Organization

Mrs Mona Shaw, wife of the founder, the late Sir Run Run Shaw, was Chairperson of The Sir Run Run Shaw Charitable Trust, The Shaw Foundation Hong Kong Limited and The Shaw Prize Foundation. A native of Shanghai, China, she was an established figure in the Hong Kong media and entertainment industry and Chairperson of the Shaw Group of Companies. She was for many years Deputy Chairperson and Managing Director of Television Broadcasts Limited, until she became a Non-Executive Director.

Mrs Shaw passed away peacefully at Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital on 22 November 2017 at the age of 83.

Professor Lin Ma was the first Chairman and Senior Advisor of the Board of Trustees of Shaw College and Emeritus Chair Professor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).  Prof Ma joined the Chemistry Department of CUHK in 1964, rising to Senior Lecturer in 1965 and Reader in 1972.  He was appointed Founding Chair in Biochemistry in 1973.  He was Vice-Chancellor of the University from 1978 to 1987.

Professor Ma was a distinguished biochemist and published widely on protein chemistry.  He received honours from Great Britain, Japan and Germany, and honorary degrees from universities in China including Hong Kong and Macau, and from universities abroad.  He was the Convenor of two sub-groups of the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee: Education, Science and Arts, and Hong Kong Flag and Emblem.

Professor Ma passed away peacefully at Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong on 16 October 2017, aged 93.

Professor Chen-Ning Yang, an eminent physicist, was Albert Einstein Professor of Physics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook until his retirement in 1999. He has been Distinguished Professor-at-large at The Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1986, and Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing since 1998.

Professor Yang has received many awards: Nobel Prize in Physics (1957), Rumford Prize (1980), US National Medal of Science (1986), Benjamin Franklin Medal (1993), Bower Award (1994) and King Faisal Prize (2001). He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, the US Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Japan Academy.

Since receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1948, he has made great impacts in both abstract theory and phenomenological analysis in modern physics.

Professor Kenneth Young is a theoretical physicist, and is Emeritus Professor of Physics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He pursued studies at the California Institute of Technology, USA, 1965–1972, and obtained a BS in Physics (1969) and a PhD in Physics and Mathematics (1972). He joined The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1973, where he has held the position of Chairman, Department of Physics and later Dean, Faculty of Science, Dean of the Graduate School and Pro-Vice-Chancellor. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1999 and a Member of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 2004. He was also a Member of the University Grants Committee, HKSAR and Chairman of its Research Grants Council. He served as Secretary and then Vice-President of the Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies. He is a Director of the Council of the Hong Kong Laureate Forum. His research interests include elementary particles, field theory, high energy phenomenology, dissipative systems and especially their eigenfunction representation and application to optics, gravitational waves and other open systems.

Dr Raymond Chan joined the Shaw Group in January 1994 and in December 2017, assumed the role of Managing Director of the Shaw Group of Companies, totalling fifty-four and situated locally and overseas. He was at the same time appointed Chairman of the Shaw Foundation and the Shaw Prize Foundation. Since 2012, he has been a Member on the Board of Advisors of Sir Run Run Shaw Charitable Trust.

Born and educated in Hong Kong, he continued his studies in the United Kingdom gaining BA (Hons) and B Arch (Hons) and became a Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and Hong Kong Institute of Architects.  He has received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Liverpool, UK, in 2022.  He is also a registered architect under the Architect Registration Board in both UK and Hong Kong.

He is a Member of the Board of Trustees of Shaw College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and an Honorary Trustee of Peking University and the Honorary Chairman of Board of Directors of Nanjing Medical University, People's Republic of China.  Dr Chan is also a Director of the Council of the Hong Kong Laureate Forum.  From 2003 to 2016 he served as a Member of the Governing Committee of Tseung Kwan O Hospital.  In June and October 2021, he was awarded Honorary Fellowships by The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology respectively.

Professor Wai-Yee Chan is Pro-Vice-Chancellor/Vice-President, Li Ka Shing Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Director of the Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Hong Kong. Professor Chan obtained his BSc (First Class Honours) in Chemistry from CUHK in 1974 and PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA in 1977. Prior to joining CUHK in June of 2009, he was Professor of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, and Head and Principal Investigator, Section on Developmental Genomics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.  

