Premiere: Documentaries of 2018 Tang Prize Laureates

Sponsored by the Tang Prize Foundation and produced by the China Television Company, a series of documentaries about the 2018 Tang Prize laureates in Sustainable Development, Rule of Law, Biopharmaceutical Science, and Sinology will be premiered on Youtube, CTI, and CTV channels starting from November 3, 2018. The stories are about a group of relentless researchers who have spent their entire lives in shaping a brighter future for the world.

Sustainable Development

In 1988, Dr. James E. Hansen announced in televised testimony before the US Congress that “global warming is here,” as the observed temperature record exhibited an anomalous rise above the statistical noise of natural fluctuations. Dr. Hansen’s testimony “was an important turning point in the history of global climate change.” Believing that “it’s not too late” to avert climate disaster, he became an activist protesting against the Keystone oil pipeline and delivered speeches to spread the urgent message that the world must take immediate action to address global warming.

Born in India, Prof. Veerabhadran Ramanathan is recognized for his 1975 finding which showed that chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, are powerful drivers of the greenhouse effect. Asked by a shy African girl about any action taken against the runway climate change, Prof. Ramanathan therefore launched projects aimed to mitigate the negative impact of global warming on the world’s poorest 3 billion people, who have no say in the matter. One of his projects was launched in March 2009 to help people in rural India use inexpensive solar cookers.

The documentary of 2018 Tang Prize in Sustainable Development features the inspiring stories about the two extraordinary scientists and their perspectives on how the world should respond to climate change.

Rule of Law

One of the foremost legal philosophers of our time, Dr. Joseph Raz is celebrated for his analytical achievements in legal, moral and political philosophies. A prolific scholar, he elaborated his views on the rule of law in his book The Authority of Law. With his in-depth knowledge in legal positivism, Dr. Raz produced writings that have been widely-studied and offered thought-provoking insights into the complex relationship between law and morality. Not just a serious scholar, he has a keen sense of humor, especially when talking about photography and the black-and-white photos he took.

The documentary of 2018 Tang Prize in Rule of Law features the story about this highly-regarded legal scholar and the impact he brought to his students.

Biopharmaceutical Science

Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute, Dr. Tony Hunter is renowned for his discovery of protein tyrosine phosphorylation and tyrosine kinases as oncogenes, leading to successful targeted cancer therapies.

Dr. Brian J. Druker, Director of Oregon Health Sciences University Knight Cancer Institute, is the physician scientist who led the successful clinical trial of imatinib (Gleevec®) on chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), which opened up the field of TKI as targeted therapy.

President Emeritus of MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. John Mendelsohn and his team conceived the idea that antibodies targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) may be an effective strategy for cancer treatment. They conducted preclinical research and proceeded to develop the anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab (Erbitux®). His effort to promote it into clinics eventually won the approval of the US FDA for the treatment of colon cancer and head/neck cancer. This was the first clinically approved therapy using an antibody to inhibit the tyrosine kinase of a growth factor receptor, and a trail-blazer which has spurred many others to follow.

The documentary of 2018 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science features the great stories about the three medical experts and their research that has laid an important foundation for the development of precision medicine and clinical trials involving targeted therapies.

Sinology

A professor at Harvard University and recipient of the James Bryant Conant University Professorship, Dr. Stephen Owen is a leading scholar of Tang dynasty (618-907) poetry. His penetrating scholarship and theoretical ingenuity in Classical Chinese prose and poetry unearthed new facets of Chinese literary history and helped bring classical poetry to Western audiences.

Awarded the Order of Culture by the Emperor of Japan in 2017, Dr. Yoshinobu Shiba is renowned for his groundbreaking research on regional and economic history during the Song dynasty (960-1127). He innovatively combined the fortes of the Japanese Sinological tradition with that of the Western social sciences to look into the Chinese economy and its developments in the context of politics, society, and culture as a whole, thus inaugurating a whole new field of research.

The documentary of 2018 Tang Prize in Sinology features the engaging stories about the two masters and how they promoted Sinology and conducted cross-culture research.

Broadcast Information

The documentaries of 2018 Tang Prize Laureates will be premiered on November 3-4 and November 10-11 on CTI News (CH 52) and the Tang Prize Foundation’s official website. They will also be aired on CTI (USA), ZWTV (LA), CTV News, CTI Asia, and CTV. For more telecasting information, please visit http://www.tang-prize.org. All the documentaries are open access resources. To display the documentaries publicly, please contact the Tang Prize Foundation at +886-2-8772-5188.

Telecasting Information