Since the outbreak of COVID-19, more than 530 million inflections have been reported globally. With the virus still raging in many countries, the world is suffering from supply chain disruptions and decade-high inflation, which has been exacerbated by the rising food and fuel prices due to regional conflicts. Political tensions in the international community also mean no one country can be immune to the adversities mentioned above. In addition, the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is scheduled to be implemented with a transitional period in 2023, and it is expected that the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan will follow suit soon. How would different governments react to the pressure of achieving net zero by 2050? Six laureates of the 2022 Tang Prize, newly introduced to the public in four press conferences taking place from June 18 to 21, have all shown selfless devotion to the advancement of human civilization and the improvement of the wellbeing of humanity. It is, thus, our sincere belief that their outstanding contributions to their individual disciplines and the insightful views they have expressed can bring stability and new opportunities to a world at a critical juncture at the moment.

In 2022, the Tang Prize in Sustainable Development was awarded to Jeffrey Sachs. A world renowned professor of economics who served as Special Advisor to three UN Secretaries-General, Professor Sachs is currently Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). He has made important contribution to the establishment and promotion of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and was recognized by the Selection Committee for “leading transdisciplinary sustainability science and creating the multilateral movement for its applications from village to nation and to the world.”

As an eminent economist of international distinction, Professor Sachs has conducted ground-breaking research in many areas, such as debt crises, hyperinflations, transition from central planning to market economies, and eradication of extreme poverty. Moreover, when addressing complex issues related to global sustainable development, he combined the fields of global economics, public health, equity and sustainability to pioneer a multidisciplinary approach to solving these problems, transforming sustainable development into an integrated field of study and practice. His outstanding scholarship, advice to world leaders, educational innovation, and efforts in the global advocacy and realization of sustainable development have proven him to be a true leader of great vision, of profound influence, and imbued with deep humanistic concern.

The Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science went to three scientists who played a critical role in the development of SARS-CoV2 mRNA vaccines: Katalin Kariko, Drew Weissman, and Pieter Cullis, “for the discovery of key vaccinology concepts and approaches, leading to successful development mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine,” according to the Selection Committee’s citation. The breakthrough discoveries of these three laureates and the ingenious approaches they pioneered are the key to the rapid and successful development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. While Dr. Kariko and Dr. Weissman found a way to reduce the immunogenicity of mRNA, Prof. Cullis is credited with designing lipid nanoparticles for the delivery of mRNA vaccines. As a result of their efforts, millions of lives have been saved.

The new platform developed by these three scientists is a nucleoside-modified mRNA based vaccine that can evade the immune system, thus preventing the severe inflammation which occurs when in vitro-transcribed mRNA is recognized by immune cells. These mRNA molecules are encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles and delivered effectively into the cells. They then instruct the cell’s machinery to produce harmless pieces of spike protein found on the surface of the coronavirus and initiate a series adaptive immune response, such as triggering B cells to produce antibodies and training T cells to attack infected cells. These techniques not only revolutionized vaccinology but also signaled a paradigm shift in protein therapy. They represent the advent of a new era of RNA-based therapies. Moreover, they can be applied to tackle a variety of diseases, such as to the development of vaccines against other viruses, of tailored-made vaccines against cancer, of vaccines against HIV, or even of vaccines against allergic diseases.

The Prize in Sinology is awarded to Professor Dame Jessica Rawson, “for her gift and mastery of the craft of the visible to read the art and artifacts of Chinese civilization. By giving voice to the ancient world of objects, she has taught generations how to see when they look at things, and her acuity and vast visual learning have given new insight into the world of the lineages, transformations, and migrations of mute things.”

Her contributions show that, besides the written word, there is another talent, another craft, which, by reading the art and artifacts of the world, allows us to interpret and understand distant and ancient societies, with their beliefs and interactions. Professor Rawson has taken this approach in her study of Chinese bronzes and jades, ancient Chinese tombs, and most especially in the exchanges between the peoples of the central China and their neighbors, for example in horse harness, revealing the role of horse-trading with the steppe and along the Silk Road. She has shown that the many regions of Eurasia had their own traditions, their own visual systems, in which artifacts, their materials, their forms and their multiple ornaments were combined in set ways. In reading these combinations, she has been able to follow and illuminate the transmission of visual systems between Eurasia and China. Most recently, Professor Rawson’s work on the introduction of horses from Mongolia to China has led to new ideas on the origins of the Silk Road. In short, her original and trailblazing achievements in the archaeology of China and Inner Asia have revolutionized and broadened our understanding of early contact and exchange between the East and the West.

