100 top scientists have HK Future in mind

More than 100 renowned scientists from all over the world, including two Nobel Chemistry Prize laureates, will visit Hong Kong in October for the Future Science Prize Week held at the Hong Kong Palace Museum for the first time.

Winners of the prize will be announced next Wednesday which comes with US$1 million (HK$7.8 million) in prize money for each of the three winners of three categories: Life Science, Physical Science and Mathematics and Computer Science.

Marking the prize's seventh anniversary, a prize presentation ceremony will be held on October 17 at the museum.

The ceremony is a part of the Future Science Prize Week from Oct 14 to 17, where a two-day forum will be held at Hong Kong Science and Technology Park in Sha Tin from October 14 to 15 and will feature scientists Gregory Winter and Michael Levitt, Nobel Prize laureates for Chemistry.

Five Hong Kong scientists have won the prize in the past including a top microbiologist from the University of Hong Kong Yuen Kwok-yung.

Dennis Lo Yuk-ming, president of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences, as well as the winner of the first Future Science Prize of Life Science in 2016, said it will be the first time for the prize week to be held in Hong Kong, adding that the week was supported by the Innovation, Technology, and Industry Bureau. Asked why the prize presentation ceremony will take place at the Hong Kong Palace Museum, Lo, who also chairs the week's program committee, described science as a form of art.

"For us scientists, we also invent and create something new...which is a form of art," Lo said.

The Future Science Prize was founded in 2016 by the China-based non-profit organization Future Forum, to reward scientists who have made outstanding scientific achievements in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan.

The prize has a total of 12 donors, four in each of its three categories, all of whom are industry leaders, including founders of mainland technological giants - founder and chairman of Tencent, Pony Ma Huateng, NetEase founder William Ding Lei and Baidu founder Robin Li Yanhong.

Victor Wang Qiang, a donor of the Mathematics and Computer Science category, said a winner of the prize must have their invention produce huge international influence, as well as have originality and long-term contributions to the relevant fields.

"By setting the prize money at US$1 million, which is similar to that of the Nobel Prize, we hope to ignite people's passion for science," Wang said.

Winners are not required to be Chinese, but their research has to be conducted in Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China or Taiwan, he added.