Five University Scholars Win $1.2M 2026 Shaw Prize

On May 27, The Shaw Prize officially announced the winners of the 2026 awards in the three fields of Astronomy, Life Science and Medicine, and Mathematical Sciences. Scholars from institutions including The University of Tokyo, University of California, Santa Cruz, Collège de France, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Stanford University were among the recipients.

The list of award winners is as follows:

The Shaw Prize in Astronomy 2026 is awarded in equal shares to Ken’ichi Nomoto, Emeritus Professor and Visiting Senior Scientist of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Stanford Woosley, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA, for their studies of stellar explosions and the origin of the elements.

The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine 2026 is awarded in equal shares to Anne Dejean, Professor Emerita at the Institut Pasteur, France, Hugues de Thé, Professor and Chair of Cellular and Molecular Oncology at the Collège de France and Zhu Chen, Professor, Ruijin Hospital, School of Medicine at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, PRC for the discovery of the molecular and cellular bases of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) and the pioneering of a synergistic targeted therapy that transformed the disease from one of the most deadly to one of the most curable cancers.

The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences 2026 is awarded in equal shares to Emmanuel Candès, the Barnum–Simons Chair in Mathematics and Statistics, Stanford University, USA and Camillo De Lellis, the IBM von Neumann Professor, School of Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study, USA for their breakthrough contributions to the use of deep techniques from mathematical analysis to rigorously understand applied problems in information theory, signal processing and statistics on the one hand, and to the study of singularities in geometric measure theory and fluid dynamics on the other.

About The Shaw Prize

The Shaw Prize is dedicated to futhering societal progress, enhancing quality of life, and enriching humanity's spiritual civilisation. The Prize consists of four annual awards — the Prize in Astronomy, the Prize in Life Science and Medicine, and the Prize in Mathematical Sciences, awarded since 2004, and the Prize in Computer Science, introduced in 2026. Each Prize carries a monetary award, which has been set at one million two hundred thousand US dollars since 2016.

Since 2004, The Shaw Prize has recognised over a hundred exceptional individuals who have made groundbreaking contributions to their respective fields, many of whom have gone on to receive other prestigious international awards.