The Tang Prize Master Forum (唐獎大師論壇) will include five presentations from Sept. 19 to Sept. 28, each featuring award-winning global scholars.

Every two years, an independent selection committee of international experts (including Nobel Prize winners) chooses Tang Prize winners whose work has led to substantial contributions to and influence on the world, according to a Sept. 13 press release from the Tang Prize Foundation. The Tang awards honor innovation in four different categories: sustainable development, biotechnology and medicine, sinology, and the rule of law.

This year’s forum will be live-streamed, with presentations held on-site at National Taiwan University, Taipei Medical University, National Cheng Kung University, and National Tsing Hua University.

Professor Cheryl Saunders, the winner of the Tang Prize for the Rule of Law, will open the forum at National Taiwan University on Sept. 19, with a speech connected to the upcoming Taiwan referendum on lowering the voting age to 18. Her presentation, titled “Public Participation in Constitutional Changes: From the Perspective of Comparative Constitutions,” will discuss Taiwan's specific constitutional changes, as well as public participation in constitutional reforms in various other countries.

Dr. Katalin Kariko and Dr. Drew Weissman, winners of the Tang Prize for Biotechnology and Medicine, will follow Saunders with a discussion on “The New Era of mRNA as Medicine” at Taipei Medical University on Sept. 20. Kariko and Weissman, who have collaborated for over 20 years on vaccine development using mRNA technology, will introduce their audience to mRNA therapy and its potential future uses in medicine.

The other 2022 Tang Prize winner in Biotechnology and Medicine, Dr. Pieter Cullis, has also worked on mRNA vaccine technology, with a specific focus on lipid nanoparticle technology (LNP). He will share his experience with gene therapy and discuss the use of LNP in the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine at National Tsing Hua University on Sept. 28.

Tang Prize for Sinology winner Professor Jessica Rawson will present “Bronze, Jade, and Gold: ‘The Language of Things’ and their Contexts” at National Taiwan University on Sept. 21. As a professor of Chinese art and archaeology, Rawson has spent her career studying Chinese culture through the lens of relics, and her presentation will examine how objects reflect social customs and the cultural exchange between East and West.

The final presenter is Professor Jeffrey Sachs, winner of the Tang Prize for Sustainable Development, as well as an economist, the director of Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development, and chairman of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. On Sept. 26 at National Cheng Kung University, he will discuss how Taiwan and the international community can promote sustainable development amidst the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts.

Each Tang Prize winner will be awarded NT$50 million (US$1.62 million), with NT$10 million allocated to funding related to research and educational programs.