases and improvements in agricultural practices,” the Shaw foundation said in announcing the awards. Sir Ian is best known for his work in creating the first mamalian clone, Dolly the sheep, in 1997. Dr. Yamanaka has been at the forefront of stem-cell research.
The prize in mathematical sciences will be awarded jointly to Ludwig D. Faddeev and Vladimir I. Arnold, for their contributions to the field of mathematical physics. Mr. Faddeev is director of the Euler International Mathematical Institute, in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Mr. Arnold is chief scientist of the Steklov Mathematical Institute, in Moscow.
The 2008 Shaw Prize award ceremony will be held in Hong Kong on September 9. —Maria José Viñas
