The 2022 Tang Prize in Sinology is awarded to Professor Dame Jessica Rawson, “for her gift and mastery of the craft of the visible to read the art and artifacts of Chinese civilization. By giving voice to the ancient world of objects, she has taught generations how to see when they look at things, and her acuity and vast visual learning have given new insight into the world of the lineages, transformations, and migrations of mute things.”

Her contributions show that, besides the written word, there is another talent, another craft, which, by reading the art and artifacts of the world, allows us to interpret and understand distant and ancient societies, with their beliefs and interactions. Professor Rawson has taken this approach in her study of Chinese bronzes and jades, and most especially in the exchanges between the peoples of the central China and their neighbors, for example in horse harness, revealing the role of horse-trading with the steppe and along the Silk Road. She has shown that the many regions of Eurasia had their own traditions, their own visual systems, in which artifacts, their materials, their forms, and their multiple ornaments were combined in set ways. In reading these combinations, she has, for example, been able to follow and illuminate the transmission of Western classical architectural ornament to Western Asia and then along the Silk Roads to China, where it was adapted for the great Buddhist caves. This exchange was the foundation of a whole new repertory of design in China. In due course this new repertory was taken westwards again by the Mongols. As such visual systems are taken over in new contexts, they leave behind their former messages and gain thereby new associations.

Professor Rawson has also made extensive studies of ancient Chinese tombs which provided a complete afterlife world for the dead. Shang and Zhou period vertical shaft tombs were accompanied by bronze and jade artifacts, which not only gave the dead objects for ritual and status, but also weapons and carriages for war. Many major changes occurred with the Qin. The elaborate burial of the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, not only contained an army of terracotta warriors, but also stables, carriages, court officials, wrestlers, concubines, and images of the heavenly bodies, making the tomb not an image of a universe, but actually creating this universe for the afterlife of its occupant. In this research, Professor Rawson has drawn our attention to the very different approach in ancient China to the notion of images, where the terracotta warriors were in the Emperor’s eyes a complete army for warfare in the afterlife.

Professor Rawson’s contributions to the field of Sinology extend beyond original and trailblazing scholarly contributions. Her tireless efforts to develop and promote exchange in the field of Sinology as well as help the public better understand Chinese civilization are equally laudable. Starting out as a museum curator, she has long been both a practitioner and an academic, and the impact of her curated exhibitions has long been evident to all. Even after moving to the University of Oxford after 28 years of service at the British Museum, she continued to present the diversity of Chinese culture to the public through enlightening exhibitions including China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795. Held at the Royal Academy of Arts from 2005 to 2006, this exhibition took us back to imperial China, to the reigns of three of the most powerful Qing emperors, to explore the artistic and cultural riches of this period and their vivid connotations.

Born in London and educated at the University of Cambridge and the University of London, Professor Rawson is currently Professor of Chinese Art and Archeology at the University of Oxford, and previously served as the first female Warden of Merton College from 1994 to 2010 and Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 2006 to 2010. Professor Rawson has expanded the study of Chinese culture and civilization both on and off campus. From 2011 to 2016, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, she collaborated with Chinese scholars and led a major transnational research project titled, “China and Inner Asia: Cultural Exchange that Transformed China (1000-200 BC)” to investigate newly excavated sites and artifacts to study the interaction of northern China with the Mongolian and South Siberian Steppe. On campus, she has facilitated academic exchanges between scholars from around the world and nurtured students of various cultural backgrounds, many of whom have become leading scholars in the field of Chinese art and archaeology. Of particular note is her contribution to furthering Sinological research at Oxford. She bid and received a ten-year grant to support the development of the study of contemporary China, which enabled the appointment of two senior and two junior academic positions, leading to the expansion of posts in the study of China. This was one of the moves that contributed to the foundation of the Oxford University China Centre in May 2008.

When it comes to recognition, Professor Rawson’s career has been marked by honors. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002 for her contribution to Oriental Studies. In 2012, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as an International Honorary Member and received the 2017 Charles Lang Freer Medal for her lifetime work in Chinese art and archaeology. And now, we award the 2022 Tang Prize in Sinology to Professor Rawson for her remarkable contributions that created a new dimension in the study of Chinese art and archaeology, deepening our understanding of the growth of Chinese civilization.

About the Tang Prize

Since the advent of globalization, mankind has been able to enjoy the convenience brought forth by the advancement of human civilization and science. Yet a multitude of challenges, such as climate change, the emergence of new infectious diseases, wealth gap, and moral degradation, have surfaced along the way. Against this backdrop, Dr. Samuel Yin established the Tang Prize in December 2012. It consists of four award categories, namely Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Every other year, four independent and professional selection committees, comprising many internationally renowned experts, scholars, and Nobel winners, choose as Tang Prize laureates people who have influenced and made substantive contributions to the world, regardless of ethnicity, nationality or gender. A cash prize of NT$50 million (approx. US$1.7 million) is allocated to each category, with NT$10 million (approx. US$ 0.35 million) of it being a research grant intended to encourage professionals in every field to examine mankind’s most urgent needs in the 21^st century, and become leading forces in the development of human society through their outstanding research outcomes and active civic engagement.

After the 2014 and 2016 winners for the Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Sciences were crowned the Nobel Prize in 2018 and 2020 respectively, this category has continued to garner much attention worldwide. After much waiting, names of the latest winners were finally announced at ten (GMT+8) in the morning of June 19. This year’s award went to three scientists who played a critical role in the development of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines: Katalin Kariko, Drew Weissman, and Pieter Cullis, “for the discovery of key vaccinology concepts and approaches, leading to the successful development of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine,” according to the selection committee’s citation.

Since November 2019 when the pandemic began, COVID-19 has been disrupting everyone’s life for more than two years, posing a grave threat to human health and life, and causing severe damage to the global economy. The World Health Organization’s statistics show that up to the moment, more than 520 million COVID infections and about 6.27 million deaths have been recorded around the world. Fortunately, it took Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna less than 12 months to successfully develop vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. As a result, millions of lives have been saved, to which the groundbreaking contributions made by these three laureates cannot be ignored. While Dr. Kariko and Dr. Weissman found a way to reduce the immunogenicity[i] of mRNA, Dr. Cullis is credited with designing lipid nanoparticles for the delivery of mRNA vaccines.

There are two major challenges when it comes to delivering RNA into the human body. First, RNA triggers innate immune responses. Second, it is easily degradable, and hence difficult to reach the target cells or organs. The new platform developed by these three scientists is a nucleoside-modified[ii] mRNA-based vaccine that can evade the immune system, thus preventing the severe inflammation which occurs when in vitro-transcribed mRNA is recognized by immune cells. These mRNA molecules are encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles and delivered effectively into the cells. They then instruct the cell’s machinery to produce harmless pieces of spike protein found on the surface of the coronavirus and initiate a series of adaptive immune responses such as triggering B cells to produce antibodies and training T cells to attack infected cells

The breakthrough discoveries of the three laureates and the ingenious approaches they pioneered are key to the rapid and successful development of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. These techniques not only revolutionized vaccinology but also signaled a paradigm shift in protein therapy. They represent the advent of a new era of RNA-based therapies. Unlike traditional methods that take a long time and a lot of money to develop vaccines, these new mRNA techniques turn cells into factories where proteins that serve as antigens or therapeutic molecules can be produced. Mass-manufacturing vaccines at relatively low cost became possible. Moreover, they can be applied to tackle a variety of diseases, such as to the development of vaccines against other viruses, of tailored-made vaccines against cancer, of vaccines against HIV, or even of vaccines against allergic diseases.