His expertise is in developmental genomics and molecular genetics of endocrine disorders. He received the 1988 Merrick Award for Outstanding Biomedical Research and the 2008 Presidential Award from the Association of Chinese Geneticists in America. He serves on the editorial boards of a number of international scientific journals and on review panels of regional and international research funding agencies.

Professor Pak-Chung Ching is Director of Shun Hing Institute of Advanced Engineering and Research Professor of Electronic Engineering of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received his Bachelor in Engineering (First Class Honours) and PhD from the University of Liverpool, UK, in 1977 and 1981 respectively. Professor Ching is a Fellow of IEEE, IET, HKIE and HKAES. He is Chairman of the Veterinary Surgeons Board of Hong Kong and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nano and Advanced Materials Institute. Professor Ching was awarded the IEEE Third Millennium Award (2000) and the Bronze Bauhinia Star (2010) and Silver Bauhinia Star (2017) of the HKSAR; he was admitted to the HKIE Hall of Fame (2010). His research interests include adaptive digital signal processing, time delay estimation and target localization, blind signal estimation and separation, automatic speech recognition, speaker identification/verification and speech synthesis, and advanced signal processing techniques for wireless communications.Hide

Professor Reinhard Genzel, Born in 1952 in Germany, is the Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany, Honorary Professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich since 1988 and Professor in the Graduate School, UC Berkeley since 2017.
 
He received his PhD from the University of Bonn in 1978. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1978–1980), an Associate Professor of Physics and Associate Research Astronomer at Space Sciences Laboratory (1981–1985) and a Full Professor of Physics at UC Berkeley (1985–1986).
 
Professor Genzel has received many awards, including Newton Lacy Pierce Prize (1986), Leibniz Prize (1990), Janssen Prize (2000), Balzan Prize (2003), Petrie Prize (2005), the Shaw Prize in Astronomy (2008), Jansky Prize (2010), Karl Schwarzschild Medal (2011), Crafoord Prize in Astronomy (2012) and Tycho Brahe Prize (2012), Herschel Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (2014), Great Cross of Merit (with Star) of Germany (2014), Honorary Doctorate (Dr.h.c.), Paris Observatory OPSPM (2014), Harvey Prize in Science and Technology, Technion Israel Institute of Technology (2014) and the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (2021). In 2020, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Andrea Ghez, for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.
 
He is a Member the European Academy of Sciences, the German Academy of Natural Sciences Leopoldina, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Order Pour Le Merite for Science and Arts of the Republic of Germany. He is also a Foreign Member/Foreign Corresponding Member/Associate of the Academy of Sciences of France, the US National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Spanish Academy, and the Royal Society of London.

Professor Yuet-Wai Kan is Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, USA. He is a world-leading expert on the use of gene and cell therapy to treat sickle cell anemia and thalassemia. Professor Kan was born in Hong Kong, graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong and trained at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, before going to the United States for further studies.

Professor Kan's contributions to DNA diagnosis and his discovery of human DNA polymorphism have found wide applications in genetics and human diseases. For his work, he has received many national and international awards including the Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award, the Gairdner Foundation International Award and the Shaw Prize. He is the first Chinese elected to the Royal Society, London, and is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, Academia Sinica, the Third World Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has received honorary degrees from the University of Caglieri, Italy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The University of Hong Kong and The Open University of Hong Kong.

Professor Reinhard Genzel, Born in 1952 in Germany, is the Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany, Honorary Professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich since 1988 and Professor in the Graduate School, UC Berkeley since 2017.
 
He received his PhD from the University of Bonn in 1978. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1978–1980), an Associate Professor of Physics and Associate Research Astronomer at Space Sciences Laboratory (1981–1985) and a Full Professor of Physics at UC Berkeley (1985–1986).
 
Professor Genzel has received many awards, including Newton Lacy Pierce Prize (1986), Leibniz Prize (1990), Janssen Prize (2000), Balzan Prize (2003), Petrie Prize (2005), the Shaw Prize in Astronomy (2008), Jansky Prize (2010), Karl Schwarzschild Medal (2011), Crafoord Prize in Astronomy (2012) and Tycho Brahe Prize (2012), Herschel Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (2014), Great Cross of Merit (with Star) of Germany (2014), Honorary Doctorate (Dr.h.c.), Paris Observatory OPSPM (2014), Harvey Prize in Science and Technology, Technion Israel Institute of Technology (2014) and the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (2021). In 2020, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Andrea Ghez, for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.
 
