In June, the inaugural winners of a new international prize for world-class research were announced in Taipei. The prize is named after the Tang dynasty (618–907), a golden age of classical Chinese civilization characterized by its progressive policies and cross-border exchanges. The biennial Tang Prize seeks to evoke the era’s spirit of pluralism by recognizing scholars, irrespective of nationality, for the ingenuity and impact of their work in four fields: biopharmaceutical science, rule of law, Sinology and sustainable development. Up to three winners share a NT$40 million (US$1.3 million) prize in each of the four categories, with an additional subsidy of up to NT$10 million (US$335,000) allocated for research projects submitted by recipients in each discipline.
Over four days from June 18 to 21, Tang Prize selection committee chairman Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), a co-winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry, announced the first recipients of the awards: Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway, for sustainable development; James P. Allison from the United States and Tasuku Honjo from Japan for biopharmaceutical science; Chinese-American scholar Yu Ying-shih (余英時) for Sinology; and Albie Sachs, a former justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, for rule of law. The honorees will receive their awards at a ceremony in Taipei on September 18.
The Tang Prize Foundation (TPF) was established in Taipei in December 2012. The foundation and prizes are funded by a NT$3 billion (US$100 million) donation from Samuel Yin (尹衍樑), chairman of Taiwan’s Ruentex Group, which has interests in sectors including construction, education, finance, medical services, retail and textiles. “I’m experiencing the joy a new parent feels,” Yin said before the announcement of the inaugural winners at Academia Sinica, the most prestigious research institution in Taiwan. One of the factors that led to the naming of the prize is Yin’s hope that the awards can help increase interactions among the world’s top researchers and policymakers. “The Tang dynasty saw the large-scale integration of religious, cultural and ethnic practices,” Yin says. “Such integration and broadmindedness gave rise to a brilliant and thriving age.”
Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway, was named the first winner of the Tang Prize for sustainable development. (Photo courtesy of Tang Prize Foundation)
“We are seeking to build a truly world-class prize that transcends national, ethnic and political boundaries,” says Chern Jenn-chuan (陳振川), the TPF’s chief executive officer and a professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at National Taiwan University. The Tang Prize’s total of NT$50 million (US$1.7 million) in prize money per category exceeds that of the Nobel Prize, which recognizes the world’s most outstanding achievements in the fields of chemistry, economics, literature, medicine, peace and physics. “The large amount of prize money is one of the factors that make our awards significant,” Chern says. However, the forward-looking propensity of the categories is what makes the Tang Prize compelling and unique in the international community, he adds.
The prize is not intended to compete with but rather to complement the Nobel awards. For one thing, “when the Nobel Prize was created more than 100 years ago, less attention was being paid to environmental issues,” Yin explained at the press conference to announce the inaugural Tang Prize winner for sustainable development. This field, Chern says, as well as rule of law and Sinology, has not previously been recognized through a major international award. “Our biopharmaceutical category is also distinct from the Nobel medical prize,” the TPF chief executive says. “We aim to address the needs of the 21st century.”
Chern notes the Tang Prize places greater importance on the practical results of research and concrete contributions toward “solving a problem.” For example, regarding a major global health issue such as AIDS, “the Nobel may honor researchers for the discovery of its cause,” Chern says. “However, the Tang Prize seeks to highlight research that leads to newer or better procedures, equipment or medicines for curing or treating the disease.”
The TPF signed an agreement with Academia Sinica that tasks the renowned research institution with guiding the selection process and choosing the winners. In a format similar to that used by the Nobel awards, the institution forms a committee of local and foreign experts who invite select individuals or institutions to submit nominations. The committee reviews the nominations and picks up to three winners in each category. The committee then submits the list of winners to the board of directors of the TPF for confirmation.
Chinese-American scholar Yu Ying-shih was chosen as the inaugural Tang Prize winner for Sinology. (Photo courtesy of Tang Prize Foundation)
Chern believes that Academia Sinica’s acclaimed status enhances the new prize’s international credibility. The research institution’s many distinguished academicians include Nobel laureate Lee, a former president of the body and current head of the Paris-based International Council for Science, as well as current president of the institute Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠), one of the world’s leading genomicists. This year, Wong was awarded the Wolf Prize in chemistry, which he received at Israel’s parliament in Jerusalem on June 1, in recognition of his advances in carbohydrate chemistry and biology in relation to cancer progression, viral infection and the development of vaccines. Named after its founder—inventor and philanthropist Ricardo Wolf (1887–1981)—the Wolf Prize was first awarded in 1978 to recognize achievements by scientists and artists, and is considered an indicator of potential Nobel Prize winners in fields such as chemistry and physics. With regard to the Tang Prize, Wong has expressed his confidence that Academia Sinica will objectively choose the most influential researchers in the four categories.
