Shaw Prize 2016: Winners

Recipients

1. Astronomy

   Kip S. Thorne, Rainer Weiss, Ronald Drever

   Physics

   For conceiving and designing the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), whose recent direct detection of gravitational waves opens a new window in astronomy, with the first remarkable discovery being the merger of a pair of stellar mass black holes.

2. Life Science and Medicine

   Adrian Bird, Huda Zoghbi

   Biology

   For their discovery of the genes and the encoded proteins that recognize one chemical modification of the DNA of chromosomes that influences gene control as the basis of the developmental disorder Rett syndrome.

3. Mathematical Sciences

   Nigel J. Hitchin

   Math

   For his far-reaching contributions to geometry, representation theory and theoretical physics. The fundamental and elegant concepts and techniques that he has introduced have had wide impact and are of lasting importance.