VinFuture Prize honors nine outstanding scientists

The 2022 VinFuture Prize was awarded to nine scientists in Hanoi on Tuesday evening for their breakthrough science and technology achievements helping “Revive and Reshape” humanity.

The VinFuture Prize was set up by VinFuture Foundation, a non-profit organisation established on December 20, 2020 by billionaire and founder of Vingroup Pham Nhat Vuong and his wife, Pham Thu Huong.

The prize aims to honour remarkable scientific and technological studies by global inventors and researchers who make meaningful changes to the daily lives of millions of people.

Among the winners, five won the VinFuture Grand Prize, worth $3 million, namely Timothy John Berners-Lee and Prof. David Neil Payne from the UK; Dr. Emmanuel Desurvire from France; and Dr. Vinton Gray Cerf and Dr. Robert Elliot Kahn from the U.S., who made breakthrough inventions in global internet connection technology.

Berners-Lee, 67, who invented the World Wide Web, wrote the first web browser and led the design and establishment of three critical internet standards, HTML, HTTP and URLs. These have enabled the seamless sharing and use of information resources across the global Internet.

Vinton Gray Cerf, 84, and Robert Elliot Kahn, 79, are considered the "fathers of the Internet" as they led the design and implementation of the transmission control protocol and internet protocol (TCP/IP), the bases for the functioning of today's Internet.

The global network technology relies on optical fiber communication, the development of which was enabled by the work over five decades of 78-year-old British David Neil Payne.

His work related to fiber design, optical amplifiers, specialty fibers, and high-power lasers and amplifiers, which, together with the breakthrough work of French Emmanuel Desurvire on erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, made Internet transmission possible on a global scale thanks to their ability to repeatedly boost high-speed optical signals.

Their inventions have comprehensively changed means of communications and working and laid a stepping stone for modern socio-economic development.

Besides, three Special Prizes, worth $500,000 each were also presented. Of which, the Special Prize for innovators with outstanding achievements in emerging fields was bestowed upon Dr. Demis Hassabis from the U.K. and Dr. John Jumper from the U.S., who developed the artificial intelligence system AlphaFold 2 that decodes protein sequences, marking a revolution in protein structure modeling and promoting breakthrough developments in biomedicine, healthcare, and agriculture.

The Special Prize for innovators from developing countries went to Prof. Thalappil Pradeep of India, who invented a low-cost system for filtering water contaminated with arsenic and heavy metals to help supply clean water for hundreds of millions of residents in areas affected by water pollution.

Meanwhile, the Special Prize for female innovators honoured Prof. Pamela Christine Ronald of the U.S., who succeeded in isolating the Sub1A gene to create a condition for developing flood-tolerant rice varieties.

Addressing the ceremony, broadcast live globally, chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue expressed his delight that the second season of VinFuture surpassed the first in terms of both quantity and quality.

It attracted 970 nominations, almost doubling that in the first season, from more than 70 countries around the world. The rate of nominees who are among the top 2% of the world’s most cited researchers also more than doubled. In addition, the rate of nominees from Asia increased to 34.6% and from Africa to 12.4%, rising over six-fold from 2021.

The top legislator expressed his hope that aside from honouring the scientists with prominent studies helping create a sustainable living environment for future generations, VinFuture will also help global researchers and inventors realise their great aspirations to serve humanity.

The VinFuture Prize 2023 will honor scientific and technological inventions and initiatives that help build a "Resilient and Revolutionary" world. VinFuture will call for official nominations from 2 p.m. on January 9 to 2 p.m. on May 15, 2023 (Vietnam time).