Professor Cheryl Saunders won the Prize in Rule of Law, for “her pioneering contributions to comparative constitutional law, and in particular her work on constitutions-building in the Asia-Pacific region.” In the citation, the Selection Committee paid tribute to her working methods, noting that she applies “her scholarship to inspire and advise constitution-making exercises, often under challenging circumstances,” and that she “consistently broadens the boundaries of comparative constitutional law scholarship through active engagement, dialogue and collaboration with scholars and political actors at home and abroad.”

As the first woman to be appointed a law professor at the University of Melbourne, Professor Saunders has been made an officer of the Order Australia, awarded the Australian Centenary Medal, and Légion d'Honneur of France, and granted an honorary doctorate from the National University of Cordoba. Currently Laureate Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne, Professor Saunders is not only a pioneer in comparative constitutional studies but also an academic practitioner. She places special emphasis on an inclusive approach to comparative constitutional studies, advocating for incorporating constitutional experience from all over the world into our thinking, which broadens the vision of studies of comparative constitutional law beyond focusing on developments in Europe and North America. Prof. Saunders work is characterized by collaboration with networks of experts and scholars in the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere, bringing community-based talents along the road in countries such as Fiji, East Timor, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Philippines and Bhutan. Through applied knowledge and experience, Professor Saunders has learnt the importance of prioritizing both national ownership and fit with local context, in the interests of effective implementation. To make comparative insights useful, she works with local scholars and practitioners to organize workshops and forums, to identify priorities, issues and options from local perspective. She has made considerable contributions to countries in the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere in terms of assistance with constitution-building and inspired people who want to change society through constitutional reform.

About the Tang Prize

Since the advent of globalization, mankind has been able to enjoy the convenience brought forth by the advancement of human civilization and science. Yet a multitude of challenges, such as climate change, the emergence of new infectious diseases, wealth gap, and moral degradation, have surfaced along the way. Against this backdrop, Dr. Samuel Yin established the Tang Prize in December 2012. It consists of four award categories, namely Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Every other year, four independent and professional selection committees, comprising many internationally renowned experts, scholars, and Nobel winners, choose as Tang Prize laureates people who have influenced and made substantive contributions to the world, regardless of ethnicity, nationality or gender. A cash prize of NT$50 million (approx. US$1.7 million) is allocated to each category, with NT$10 million (approx. US$ 0.35 million) of it being a research grant intended to encourage professionals in every field to examine mankind’s most urgent needs in the 21st century, and become leading forces in the development of human society through their outstanding research outcomes and active civic engagement.

2022 Tang Prize in Rule of Law is awarded to Prof. Cheryl Saunders to recognize “her pioneering contributions to comparative constitutional law, and in particular her work on constitution-building in the Asia-Pacific region”. In the citation, the Selection Committee paid tribute to her working methods, noting that she applies “her scholarship to inspire and advise constitution-making exercises, often under challenging circumstances”, and that she “consistently broadens the boundaries of comparative constitutional law scholarship through active engagement, dialogue and collaboration with scholars and political actors at home and abroad.”

Prof. Saunders was born in today’s Quetta, Pakistan, and settled in Australia when she was five years old. From a university student to a university professor, the progression of her life has always been closely associated with the University of Melbourne, where she become the first woman to be appointed a law professor and where she founded the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies in 1988. She is also former associate dean of the Melbourne Law Masters and former president of the International Association of Constitutional Law. An elected fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and the British Academy, Prof. Saunders has been made an officer of the Order of Australia, awarded the Australian Centenary Medal and Légion d'Honneur of France, and granted an honorary doctorate from the National University of Cordoba. Currently, she is Laureate Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne.

Prof. Saunders is not only a pioneer in comparative constitutional studies but also an academic practitioner. Always taking great interest in constitutional law, she was early to develop a passion for the emerging but often undervalued discipline of comparative constitutional law. In 1988, she set up the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies to increase the international reach of this discipline, an effort that, when she reminisced about it, allowed her to begin “to realize how fascinating it (comparative constitutional law) was and how comparative work could shed light on way that we all do things, including in Australia.” Prof. Saunders places special emphasis on an inclusive approach to comparative constitutional studies, advocating for incorporating constitutional experience from all over the world into our thinking, which broadens the vision of studies of comparative constitutional law beyond focusing on developments in Europe and North America.