He is a Member the European Academy of Sciences, the German Academy of Natural Sciences Leopoldina, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Order Pour Le Merite for Science and Arts of the Republic of Germany. He is also a Foreign Member/Foreign Corresponding Member/Associate of the Academy of Sciences of France, the US National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Spanish Academy, and the Royal Society of London. 

Professor Kenneth Young is a theoretical physicist, and is Emeritus Professor of Physics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He pursued studies at the California Institute of Technology, USA, 1965–1972, and obtained a BS in Physics (1969) and a PhD in Physics and Mathematics (1972). He joined The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1973, where he has held the position of Chairman, Department of Physics and later Dean, Faculty of Science, Dean of the Graduate School and Pro-Vice-Chancellor. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1999 and a Member of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 2004. He was also a Member of the University Grants Committee, HKSAR and Chairman of its Research Grants Council. He served as Secretary and then Vice-President of the Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies. He is a Director of the Council of the Hong Kong Laureate Forum. His research interests include elementary particles, field theory, high energy phenomenology, dissipative systems and especially their eigenfunction representation and application to optics, gravitational waves and other open systems.

Professor Scott D Tremaine received his undergraduate degree from McMaster University in Canada and his PhD in Physics from Princeton University. He has held faculty positions at MIT, the University of Toronto, and Princeton University.
 
At the University of Toronto he was the first Director of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, from 1985 to 1996, and at the Princeton University he chaired the Department of Astrophysical Sciences from 1998 to 2006. He was the Richard Black Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 2007 to 2020 and Professor at the University of Toronto. He is currently an Emeritus Professor at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
 
He is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and of Canada and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences. His awards include the Dannie Heinemann Prize for Astrophysics, the Tomalla Foundation Prize for Gravity Research, the Dirk Brouwer Award, the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society, and honorary doctorates from McMaster, Toronto, and St Mary’s University.
 
His research has been focused on the dynamics of astrophysical systems, including planet formation and evolution, planetary rings, comets, supermassive black holes, star clusters, galaxies, and galaxy systems. 

Professor Bonnie L Bassler is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Squibb Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms bacteria use for intercellular communication. This process is called quorum sensing. Professor Bassler’s discoveries are paving the way to the development of novel therapies for combating bacteria by disrupting quorum-sensing-mediated communication. She received the Shaw Prize in Life Sciences and Medicine in 2015. Professor Bassler is a Member of the Royal Society and the American Philosophical Society. She served on the National Science Board from 2010–2016 and was nominated to that position by President Barack Obama. The Board oversees the NSF and prioritizes the nation’s research and educational activities in science, math and engineering.

Professor Hélène Esnault is a French and German mathematician working in Algebraic-Arithmetic Geometry. She studied at the École Normale Supérieure, got a PhD and a Doctorat d’État from the University Paris VII, and a Habilitation from the University of Bonn. She held a Chair at the University of Essen 1990–2012, then became an Einstein Professor at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, 2012-2019.

She received the Paul Doisteau–Emile Blutet Prize of the Academy of Sciences in Paris (2001), the Leibniz Prize of the German Research Council DFG (2003), an ERC Advanced Grant (2009), a Chaire d’Excellence de la Fondation Mathématique de Paris (2011), the Cantor Medal (2019), honorary Doctorate degrees of the Vietnam Academy of Sciences and Technology (2009) and of the University of Rennes (2013). She was an invited speaker at the ICM Beijing 2002 and the ECM Krakow 2012. She was a Chern Professor at MSRI (Berkeley) 2019, a guest Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS, Princeton) 2019/20. She is currently an Einstein Professor, Emeritus at the Freie Universität Berlin.

She is a Member of the Academies of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2005, of the German National Academy (Leopoldina) since 2008, of Berlin–Brandenburg since 2010, of the European Academy (Academia Europaea) since 2014.