Hong Kong’s Future Science Prize 2024 may serve as an emblem of its global standing, particularly after an eventful year for the special administrative region. Five scientists at local universities were recently recognized with this prestigious award and each received over $257,250 ($229,000). Their efforts contributed greatly to tech innovation within life sciences as well as physical and computer realms; also offering invaluable support during its economic transition process.
Professor Stuart M. McManus of The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s (CUHK) Department of History was recently honored with winning the 2019 Dan David Prize, one of the world’s premier history prizes. This award recognizes exceptional scholarship that sheds light on past events while deepening public understanding.
The winning project of the esteemed Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) has long been one of the most anticipated projects and fiercely-competitive competitions of recent years. A film can qualify as a Hong Kong film if it has been commercially released within one year on Hong Kong territory and fulfills two criteria such as those below:
This year, the Hong Kong Film Academy jury panel selected seven films as main award recipients: Diocesan Girls’ School’s “The Trembling Ground” and Lui Cheung Kwong Lutheran College’s “Relationship between China and Hong Kong”. Merit awards went to Wong Shiu Chi Secondary School for “The Development of Hong Kong’s Pig Farming Industry During 1967 Riots”, Carmel Pak U Secondary School “Frontier Restricted Area and Relationship between China and Hong Kong”, among others.
Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography award recipient was an image depicting a bleeding man struck by an anti-government protester with a hammer in Mong Kok and received more than 11.7 million likes on Sina Weibo. Many netizens found this choice offensive as it stigmatises both government and police forces of Hong Kong; one comment garnering over 500 likes read “If those rioters were in America they’d probably get shot,” read another on Sina Weibo.
Future Science Prize 2025 will take place from October 22 to 27, coinciding with a scientific-themed event called Hello Scientists! Dennis Lo Yuk-ming, co-chairman of this year’s Prize Week program committee and president of CUHK, shared that its events, such as seminars featuring top scientists, would aim to increase youth interest in science. Additionally, this year’s prize week will include a six-day exhibition combining art and science. Over 100 experts, such as Nobel laureates and their awardees themselves will hold dialogues with teenagers during this event. This event marks a new addition to the program, which will celebrate its second anniversary this year. Victor Wang Qiang, rotating chairman of the 2025 Future Science Prize Donor’s Congress, noted that Hong Kong had become its key partner due to drawing over 70,000 attendees and reaching 25 million online viewers globally.