First Recipients
The inaugural winners of the prize are proof of this dedication to selecting the most worthy individuals. The first laureates set an exceptionally high standard due to their global reputations and remarkable achievements in their respective disciplines. In the field of Sinology, which in Yin’s words reflects “a personal desire to promote Chinese culture,” the 84-year-old Yu was honored for “his mastery of and insight into Chinese intellectual, political and cultural history with an emphasis on his profound research into the history of public intellectuals in China.” Yu is a prolific author and has taught at US universities including Harvard, Princeton and Yale as well as the Chinese University of Hong Kong. For the historian, who is known for his revolutionary interpretations of traditional Chinese thought, there is no fundamental antagonism between Confucianism, a focus of his research, and modern values such as democracy, freedom and human rights. “We can find elements of traditional Chinese thought that correspond with universal modern values,” he says. “If we discard all aspects of traditional Chinese thought, these modern values have no chance of taking root in mainland China.”
James P. Allison (top) from the United States and Tasuku Honjo (above) from Japan are the joint winners of the first Tang Prize for biopharmaceutical science. (Photo courtesy of Tang Prize Foundation)
Former Norwegian Prime Minister Brundtland was honored for her innovative efforts “that laid out the scientific and technical challenges for the global community to achieve a better balance of economic development, environmental integrity and social equality for the benefit of all humanity.” Chern points out that, prior to serving as director-general of the World Health Organization from 1998 to 2003, she played a historic role with her leadership of the World Commission on Environment and Development, or the Brundtland Commission, which published the landmark report Our Common Future in 1987. This report provided the most widely recognized definition of “sustainable development,” describing it as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Our Common Future, which is commonly known as the Brundtland Report, also laid the foundations for the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “Many of the trends that we warned against in 1987 have deteriorated further,” Brundtland said after being notified that she was an inaugural winner of the Tang Prize. “We all have to act together to avoid climate change and its really dramatic results for planet Earth and therefore for the health of humanity.” The former leader of Norway is also noted for promoting gender equality. “In many societies, communities and countries across the world, discrimination against women is going on,” she notes. “This is a major challenge for all of us. We need every individual, whether man or woman, to have equal opportunities and rights.”
Immunologists Allison and Honjo were jointly recognized for their discoveries of immune inhibitory molecules that “have opened up new, revolutionary possibilities in the treatment of cancer.” Honjo, a professor at Kyoto University, says that while “most of the chemicals used for cancer treatment have a specificity for a type of cancer,” the antibody developed by his team has “so far been tested on more than 70 or 80 different types of tumors and appears to be working.” He notes that it took almost a decade to discover the function of the molecule that suppresses the immune response and that initially it was not expected to offer a successful approach for cancer treatment.
Albie Sachs, a former justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, was named the first Tang Prize winner for rule of law. (Photo courtesy of Tang Prize Foundation)
Allison, a professor at the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center, hopes that the Tang Prize will bring increased recognition to his work and educate people about the field of immunology, as the emerging immunotherapeutic approach to cancer treatment has faced skepticism. “I think people respect that it is a fundamental science, but as far as a way of treating a cancer, it’d never really been successful despite decades of trying,” he says, adding that the approach turned out to be much more effective than he had expected.
Former Constitutional Court of South Africa justice Sachs dedicated his Tang Prize to his generation of “freedom fighters.” Sachs, who is one of the framers of his country’s constitution, was recognized for “his many contributions to human rights and justice globally through an understanding of the rule of law in which the dignity of all persons is respected and the strengths and values of all communities are embraced.” During the period of painful struggle against apartheid in South African society, “sometimes we felt weak, tired, exhausted, scared,” Sachs recalls, “but we never had any doubt about the central idea that one day black and white could live together in South Africa under the law as equals.”
Sachs lost an arm and became blind in one eye due to a car bomb assassination attempt in 1988; however, he did not seek retribution. “When we had the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we didn’t go in for vengeance but transformation,” he says. “I think South Africa, from being an example of the worst country in the world because of apartheid, now has become an example for the rest of the world of what human beings can do—that there are no conflicts that cannot be resolved.”
Yu describes the Tang Prize as a “noteworthy, new cultural phenomenon.” It underscores the fact that “the Republic of China on Taiwan has acquired a leading position due to globalization that allows it to offer this prize, which maintains the standards of the Nobel Prize,” he says. This month, this cultural phenomenon will draw global attention to Taiwan when the inaugural Tang Prize laureates visit the country to receive their awards and meet with local academics and the general public. “We’ll see world-class activities taking place in Taipei,” Chern says. “This will greatly benefit our country and society.”
Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw