Athletes who win medals at the Olympic Games receive a decent amount of money. This year, the epee duo of Vivian Kong Man-wai and Cheung Ka-long took home HK$6 million for their gold, while swimmer Siobhan Haughey grabbed HK$1.5 million for her two bronzes. But what about athletes who place outside the top three? Well, according to some estimates, Hong Kong is handing out the most prize money of any region for those who finish outside of the top eight.
The Yidan Prize, which was established in 2016, is a two-part award that honours exemplary individuals or organisations devoted to global education development. The HK$30 million (around $3.8 million) award consists of two categories: one for education research, and the other for education practice. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu congratulated the winners of this year’s prize, demographer Wolfgang Lutz and members of War Child Alliance.
During the same ceremony, four scientists were also awarded the Shaw Prizes for their outstanding scientific achievements. The astronomy prize went to Shrinivas R Kulkarni from the California Institute of Technology, who discovered millisecond pulsars, gamma-ray bursts, and other variable or transient astronomical objects; the life science prize was shared by Swee Lay Thein and Stuart Orkin from the National Institutes of Health in the US for their discovery of the genetics and molecular mechanisms underlying the fetal-to-adult hemoglobin switch that facilitated treatments for deadly blood diseases sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia; and the mathematic science prize was awarded to Peter Sarnak from Princeton University for his development of the arithmetic theory of thin groups and the affine sieve.
The BOCHK SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION PRIZE is a non-profit, independent award with a high standard of review and evaluation procedures. Its reviewers are professionals from various disciplines. The operation of the prize is carried out in a professional and objective manner with strict confidentiality requirements. The prize is intended to enhance the status of Hong Kong’s scientific research and technological innovation and bring it to the attention of the Mainland and the world.
The HK Prize is organized by the Society for Hong Kong Studies (SHKS), an international, scholarly and not-for-profit organisation founded in 2018. SHKS promotes new theories, concepts and methods in the study of Hong Kong. It encourages the exchange of scholars and students from different fields and regions, including China, to further the development of Hong Kong studies. The prize includes a medal and a citation. Submissions should be made by principal authors of papers published in peer-reviewed journals between 1 January 2023 and 31 August 2024. The submission process is free of charge. More information is available at the HK Prize website. The winning paper will be published in the inaugural issue of HK Prize Research Journal.