However, little is known about the process of how a Shaw Prize award category is designed, the preparations needed for its introduction, and the people responsible for formulating the rules, scope and criteria behind the nomination and winner selection processes.
Dr Raymond Chan, chair and council member of the Shaw Prize Foundation, which manages and administers general proceedings, emphasised the evolving nature of scientific inquiry and the importance of keeping in step with current developments during the new award announcement in January.
“Our mission has always been to honour contributions that benefit humanity, and computer science is the foundation of today’s world-changing technologies,” Chan said, citing the artificial intelligence (AI) system AlphaFold’s impact on life sciences as an example.
Indeed, computer science now plays an essential part in almost every aspect of modern life, from healthcare and education to transport, communication and entertainment. It has brought untold transformation in recent decades and further innovation in algorithms, machine learning, cybersecurity and computational theory will continue to redefine the way humans interact and society functions.
The Shaw Prize in Computer Science planning committee, which was formed to shape and define the award, began discussions on the scope and structure of the category in November 2024. Members, who included international experts, had to create the necessary framework, adjudication guidelines and selection process.
Professor Tony Chan, former president of both the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, was chair of the planning committee and welcomed the wide-ranging, in-depth nature of the series of online meetings that took place over the subsequent 18 months or so.
“When they asked me to be chair, I was very flattered,” he says. “My immediate reaction was that introducing a computer science category was timely and the right thing to do. It would also help to make the Shaw Prize and what it stands for even better known internationally.”
Among the first topics to consider were how broad or narrow the parameters should be and how people in the field would react if they were already familiar with the history of the Turing Award – named after British mathematician Alan Turing, which recognises important contributions to computer science – often referred to as the “Nobel Prize in computing”.
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