Dr. Kariko was educated in Hungary and moved to the US in 1985. She was especially interested in RNA and its chemical synthesis for efficient protein expression in cells in vitro and in vivo. With systematic rigor, she has solved several problems related to the use of RNA in vaccinology and therapy. During the 1990s, as a research associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, she devoted herself to the development of in vitro-transcribed messenger RNA (mRNA) for protein therapies. For that, she needed to understand the mechanism of the immune response mediated by RNAs. Together with her colleague, Dr. Weissman, she showed that mRNA is recognized by Toll-like receptors[iii], thus participating in the innate immune response, and the injection of mRNA into animals caused severe inflammation. However, they found that if the nucleosides of the mRNA were modified like selected nucleosides in naturally occurring RNA, the mRNA did not elicit such responses. Eventually, they were able to identify key modifications. This critical finding enabled them to create stealth RNAs that do not cause inflammation. Since 2013, Dr. Kariko has been associated with BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals, first as a vice president and as its senior vice president in 2019. She was also involved in the development of its COVID-19 vaccine.   

Dr. Weissman is the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research at the University of Pennsylvania, where he started his laboratory in 1997 to develop vaccine against HIV. Prior to that, he worked at America’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) on HIV-related research. In collaboration with Dr. Kariko, he started studying RNA as vaccines. In 2005, they published their pivotal discovery that nucleoside-modified RNAs are non-immunogenic. Since then, Dr. Weissman has been actively engaged in the application of this technology to the development of RNA vaccines against infections by viruses such as HIV and Zika virus. The collaboration between Dr. Weissman, an immunologist, and Dr. Kariko, an RNA technology scientist, led to many significant discoveries. Together, they hold the U.S. patent for the application of the non-immunogenic, nucleoside-modified RNA that built a strong foundation for the development of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna covid-19 mRNA vaccines.

Dr. Cullis, who has a PhD in physics, is a pioneer developer of lipid nanoparticles and a professor at the University of British Columbia. He is also a leader in the studies of membrane structure and function at the molecular level for the development of effective therapeutic agents. He created nanoparticles composed of pH-sensitive, cationic lipids that can induce the formation of non-bilayer structures and can carry DNA and RNA-based anionic macromolecules. Therefore, we can get these nanoparticles to encapsulate and store nuclear acid-based drugs as well as release them into cells. This is critical in the development of RNA-based vaccines, as RNA is quite unstable and difficult to be efficiently delivered into cells. Dr. Cullis has focused mostly on the roles of lipids in membranes by using model membrane systems which helped give birth to engineered liposomal nanoparticulate (LN or LNP) systems that can deliver conventional and nucleic acid-based drugs. His classical papers have been cited for more than 2000 times each, and a great percentage of FDA-approved or emergency medical usage of lipid nanoparticles have relied on the technology he invented. With his novel technology, Dr. Cullis became the founder of 11 companies. In 2014, he started a collaboration with Dr. Weissman, who was working with BioNTech on RNA vaccines, and Dr. Cullis’ expertise was crucial in creating a delivery system for the vaccines. 

About the Tang Prize

Since the advent of globalization, mankind has been able to enjoy the convenience brought forth by the advancement of human civilization and science. Yet a multitude of challenges, such as climate change, the emergence of new infectious diseases, wealth gap, and moral degradation, have surfaced along the way. Against this backdrop, Dr. Samuel Yin established the Tang Prize in December 2012. It consists of four award categories, namely Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Every other year, four independent and professional selection committees, comprising many internationally renowned experts, scholars, and Nobel winners, choose as Tang Prize laureates people who have influenced and made substantive contributions to the world, regardless of ethnicity, nationality or gender. A cash prize of NT$50 million (approx. US$1.7 million) is allocated to each category, with NT$10 million (approx. US$ 0.35 million) of it being a research grant intended to encourage professionals in every field to examine mankind’s most urgent needs in the 21st century, and become leading forces in the development of human society through their outstanding research outcomes and active civic engagement.

The Tang Prize, an international academic award set up to create a better world for all of humanity, is poised to announce its 2022 laureates in Taipei in four consecutive days starting June 18. In the first press conference, the Foundation introduced to the public winner of the 2022 Tang Prize in Sustainable Development: Prof. Jeffrey Sachs. A world-renowned professor in economics who has made great contributions to the establishment and promotion of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Prof. Sachs served as Special Advisor to three UN Secretaries-General, and is currently Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University as well as President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). He is awarded for “leading transdisciplinary sustainability science and creating the multilateral movement for its applications from village to nation and to the world,” according to the selection committee’s citation.