Her commitment to comparative constitutional law became the impetus behind her engagement in the making and implementation of constitutional change in the Asia-Pacific region and in other parts of the world. These activities in turn broadened her understanding of constitutional experience around the world and gave her insights into how comparative constitutional knowledge can most usefully be shared. From the 1990s onwards, she was involved in constitution building and other related constitutional discussions in a wide range of regional countries including Fiji, East Timor, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Philippines and Bhutan. In some of these cases, constitution-building was taking place in the most challenging of circumstances, involving transition to democracy from authoritarian rule. In all of them, the issues raised were difficult and important for the wellbeing of the people of the country concerned.

Some of Prof. Saunders engagement in practical assistance of this kind has taken place under the auspices of national or international agencies of various kinds, including International IDEA, with which she has worked for many years, in many parts of the world, including the Middle East and North Africa. In recent years, with colleagues at Melbourne Law School, she has founded the Constitution Transformation Network (ConTransNet) to explore both theoretically and practically the role of constitutions in the current age of global interaction and how constitutions can be made and changed in ways that support their practical effect.

Prof. Saunders’ work is characterized by collaboration with networks of experts and scholars in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere, bringing community-based talents along the road. Constitution-building can be a tortuous journey in which progress is met with setbacks. Through applied knowledge and experience, Prof. Saunders has learnt the importance of prioritizing both national ownership and fit with local context, in the interests of effective implementation. Prof. Saunders always shows full respect for the culture and customs of communities and grassroots decision-making. To make comparative insights useful, she prefers to work with local scholars and practitioners, in workshops and forums, to identify priorities, issues and options from a local perspective. She has made considerable contributions to countries in the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere in terms of assistance with constitution-related problems and has inspired people who want to change society through constitutional reform.

The Asia-Pacific is characterized by its ethnic diversity and large populations, as well as complex histories, cultures, and political systems. While often overlooked in the past, its significance to the rest of the world is only growing as the region increasingly becomes the center of the global economy and geopolitical strategy. From the outset of her long engagement with comparative constitutional law, Professor Saunders has explored how the concept of constitutionalism is put into practice globally and locally, and has sought to pinpoint the challenges facing the working of contemporary constitutional orders. In addition, Prof. Saunders carefully analyzes the formal constitutional changes recently taking place in countries in East and South East Asia, the Pacific island states and elsewhere, documenting the implementation of constitutions, the challenges they confront and the insights they offer in a region readily distinguishable from the West by its unique culture, history, and circumstances.

About the Tang Prize

Since the advent of globalization, mankind has been able to enjoy the convenience brought forth by the advancement of human civilization and science. Yet a multitude of challenges, such as climate change, the emergence of new infectious diseases, wealth gap, and moral degradation, have surfaced along the way. Against this backdrop, Dr. Samuel Yin established the Tang Prize in December 2012. It consists of four award categories, namely Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Every other year, four independent and professional selection committees, comprising many internationally renowned experts, scholars, and Nobel winners, choose as Tang Prize laureates people who have influenced and made substantive contributions to the world, regardless of ethnicity, nationality or gender. A cash prize of NT$50 million (approx. US$1.7 million) is allocated to each category, with NT$10 million (approx. US$ 0.35 million) of it being a research grant intended to encourage professionals in every field to examine mankind’s most urgent needs in the 21st century, and become leading forces in the development of human society through their outstanding research outcomes and active civic engagement.

The 2022 Tang Prize in Sinology is awarded to Professor Dame Jessica Rawson, “for her gift and mastery of the craft of the visible to read the art and artifacts of Chinese civilization. By giving voice to the ancient world of objects, she has taught generations how to see when they look at things, and her acuity and vast visual learning have given new insight into the world of the lineages, transformations, and migrations of mute things.”

