HONG KONG, May 21, 2024 --

2024 Shaw Laureates (Left to Right): Shrinivas R Kulkarni (Astronomy), Swee Lay Thein (Life Science and Medicine), Stuart Orkin (Life Science and Medicine), Peter Sarnak (Mathematical Sciences)

The Shaw Prize in Astronomy is awarded to

Shrinivas R Kulkarni

George Ellery Hale Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, USA 

for his ground-breaking discoveries about millisecond pulsars, gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and other variable or transient astronomical objects. His contributions to time-domain astronomy culminated in the conception, construction and leadership of the Palomar Transient Factory and its successor, the Zwicky Transient Facility, which have revolutionised our understanding of the time-variable optical sky.

The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine is awarded in equal shares to

Swee Lay Thein

Senior Investigator and Chief of the Sickle Cell Branch of National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, USA and

Stuart Orkin

David G Nathan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, USA

for their discovery of the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the fetal-to-adult hemoglobin switch, making possible a revolutionary and highly effective genome-editing therapy for sickle cell anemia and b thalassemia, devastating blood diseases that affect millions of people worldwide.

The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences is awarded to

Peter Sarnak

Gopal Prasad Professor of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, USA

for his development of the arithmetic theory of thin groups and the affine sieve, by bringing together number theory, analysis, combinatorics, dynamics, geometry and spectral theory.

Tuesday, 21 May 2024. At today's press conference in Hong Kong, The Shaw Prize Foundation announced the Shaw Laureates for 2024. 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 US$1.2 million. This will be the twenty-first year that the Prize has been awarded and the presentation ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday, 12 November 2024 in Hong Kong.

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