At the moment, mankind as a whole is confronted with many tough challenges, including environmental pollution, extreme weather events, energy crisis, the shock to our physical, social and economic wellbeing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and food shortages and raging inflation exacerbated by the regional confrontation. As an eminent economist of international distinction, Prof. Sachs has conducted ground-breaking research in many areas, such as debt crises, hyperinflations, transition from central planning to market economies, and eradication of extreme poverty. Moreover, when addressing complex issues related to global sustainable development, he combined the fields of global economics, public health, equity and sustainability to pioneer a multidisciplinary approach to solving these problems, transforming sustainable development into an integrated field of study and practice. His outstanding scholarship, advice to world leaders, educational innovation, and efforts in the global advocacy and realization of sustainable development have proven him to be a true leader of great vision, of profound influence, and imbued with deep humanistic concern.

With regard to the innovative transdisciplinary approach Prof. Sachs pioneered, an example can be found in his engagement with the Millennium Project, which he chaired on behalf of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 2002 to 2006. He was tasked with developing a concrete action plan to attain the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)[i], and he demonstrated how it can be done by using best practices in science, technology, and public policy. Moreover, Prof. Sachs was also in charge of the UN Millennium Village Project (MVP), which was implemented from 2006-2015 after the UN General Assembly adopted the key recommendations of the Millennium Project at a special session in September 2005. The MVP aimed to help rural Africa and was carried out in ten countries including Senegal, Nigeria, and Ethiopia. During these ten years, a range of notable successes were achieved, from raising agricultural production to reducing child stunting, and cutting child mortality rates. Lives of more than half a million people were changed as a consequence. Its key concepts of integrating rural development to achieve the MDGs are now being adopted by many other countries to help support national anti-poverty programs.

With regard to promoting the UN SDGs[ii], Prof. Sachs began his engagement from their very inception when the idea was first broached at the “Rio+20” conference in June 2012 and offered his help based on this experience of implementing MDGs. The SDGs are the blueprint for creating a more sustainable future for all. They address many global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, and environmental degradation. To overcome these problems, 17 goals, such as “no poverty,” “good health and well-being,” “reduced inequalities,” “climate action,” and “life below water” have been set. They are subdivided into 169 targets and 232 indicators to measure and track the global progress toward these goals. Prof. Sachs’ fruitful pursuit of the MDGs, and his tireless work in front of and behind the scenes at Rio+20 made an important contribution in persuading nations to forge a consensus on adopting the 17 SDGs as the successor to the MDGs.

To promote the SDGs, also in 2012, Prof. Sachs led a global consortium of universities and think tanks under the auspices of then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to establish the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), which functions as the largest global knowledge-based think tank to help countries achieve the SDGs. The SDSN has produced many highly influential reports, conducted academic studies, offered online courses, and held hundreds of SDG-related meetings around the world each year. The SDSN now has over 1600 member institutions in 47 networks across 137 countries.

With regard to combating anthropogenic climate change, Prof. Sachs saw the crucial importance of a long-term policy framework for climate control. He headed a global study on “deep decarbonization” which resulted in the highly influential “Pathways to Deep Decarbonization” report. The report lays out concrete and viable plans regarding issues like energy transition, industrial transformation, technological innovation, and governance mechanisms to enable 15 major carbon emitters to achieve deep decarbonization. Presented to Ban Ki-moon in September 2014, the report demonstrates how, during the decades leading to 2050, these 15 countries can find their own pathways to decarbonization that are compatible with their economic growth targets and technically feasible. Subsequently, many countries have taken on board this idea and designed their deep decarbonization pathways.

