King Faizal International Prizes 2023: Saudi honours 8

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia announced the King Faizal Prize for 2023, honouring three Americans, two British and one Emirati and Moroccan each. The winners of the 45th edition of the awards were from categories of Covid-19 vaccine developers, nanotechnology scientists, prominent figures in each of its Arabic Language and Literature, Islamic Studies and Service to Islam, Arab News reported.

The King Faizal Prize General Secretariat, the authority handling the awards, informed that deliberations on the awards were carried out from January 2 to 4.

The Service to Islam prize was awarded to Shaikh Nasser bin Abdullah of the UAE and Prof. Choi Young Kil-Hamed of South Korea. The Islamic Studies award was won by Prof. Robert Hillebrand of the UK on the topic of Islamic architecture.

The King Faizal Prize for Medicine this year was won by two women. Prof. Dan Hung Barouch of the US and Prof. Sarah Catherine Gilbert of the UK. The award focussed on pandemics and vaccine development.

Prof. Gilbert was awarded for her part in creating the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. Gilbert is the chair of vaccinology at the Nuffield Department of Medicine at Oxford University. The vaccine has been used in more than 180 countries since its efficiency, low cost and accessibility.

Ying, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, won the honour for her work on synthesizing different advanced nanomaterials and systems to apply in catalysis, energy conversion and biomedicine.

Prof. Jackie Yi-Ru Ying and Prof. Chad Alexander Mirkin shared the award for chemistry. Both are US citizens.

The awards were first established in 1977, and 275 individuals from 43 countries have received them so far.