Four scientific giants honoured by Hong Kong's 'Nobel Prize'

Hong Kong paid tribute to four world-scientific grandees yesterday with the announcement of this year's Shaw Prize, the city's version of the Nobel Prize.

The winners are an astronomer who helped explain why so many galaxies look like spiralling discs; two mathematicians who found deep connections between prime numbers and the mathematical principle of symmetry; and a professor of medicine who made fundamental discoveries on how cell receptors mediate the body's responses to drugs.

'The advancement of society and the prosperity of civilisations can be attributed to the contribution of great talents of past and present,' said Ma Lin, Shaw Prize council member and former Chinese University vice-chancellor, at the announcement ceremony yesterday.

'Their achievements enable us to enjoy the advantages of modern civilization.'

This is the fourth year that the prize - worth US$1 million in each category - has been awarded and a presentation ceremony will be held on September 11.

Peter Goldreich, of the California Institute of Technology and Princeton University, was awarded the astronomy prize for his lifetime achievements in theoretical astrophysics and planetary sciences, which range from the structure of galaxies to the low radio-frequency effects of one of Jupiter's moons on its planet.