Prof. Sachs’ participation in the promotion of the Paris Agreement has been equally vital. He has long helped to formulate core policy concepts for global climate control as a scholar and an academic leader. During the intensive phase of negotiating the Agreement, he worked behind the scenes with France, the US, and many other governments to support the design and adoption of the Paris Agreement. The SDGs and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change have been hailed as the two essential pillars for the world to achieve sustainable development, and Prof. Sachs has played a unique role in both.

With regard to offering suggestions to leaders of different countries, as one of the world’s leading experts on economic development, global macroeconomics, and the fight against poverty, Prof. Sachs has advised many heads of states and governments on complex economic challenges, including ending high inflations (Bolivia, Peru, Poland), negotiating debt relief (Bolivia, Brazil, Poland, and others), adopting market economic reforms (Poland, Russia), introducing new national currencies (Estonia, Slovenia), promoting regional development (China), and scaling up health systems (Ethiopia, Ghana, India, and many others). He has been awarded by several countries their highest honors for his board-based support of their economic reforms.

About Jeffrey Sachs

Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1954, Jeffrey Sachs got his BA, MA and PhD degrees in economics from Harvard University. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1980s. In less than four years’ time became a Professor of Economics with tenure at Harvard. He served as Director of the Center for Sustainable Development in the Earth Institute of Columbia University and Special Advisor to three UN Secretaries-General. He is a recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor (by decree of the president of the French Republic), the Sustainable Development Leadership Award from India’s TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute), and Japan’s Blue Planet Award. He has also received 38 honorary degrees from universities all over the world. The papers and books he has published number in the hundreds, including three New York Times bestsellers: The End of Poverty, Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, and The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity

About the Tang Prize

Since the advent of globalization, mankind has been able to enjoy the convenience brought forth by the advancement of human civilization and science. Yet a multitude of challenges, such as climate change, the emergence of new infectious diseases, wealth gap, and moral degradation, have surfaced along the way. Against this backdrop, Dr. Samuel Yin established the Tang Prize in December 2012. It consists of four award categories, namely Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Every other year, four independent and professional selection committees, comprising many internationally renowned experts, scholars, and Nobel winners, choose as Tang Prize laureates people who have influenced and made substantive contributions to the world, regardless of ethnicity, nationality or gender. A cash prize of NT$50 million (approx. US$1.7 million) is allocated to each category, with NT$10 million (approx. US$ 0.35 million) of it being a research grant intended to encourage professionals in every field to examine mankind’s most urgent needs in the 21st century, and become leading forces in the development of human society through their outstanding research outcomes and active civic engagement.

【Sustainable Development】
Established in Taiwan, the Tang Prize has grown to be one of the most important awards in the world. On June 18, the 2022 Tang Prize laureates in Sustainable Development will be announced in the press conference starting at 10a.m. (GMT+8) Taipei time. The live stream will also be available on our official website. Please share our good news with your members and join us online in watching the announcement and witnessing this historical event.
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Guest List:
✅Dr. Shu Chien
(President of Tang Prize Selection Committee)
✅ Dr. Chao-Han Liu
(Academician)
✅ Dr. Chi-Yuan Liang
(National Central University)
✅ Prof. Jough-Tai Wang
(National Central University)
✅ Dr. Jenn-Chuan Chern
(CEO, Tang Prize Foundation)
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☑️ Announcement of laureate(s):
https://www.tang-prize.org/en/first.php
☑️Live Stream on Tang Prize Website:
https://www.tang-prize.org/en/first.php
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Rundown：
10:00~10:05
Speech of Welcome (MC) & Address from Tang Prize Found. CEO Dr. Chern
10:05~10:10
Announcement of Laureate(s)
10:10~10:20
Intro. to Laureate(s) and Prize Citation
10:20~10:25
End of Part I (MC)
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5-minute break
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Part II, Announcement in Chinese
10:30~10:35
Speech of Welcome (MC) & Address from Tang Prize Found. CEO Dr. Chern
10:35~10:40
Announcement of Laureate(s)
10:40~10:50
Intro. to Laureate(s) and Prize Citation
10:50~11:00
Q&A
11:00~
End of the Announcement