Her contributions show that, besides the written word, there is another talent, another craft, which, by reading the art and artifacts of the world, allows us to interpret and understand distant and ancient societies, with their beliefs and interactions. Professor Rawson has taken this approach in her study of Chinese bronzes and jades, and most especially in the exchanges between the peoples of the central China and their neighbors, for example in horse harness, revealing the role of horse-trading with the steppe and along the Silk Road. She has shown that the many regions of Eurasia had their own traditions, their own visual systems, in which artifacts, their materials, their forms, and their multiple ornaments were combined in set ways. In reading these combinations, she has, for example, been able to follow and illuminate the transmission of Western classical architectural ornament to Western Asia and then along the Silk Roads to China, where it was adapted for the great Buddhist caves. This exchange was the foundation of a whole new repertory of design in China. In due course this new repertory was taken westwards again by the Mongols. As such visual systems are taken over in new contexts, they leave behind their former messages and gain thereby new associations.

Professor Rawson has also made extensive studies of ancient Chinese tombs which provided a complete afterlife world for the dead. Shang and Zhou period vertical shaft tombs were accompanied by bronze and jade artifacts, which not only gave the dead objects for ritual and status, but also weapons and carriages for war. Many major changes occurred with the Qin. The elaborate burial of the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, not only contained an army of terracotta warriors, but also stables, carriages, court officials, wrestlers, concubines, and images of the heavenly bodies, making the tomb not an image of a universe, but actually creating this universe for the afterlife of its occupant. In this research, Professor Rawson has drawn our attention to the very different approach in ancient China to the notion of images, where the terracotta warriors were in the Emperor’s eyes a complete army for warfare in the afterlife.

Professor Rawson’s contributions to the field of Sinology extend beyond original and trailblazing scholarly contributions. Her tireless efforts to develop and promote exchange in the field of Sinology as well as help the public better understand Chinese civilization are equally laudable. Starting out as a museum curator, she has long been both a practitioner and an academic, and the impact of her curated exhibitions has long been evident to all. Even after moving to the University of Oxford after 28 years of service at the British Museum, she continued to present the diversity of Chinese culture to the public through enlightening exhibitions including China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795. Held at the Royal Academy of Arts from 2005 to 2006, this exhibition took us back to imperial China, to the reigns of three of the most powerful Qing emperors, to explore the artistic and cultural riches of this period and their vivid connotations.

Born in London and educated at the University of Cambridge and the University of London, Professor Rawson is currently Professor of Chinese Art and Archeology at the University of Oxford, and previously served as the first female Warden of Merton College from 1994 to 2010 and Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 2006 to 2010. Professor Rawson has expanded the study of Chinese culture and civilization both on and off campus. From 2011 to 2016, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, she collaborated with Chinese scholars and led a major transnational research project titled, “China and Inner Asia: Cultural Exchange that Transformed China (1000-200 BC)” to investigate newly excavated sites and artifacts to study the interaction of northern China with the Mongolian and South Siberian Steppe. On campus, she has facilitated academic exchanges between scholars from around the world and nurtured students of various cultural backgrounds, many of whom have become leading scholars in the field of Chinese art and archaeology. Of particular note is her contribution to furthering Sinological research at Oxford. She bid and received a ten-year grant to support the development of the study of contemporary China, which enabled the appointment of two senior and two junior academic positions, leading to the expansion of posts in the study of China. This was one of the moves that contributed to the foundation of the Oxford University China Centre in May 2008.

When it comes to recognition, Professor Rawson’s career has been marked by honors. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002 for her contribution to Oriental Studies. In 2012, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as an International Honorary Member and received the 2017 Charles Lang Freer Medal for her lifetime work in Chinese art and archaeology. And now, we award the 2022 Tang Prize in Sinology to Professor Rawson for her remarkable contributions that created a new dimension in the study of Chinese art and archaeology, deepening our understanding of the growth of Chinese civilization.

About the Tang Prize

Since the advent of globalization, mankind has been able to enjoy the convenience brought forth by the advancement of human civilization and science. Yet a multitude of challenges, such as climate change, the emergence of new infectious diseases, wealth gap, and moral degradation, have surfaced along the way. Against this backdrop, Dr. Samuel Yin established the Tang Prize in December 2012. It consists of four award categories, namely Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Every other year, four independent and professional selection committees, comprising many internationally renowned experts, scholars, and Nobel winners, choose as Tang Prize laureates people who have influenced and made substantive contributions to the world, regardless of ethnicity, nationality or gender. A cash prize of NT$50 million (approx. US$1.7 million) is allocated to each category, with NT$10 million (approx. US$ 0.35 million) of it being a research grant intended to encourage professionals in every field to examine mankind’s most urgent needs in the 21^st century, and become leading forces in the development of human society through their outstanding research outcomes and active civic engagement.

