Scientists win US$1 million

Two Chinese scientists have been named Shaw Laureates 2006.

Established by philanthropist Sir Run Run Shaw, each Shaw prize amounts to US$1 million.

Wang Xiaodong, professor of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas, United States, received the prize in the life science and medicine category for his discovery of the biochemical basis of programmed cell death - a vital process that controls cell birth and defends against cancer.

Mathematician Wu Wentsun of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing shares the title in the mathematical sciences category with David Mumford of Brown University in the US.

Professor Wu received the prize for his contribution to the new interdisciplinary field of mathematics and mechanisation, while Professor Mumford was honoured for his contribution to pattern theory and vision research.

Other recipients are Saul Perlmutter of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory of the University of California, Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and Brian Schmidt of the Mount Stromlo Observatory of the Australian National University for discovering that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating - which implies that the energy density of space is non-vanishing, even in the absence of any matter or radiation.