RIYADH, 9 March — Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, will present the prestigious King Faisal International Prizes for 2002 to its winners at a colorful ceremony here today.
The total prize money is SR3.75 million ($1 million), where each winner will receive $200,000 in cash in addition to a 200-gram, 22-carat gold medallion and a certificate summarizing the winner’s work.
In addition to being one of the world’s richest prizes, the King Faisal International Prize ranks prominently among the most prestigious international awards.
The 25-year-old prize is granted annually to scholars and scientists who make significant contributions toward the spread of Islam and welfare of Muslims, Arabic literature, medicine and science.
Following are the winners for 2002:
1. Sheikh Sultan ibn Muhammad Al-Qasimi (Service to Islam Prize)
The ruler of Sharjah and member of the Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Sultan was born in 1939. He took a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from Cairo University in 1971 and a doctorate in history from Exeter University in 1985. He earned a second doctorate in political geography of the Gulf from Durham University in 1999. As a devoted Muslim leader and philanthropist, Sheikh Sultan has fostered numerous educational, social, health care and housing projects that have benefited Muslim communities across the world. He was the honorary member of the Institute of African Studies at Khartoum University. He is the supreme president of the Sharjah University and American University in Sharjah, and a visiting professor at Exeter University. He also worked as education minister in Sharjah from 1971 to 1972.
He has established several institutions including the American University in Sharjah, the Sharjah University, Islamic Museum in Sharjah, Sharjah Science Museum and Sharjah Institute of Arts. Sheikh Sultan is the author of several books, including the Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf, The Division of the Ottoman Empire, The British Occupation of Aden, and John Malcolm and the British Trade Base in the Gulf.
2. Professor Yuri Manin, a Russian and director of the Max-Planck Institute for Mathematics, Bonn, shares the prize for science (mathematics) with American Dr. Peter Williston Shor, a member of the research staff at the Shannon Research Laboratory in the United States.
Professor Manin has been a towering figure in mathematics over the last four decades. His work extends from the most abstract field of number theory to the most practical, dealing with the establishment of secure mathematical foundations for present-day physical theories explaining the structure of matter and the universe.
3. Dr. Peter Williston Shor is an outstanding scientist in the field of computer science. He not only pointed out links between the theory of numbers and that of quantum computers, but also developed intellectual tools to show that quantum computing can tackle difficult problems quicker than contemporary computers. Among these problems is that of resolving a great integral number into its primary factors, the so-called “factoring problem”.
4. Professor Finn Waagstein (Swedish), professor of Cardiology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden, and Professor Eugene Braunwald (American), professor of Cardiology, Harvard Medical School, jointly won the prize for medicine (topic: Pathophysiology of Chronic Heart Failure).
Professor Waagstein, born in 1938, was the first investigator to discover the potential benefit of beta-adrenergic-blocking agents in congestive heart failure. His pursuit of his belief in the beta-blockers, despite skepticism from the medical community, led to a landmark mortality trial. His contribution is the greatest recent breakthrough in heart failure therapeutics. He has published more than 200 research papers on heart diseases.
5. Professor Eugene Braunwald, born in 1929, has been at the forefront of the investigation of congestive heart failure and acute coronary syndromes. Braunwald and his colleagues developed a novel model in animals for congestive heart failure that has been used by many laboratories to evaluate pathophysiologic studies and effects of therapy.
He was among the first to delineate the importance of idiopathic hypertrophied subaortic stenosis and the physiologic abnormalities of his myopathic process. He and Robert Kloner were the first to develop the concept of post-ischaemic left ventricular dysfunction after temporary reduction and coronary flow. This key concept relating to reversible left ventricular dysfunction, its causes, consequences, and opportunities for modulation remains an important issue. He has participated in the publication of over 1,100 research papers.
6. Professor Husam Al-Din Al-Khateeb (Syrian), professor of Arabic Literature, Damascus University, and Professor Husni Mahmoud Hussain (Jordanian), professor of Arabic Literature, Al-Yarmouk University, Jordan, shared the prize for Arabic literature (topic: Contemporary Palestinian literature).
Professor Al-Khateeb, who has received a doctorate in comparison of Arab-European literature, is a prominent Arab intellectual and a pioneering scholar of modern Palestinian literature. His book on Palestinian literary criticism is one of the most important studies in this field. He has also worked as cultural adviser for the presidency, assistant higher education minister and a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He has taken part in a number of conferences and a founding member of the Arab Writers Federation.
7. Professor Husni Mahmoud Hussain (Jordanian) is a prolific writer and historian of Palestinian literature and poetry and is best known for his famous four-volume book on Poetry of the Palestinian Resistance Movement as well as his critical studies and biographies of several modern Palestinian poets and novelists. Born in 1936, Hussain received his doctorate in modern literature from Cairo University. He has worked as associate professor at Algeria University and King Saud University in Riyadh and visiting professor of Al-Ain University in the UAE.
