Hong Kong mathematician among 3 winners of China’s Future Science Prize
- Ngaiming Mok was honoured for his work on complex differential geometry in the awards, which were modelled on the Nobel Prize
- The other winners were from mainland China: hepatitis researcher Li Wenhui and Yang Xueming, who studied the dynamics of chemical reactions
Each will take home 6.75 million yuan (US$1 million) for their contributions to the study of geometry, hepatitis and the science of chemical reactions.
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Ngaiming Mok from the University of Hong Kong received the Future Science Prize in Mathematics and Computer Science for developing key theories and tools in complex differential geometry, a core field of modern mathematics, which helped solve long-standing puzzles in algebraic geometry and number theory.
Born in Hong Kong in 1956, Mok obtained his PhD from Stanford University. He taught in the US and Europe before joining the University of Hong Kong in 1994. He is now the Edmund and Peggy Tse Professor in Mathematics.
The Life Sciences prize went to Li Wenhui, from Tsinghua University and the National Institute of Biological Sciences in Beijing, for his discovery of the receptor of hepatitis B and D virus – a protein called sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide.
The discovery marks “a milestone in hepatitis B virus study” and could help researchers develop a more effective treatment for the disease, the prize’s scientific committee said.
There are 87 million chronic carriers of the hepatitis B virus in China, accounting for about one-third of the global total, according to the World Health Organization.
Yang Xueming, from the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen and the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, was awarded the Prize in Physical Sciences.
He developed high-resolution and sensitivity molecular beam instruments to study the transition state of chemical reactions.
Yang’s research “provided powerful tools for unveiling the quantum nature of chemical reaction dynamics … and expanded the field of reaction dynamics to unprecedented depth and breadth,” the committee said.
Inaugurated as China’s first privately funded science award in 2016, the Future Science Prize recognises scientists who have made groundbreaking scientific and technological achievements in the Greater China region, regardless of nationality.
Its website says it wants to celebrate research that has a significant global impact, has long-term importance or has stood the test of time.
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There have been 27 winners in the seven years the prize has been running.
The prize has been funded by leading entrepreneurs such as Baidu chairman Robin Li, Tencent chief executive Pony Ma, Sequoia China’s Neil Shen and Jason Jiang, founder and chairman of Focus Media.
Its nomination and selection process was established in accordance with the Nobel Prize, which gives out a monetary award of 10 million Swedish krona, which like the Chinese prize is worth about US$1 million.
The awards will be handed out at a ceremony in November.
