Sri Lanka Foundation Intl, USA 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Hong Kong-based scientists Kwok-Yung Yuen and Sri Lanka’s Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris won the prize in life sciences in the 2021 Future Science Prize, alias ‘China’s Nobel Prize’ for their major discoveries of SARS-CoV-1 as the causative agent of the global SARS outbreak in 2003 with impact on combating COVID-19 and emerging infectious diseases.

The Future Science Prize is a privately funded science honor established by a group of widely known and esteemed scientists and entrepreneurs in 2016, aiming at recognizing scientific breakthroughs and innovations in China with long-term significance to the world. The prize is given in three categories with $1 million for each award, namely the Life Science Prize, Physical Science Prize, and Mathematics and Computer Science Prize.

The science committee of the prizes consisted of 23 illustrious scientists, is at the heart of the award selection. Mau-Chung Frank Chang, chairman of the committee, said that the nomination and selection of the prize proceeded similarly to the Nobel Prize system, in which the committee invites international experts as nominators and then solicits evaluation letters from experts in relevant fields of the nominated work. Based on the evaluations, the committee then votes to select the final award winners.

As Sri Lankans, it is a proud moment for us as Professor Malik Peiris is a SL-born renowned Pathologist and virologist at the University of Hong Kong. He was graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, and was awarded the Commonwealth scholarship to pursue his Ph.D. at the University of Oxford. Mother Sri Lanka would definitely become proud of her gem Prof. Malik who is committed to making the lives of humans better on the earth and the world a better place.

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