NextSharkNextShark.com

Chinese Scientists Among 9 Winners of the Lavish ‘Oscars of Science’ Awards in Silicon Valley

Chinese Scientists Among 9 Winners of the Lavish ‘Oscars of Science’ Awards in Silicon Valley

October 22, 2018
SHARE
Two Chinese-born scientists were among the nine scientists recognized on Oct. 17 with a “Breakthrough Prize,” a $3 million Silicon Valley-funded award designed to bestow Oscar-level glamor upon its recipients.
Image via Breakthrough Prize
Founded and sponsored by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg, Pony Ma, Anne Wojcicki, and Yuri and Julia Milner, the prestigious awards aim to invigorate public engagement in the sciences by honoring, in the most lavish way possible, the cutting edge in three fundamental fields of basic science: Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics.
 
Complete with a celebrity red carpet and musical performances, past iterations of the event have welcomed the likes of Christina Aguilera, Wiz Khalifa and cellist Nana Ou-yang, to name a few.
Subscribe to
NextShark's Newsletter

A daily dose of Asian America's essential stories, in under 5 minutes.

Get our collection of Asian America's most essential stories to your inbox daily for free.

Unsure? Check out our Newsletter Archive.

This year, Xiaowei Zhuang of Harvard University was celebrated with a Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for her achievements in developing a new tool for super-resolution imagery, allowing for new insights into the internal structure of cells and molecules.
 
Another Life Science prize was awarded to Zhijian “James” Chen from the University of Texas, who discovered a DNA-sensing enzyme that responds to both pathogen and host DNA, which has implications for treating cancer and auto-immune disorders.
 
Austrian Angelika Amon, from MIT, took home the third Life Science prize for determining the negative consequences of cells with an abnormal number of chromosomes (known as aneuploidy), particularly in cancer patients. The final Life Science prize was shared between Frank Bennett and Adrian Krainer, who collaborated in developing a gene therapy drug for treating Spinal Muscular Atrophy in infants.
Meanwhile, the Mathematics prize was awarded to Vincent Lafforgue for “groundbreaking work in multiple areas,” while the Physics prize was picked up by Charles Kane and Eugene Mele for discovering a revolutionary new class of electronic materials. Finally, an additional “Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics” was awarded to Jocelyn Bell Burnell for the discovery of pulsars.
The award ceremony will be hosted by Pierce Brosnan on Nov 4. at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.
MOST READ
    HAPPENING NOW
      Ziye Wang

      Ziye Wang is a contributor at NextShark

      SHARE THIS ARTICLE:

      RELATED STORIES FROM NEXTSHARK

      Support
      NextShark's
      Journalism

      Many people might not know this, but NextShark is a small media startup that runs on no outside funding or loans, and with no paywalls or subscription fees, we rely on help from our community and readers like you.

      Everything you see today is built by Asians, for Asians to help amplify our voices globally and support each other. However, we still face many difficulties in our industry because of our commitment to accessible and informational Asian news coverage.

      We hope you consider making a contribution to NextShark so we can continue to provide you quality journalism that informs, educates, and inspires the Asian community. Even a $1 contribution goes a long way. Thank you for supporting NextShark and our community.

      © 2023 NextShark, Inc. All rights reserved.