Shanghai Science Prize Honours 11 Researchers, Adds Awards for Young Talent

The 2026 World Laureates Foundation Prize, announced in Shanghai on Thursday, awarded 26 million yuan (US$ 3.8 million) to 11 scientists for research in mathematics, cell biology, next-generation batteries, and artificial intelligence.

This year's awards include six inaugural prizes for young scientists. Eight of the 11 laureates are of Chinese descent, working at institutions in China and overseas.

Yuan Junying, Wang Xiaodong, Shao Feng, and Vishva Dixit shared the World Laureates Foundation Prize in Life Science or Medicine. They will share RMB10 million for discovering the molecular pathways of different types of programmed cell death and their effects on health and disease.

Their research transformed cell death from an observed biological phenomenon into molecular processes, laying the groundwork for disease mechanisms and treatments.

Yuan is affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Biology and Chemistry at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Wang and Shao work at Beijing's National Institute of Biological Sciences, while Dixit is with US biotechnology company Genentech.

Ingrid Daubechies of Duke University won the World Laureates Foundation Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics for her leadership in international mathematics and contributions to applied harmonic analysis, wavelet theory, and image compression. She received 10 million yuan.

Her work provides mathematical tools for analyzing images and signals at different scales, helping represent complex information efficiently. Those foundations underpin applications in imaging and digital data technologies.

The new WLF Prize for Young Scientists recognizes six researchers, each receiving one million yuan.

Ten additional young researchers were named finalists. The youth category is open globally to candidates aged 40 or younger as of January 1 of the selection year, without restrictions on research field, nationality or gender.

HongShan funds the World Laureates Foundation-founded prize, with support from the Shanghai Lingang Science and Technology Innovation and Development Foundation.

In its fifth year, the program connects established scientific leaders with emerging researchers to help Shanghai become an international science and technology innovation center.

The award ceremony will take place during the World Laureates Forum, scheduled for October 30–November 1 at Shanghai's Lingang Center. Laureates will join discussions under the theme "New Science Paradigm: Breakthrough for the Next Decade."