Following last year's series of Tang Prize Week events which featured the 6th cohort of laureates, inspiring various sectors and bringing Taiwan onto the international stage, the Tang Prize Foundation today (May 13) announced further key upcoming activities. These include a public lecture by Dr. Jane Goodall, the 2020 Tang Prize Laureate in Sustainable Development, titled "Inspiring Hope Through Action" in Taiwan on June 8. This will be followed on July 23 by Professor Jens Juul Holst, the 2024 Tang Prize Laureate in Biopharmaceutical Science, who will deliver a Tang Prize Lecture on the opening day of BIO Asia–Taiwan 2025, analyzing the revolutionary breakthroughs of GLP-1 in diabetes treatment. In Sinology, an international workshop for the Tang Prize research grant project led by 2022 laureate Professor Jessica Rawson – "Mobility and Infrastructure in Early Eastern Eurasia" – will be held in Munich, Germany, this mid-May, exploring documentary and archaeological evidence of early Eurasian cultural exchange.
Dr. Jenn-Chuan Chern, CEO of the Tang Prize Foundation, stated that amidst dramatic global turmoil, the importance of the Tang Prize Laureates is increasingly evident. Their innovative contributions and influence in the fields of Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law are guiding humanity towards a sustainable future. Dr. Jane Goodall, now 91, was unable to travel to Taiwan to receive her award in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; therefore, the Foundation made a trip specifically to Singapore last December to present the Tang Prize medal to her personally. "Inspiring Hope Through Action" is Dr. Goodall's only public lecture during her first visit to Taiwan in seven years, making it a rare opportunity. Consequently, the Tang Prize Foundation is actively assisting the Jane Goodall Institute Taiwan in promoting the event, hoping to invite more people to join Dr. Goodall in protecting the environment and conserving wildlife. During her visit, Dr. Goodall will also be invited to tour the Tang Prize Foundation and add her signature to the "Table of Honor," where it will be preserved alongside those of the other Tang Prize Laureates for posterity.
The Tang Prize Lecture series, always a key feature of the BIO Asia Forum (part of the BIO Asia–Taiwan conference series), will be presented this July by Professor Holst during a high-profile plenary session. Recognizing that multiple GLP-1-based therapeutics have become blockbuster drugs for treating type 2 diabetes and obesity, already benefiting hundreds of millions of users worldwide, with vigorous development of new drugs and applications underway, the Foundation is honored to invite Professor Holst this year to share the latest advancements from international academic research and the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Chern further noted that among the laureates of the past six Tang Prize cycles in Biopharmaceutical Science, three later received the Nobel Prize, representing a 50% subsequent Nobel win rate for laureates in this category, highlighting the caliber of the Tang Prize Selection Committee. The committee is currently actively engaged in the nomination and selection process for the next laureates, with the announcement of the 2026 Tang Prize Laureates scheduled over four consecutive days from June 15 to 18, 2026. Past Tang Prize Laureates have also been invited to speak at Tang Prize Lectures hosted by various international conference organizations, including the Experimental Biology (EB), the World Congress of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology (WCP), the Asia Pacific Federation of Pharmacologists (APFP), the International Congress of Cell Biology and Asian-Pacific Organization for Cell Biology (ICCB & APOCB), and the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, sharing their lifelong research achievements with professionals and driving progress in their respective fields.
Furthermore, the Tang Prize research grant is a distinctive feature compared to other major international awards. Each prize category includes a cash prize of NT$50 million (approx. US$1.7 million), with NT$10 million (approx. US$ 0.35 million) is designated as a research grant to support the laureate's extended research or educational projects. Sinology laureate Professor Rawson is utilizing this NT$10 million grant in collaboration with LMU Munich for a five-year large-scale, intercontinental research project titled "Mobility and Infrastructure in Early Eastern Eurasia." Starting this year, international workshops will be held for two consecutive years, bringing together history and archaeology scholars from relevant fields worldwide. The research outcomes will undergo peer review, be compiled into volumes, and published by leading academic presses.
Since the Bronze Age, there has been a gradual increase in interregional interactions within the developing Chinese cultural sphere and between its member societies and those of outlying areas located beyond the territory of present-day China. Professor Rawson aims to take stock of archaeological and epigraphic sources and to draw a broad picture of early Eastern Eurasia as an interconnected space, providing an integral vision of who moved across this vast area and their mobility patterns, the impact of material infrastructure such as roads, vehicles, and herded or draft animals. The study will further analyze how mobile groups interacted with local communities. This research, led by renowned experts guiding younger scholars through workshops and archaeological investigations, carries significant meaning for intergenerational knowledge transfer.
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.
