RIYADH: The winners of the King Faisal Award for the year 2009 were announced last night. The award was given to five recipients from Saudi Arabia, the UK, the United States, Morocco and Russia. Egypt’s Principal Shari’ah Society for Qur’an and Sunnah Scholars was also honored.
The winners were announced by Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, the director of the King Faisal Foundation.
In the Science category, the prize was awarded jointly to Sir Richard Henry Friend of the UK, chairman of the Council of the School of Physical Sciences and Cavendish Professor of Physics, University of Cambridge, and Rashid Alievich Sunyaev of Russia, chief scientist of the Space Research Institute at the Russian Academy of Science and director of the Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany.
Friend pioneered the physics and engineering of semi-conductor devices made of plastic materials. The fabrication of these devices and circuits by ink jet printing that he has introduced is radically different from the traditional manufacturing technology and has paved the way for the development of a wide range of applications of plastic electronic and photonic devices.
Sunyaev has made pioneering and fundamental contributions to astrophysics and cosmology. His theoretical work on the cosmic background radiation laid the foundation for the observational exploration of the structure of the universe. His work on black holes and binary stars was critical in advancing the field of X-ray astronomy.
In the category of Medicine, the prize was granted to Ronald Levy of the US, the head of the Division of Oncology at Stanford University Medical School’s Department of Medicine.
Levy has been recognized for his pioneering studies in cancer immunotherapy. Almost 30 years ago, he developed antibodies that could distinguish between malignant and benign tumor cells. This created a tool for diagnosis and therapy. He showed in 1980 that monoclonal antibodies against a tumor-associated antigen could be employed to treat patients with B cell lymphoma. Many of these patients responded well to the treatment. In the last 11 years the drug he discovered has been used to treat a large number of lymphoma patients with remarkable remission and survival results. In his more recent work Levy has used the patient’s immune system to mount immune responses against the patient’s own cancer cells. The ability of a patient to elicit immune responses against his or her own tumor cells by vaccinating the patient against the malignancy is likely to become a more effective way for longer lasting and more efficient therapy.
In the category of Arabic Language and Literature, the prize went to Abd Al-Aziz Nasir Al-Manie of Saudi Arabia. The professor emeritus of Arabic Literature at King Saud University in Riyadh, Al-Manie was commended for his distinguished efforts in editing, verifying and elucidating several Arabic literary works of the third and seventh century Hijrah.
The prize for Islamic Studies went to Abdessalam M. Cheddadi of Morocco. The professor at the University Research Institute of Mohammad V University in Rabat has been recognized for his studies on the works of Ibn Khaldun, a leading authority in Islamic thought and perceptions of Imran. Cheddadi elucidated the basis, concepts, terminology and types of Imran as conceived by Ibn Khaldun, comparing them to modern social theories and addressing a wider international audience through his writings in different languages.
The prize in the category of Service to Islam has been awarded to the Principal Shari’ah Society for Qur’an and Sunnah Scholars in Egypt in recognition of its outstanding services to Islam and Muslims, which include nearly 100 years of dawa, using the Qur’an and the Sunnah in extending real Islamic teachings and calling for unity among Muslims.
The society’s services in Egypt include holding religious classes and symposia, extending true Islamic teachings and thought through its Internet site, establishing more than 50 institutes for training Muslim preachers, sponsoring students, especially poor students from Egypt and other countries pursuing their education at Al-Azhar and rigorously contesting anti-Islamic propaganda.
The society has also been carrying out a range of social services such as sponsoring orphans, procuring income-generating work for widowed women, in addition to building more than 5,000 mosques and numerous, well-equipped medical centers that provide free medical services. The society’s achievements abroad are primarily focused on helping underprivileged Muslims, especially in Palestine and impoverished Muslim countries in Africa and Asia.
