NOTICE:For better user experience, we strongly recommend that you log in the WLA Prize Nomination Portal on your computer to submit your nomination.
Home > Press Room > News > Laureates of the 2024 WLA Prize Announced

Laureates of the 2024 WLA Prize Announced

Date Sept. 12, 2024

Two scientists earn recognition for their ground-breaking achievements
 
(Shanghai, September 12, 2024) The World Laureates Association Prize (WLA Prize) unveils its 2024 laureates on Thursday. This year, a total of two exceptional scientists are being honored with the Prize's two individual awards: the WLA Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics and the WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine. The laureate of each single Prize will be offered the RMB 10 million prize money.
 
The 2024 WLA Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics recognizes: Jon Kleinberg, Tisch University Professor of Computer Science & Information Science at Cornell University, "for seminal contributions at the interface of computer science and social science including intellectual leadership in the fields of social networks and algorithmic fairness."
 
 
 
The 2024 WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine recognizes: Jeremy Nathans, Professor at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Department of Neuroscience, and Samuel Theobald Professor at the Wilmer Eye Institute (Department of Ophthalmology) at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, "for discovering the genes, regulation and plasticity underlying human color vision and elucidating disease mechanisms that lead to blindness."
 
 
 
The 2024 WLA Prize Award Ceremony is scheduled to take place in Shanghai on October 25, with both of the laureates attend in person.
 
The WLA Prize is an international science prize established in Shanghai, in 2021, initiated by the World Laureates Association (WLA), managed by the WLA Foundation, and exclusively funded by HongShan. Each year, the WLA Prize is awarded in two categories: "Computer Science or Mathematics" and "Life Science or Medicine", with the total award for each Prize, which may be divided among up to four laureates, being RMB 10 million. Nine laureates in total have received the WLA Prize.
 
 
Interpretation on the 2024 WLA Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics: "For seminal contributions at the interface of computer science and social science including intellectual leadership in the fields of social networks and algorithmic fairness"
 
Information technology is currently a driving force throughout science, technology and commerce. It is also having immense impact on human societies and individual humans. Kleinberg's accomplishments have spanned computer science, mathematics, and economics, not only solving important problems in each of these fields, but also opening doors for researchers in these fields to begin to work together to address emerging societal problems, says Michael I. Jordan, Chair of the 2024 WLA Prize Selection Committee in Computer Science or Mathematics.  
 
"Jon Kleinberg has been a leader in this effort for nearly three decades," comments Jordan, adding that "his seminal research---which spans algorithms, behavioral economics, game theory, law and network science---has yielded deep conceptual understanding of the current state of information technology and has provided signposts for its future development." Jon Kleinberg has also contributed theoretical results concerning his fields. He has authored two books and is now writing a third book, among which he co-authors with Eva Tardos has been rendered as an impactful textbook.
 
Kleinberg's work in the 1990's on the information and social structure of the World Wide Web had a significant effect on the design of search engines and this has continued to inform the design of Internet search engines until the present day. Moreover, he also led the way in the study of social networks as they began to emerge in the 2000s.
 
Additionally, Kleinberg has also been a leader in the field of machine learning for the past two decades, particularly in the study of how machine learning interacts with human decision-making. His "work is mathematical and algorithmic, and it is also economic" that contribute to algorithmic fairness, according to Jordan.
 
Click to watch the full video of the award interpretation featured by Michael I. Jordan.
 
Interpretation on the 2024 WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine: "For discovering the genes, regulation and plasticity underlying human color vision and elucidating disease mechanisms that lead to blindness"
 
"Jeremy Nathans discovered the molecular basis of color vision. As a new graduate student in 1983 at Stanford Medical School, Nathans single-handedly cloned the cow and then the human opsin genes responsible for color vision. This work revealed the first sequences of any sensory receptors," says Randy Schekman, Chair of the 2024 WLA Prize Selection Committee in Life Science or Medicine and 2013 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine.
 
"In remarkable work that followed in the 80's, Nathans elucidated the molecular basis of color blindness. He showed that the tandem chromosome structure of the red and green photoreceptor genes lead to aberrant recombination causing gene deletion," Schekman says.
 
"When Nathans began studying patients with inherited retinal degenerations, virtually nothing was known about the molecular basis of any form of retinal disease," comments Schekman, adding that he then "identified the gene for Stargardt disease, the most common form of early onset macular degeneration" in collaboration with Jim Lupski.
 
Later in the mouse genetic and behavioral study, Nathans and collaborators' finding highlights the remarkable plasticity of our visual system -- in this case with the demonstration that the mouse brain adapted to interpret three colors. His discoveries have augmented the understanding of how human sees the world.
 
According to Schekman, "Nathans' wide-ranging curiosity, encyclopedic knowledge of the field of vison science and its historical roots, and the depth of his thinking and the creativity of his approaches places him among the best neuroscientists in the world."
 
Click to watch the full video of the award interpretation featured by Randy Schekman.
 
The 2024 WLA Prize Press Conference has the two laureates on line to share their excitements and insights about scientific research.
 
 
Wu Xiangdong, Executive Director of the WLA addressed the press conference. "We have consistently upheld the highest academic standards, aiming to recognize people who have not yet been recognized on the international stage."

Log In

Send

Show

or Log in with Verification Code
Sign Up

Send

Click "Send" and check email for code. Retry or use different email if not received.

Show

Loading...