World Laureates Forum awards intl scientific excellence in Shanghai

Three notable scientists were awarded the 2025 World Laureates Association Prize (WLA Prize) for their groundbreaking work at the World Laureates Forum 2025, which kicked off on Saturday in Shanghai's Lingang Special Area.

The WLA Prize is an international science award established at the forum in 2021. It aims to recognize exceptional individuals in the realms of computer science or mathematics, as well as life science or medicine, with a substantial award of 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) for each category.

The 2025 WLA Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics was awarded to Richard Schoen, professor emeritus in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, for his pioneering contributions to geometric analysis and differential geometry.

Shing-Tung Yau, or Qiu Chengtong, one of the world's most influential mathematicians, recalled at the ceremony that in the 1970s, geometry and analysis were often seen as separate fields, but Schoen was among the first to see the two worlds could connect and together produce something entirely new.

"He built an entire framework that united geometry, analysis and physics, shaping what we now call geometric analysis into a central pillar of modern mathematics," he added.

The 2025 WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine was shared by Scott Emr, professor of molecular and cell biology at Cornell University, and Wesley I Sundquist, professor of biochemistry at the University of Utah, for discovering the cellular machinery for membrane protein receptor trafficking and degradation, work closely linked to virus budding, infection and HIV drug therapy.

Randy Schekman, a 2013 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine and chair of the World Laureates Association Life Science and Medicine Committee, noted that their independent yet complementary work solved a long-standing question in the cellular mechanisms of receptor membrane protein transport and degradation. The breakthrough discoveries have helped Gilead Sciences develop a drug that nearly completely blocks new HIV infections.

Themed "Science in Future", this year's World Laureates Forum gathered about 150 scientists from over 10 countries worldwide, including four Nobel laureates, four Turing Award winners, 16 top academicians from China, and over 100 outstanding young scientists from around the world.