After the 2014 and 2016 winners for the Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Sciences were crowned the Nobel Prize in 2018 and 2020 respectively, this category has continued to garner much attention worldwide. After much waiting, names of the latest winners were finally announced at ten (GMT+8) in the morning of June 19. This year’s award went to three scientists who played a critical role in the development of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines: Katalin Kariko, Drew Weissman, and Pieter Cullis, “for the discovery of key vaccinology concepts and approaches, leading to the successful development of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine,” according to the selection committee’s citation.

Since November 2019 when the pandemic began, COVID-19 has been disrupting everyone’s life for more than two years, posing a grave threat to human health and life, and causing severe damage to the global economy. The World Health Organization’s statistics show that up to the moment, more than 520 million COVID infections and about 6.27 million deaths have been recorded around the world. Fortunately, it took Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna less than 12 months to successfully develop vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. As a result, millions of lives have been saved, to which the groundbreaking contributions made by these three laureates cannot be ignored. While Dr. Kariko and Dr. Weissman found a way to reduce the immunogenicity[i] of mRNA, Dr. Cullis is credited with designing lipid nanoparticles for the delivery of mRNA vaccines.

There are two major challenges when it comes to delivering RNA into the human body. First, RNA triggers innate immune responses. Second, it is easily degradable, and hence difficult to reach the target cells or organs. The new platform developed by these three scientists is a nucleoside-modified[ii] mRNA-based vaccine that can evade the immune system, thus preventing the severe inflammation which occurs when in vitro-transcribed mRNA is recognized by immune cells. These mRNA molecules are encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles and delivered effectively into the cells. They then instruct the cell’s machinery to produce harmless pieces of spike protein found on the surface of the coronavirus and initiate a series of adaptive immune responses such as triggering B cells to produce antibodies and training T cells to attack infected cells

The breakthrough discoveries of the three laureates and the ingenious approaches they pioneered are key to the rapid and successful development of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. These techniques not only revolutionized vaccinology but also signaled a paradigm shift in protein therapy. They represent the advent of a new era of RNA-based therapies. Unlike traditional methods that take a long time and a lot of money to develop vaccines, these new mRNA techniques turn cells into factories where proteins that serve as antigens or therapeutic molecules can be produced. Mass-manufacturing vaccines at relatively low cost became possible. Moreover, they can be applied to tackle a variety of diseases, such as to the development of vaccines against other viruses, of tailored-made vaccines against cancer, of vaccines against HIV, or even of vaccines against allergic diseases.

Dr. Kariko was educated in Hungary and moved to the US in 1985. She was especially interested in RNA and its chemical synthesis for efficient protein expression in cells in vitro and in vivo. With systematic rigor, she has solved several problems related to the use of RNA in vaccinology and therapy. During the 1990s, as a research associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, she devoted herself to the development of in vitro-transcribed messenger RNA (mRNA) for protein therapies. For that, she needed to understand the mechanism of the immune response mediated by RNAs. Together with her colleague, Dr. Weissman, she showed that mRNA is recognized by Toll-like receptors[iii], thus participating in the innate immune response, and the injection of mRNA into animals caused severe inflammation. However, they found that if the nucleosides of the mRNA were modified like selected nucleosides in naturally occurring RNA, the mRNA did not elicit such responses. Eventually, they were able to identify key modifications. This critical finding enabled them to create stealth RNAs that do not cause inflammation. Since 2013, Dr. Kariko has been associated with BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals, first as a vice president and as its senior vice president in 2019. She was also involved in the development of its COVID-19 vaccine.   

Dr. Weissman is the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research at the University of Pennsylvania, where he started his laboratory in 1997 to develop vaccine against HIV. Prior to that, he worked at America’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) on HIV-related research. In collaboration with Dr. Kariko, he started studying RNA as vaccines. In 2005, they published their pivotal discovery that nucleoside-modified RNAs are non-immunogenic. Since then, Dr. Weissman has been actively engaged in the application of this technology to the development of RNA vaccines against infections by viruses such as HIV and Zika virus. The collaboration between Dr. Weissman, an immunologist, and Dr. Kariko, an RNA technology scientist, led to many significant discoveries. Together, they hold the U.S. patent for the application of the non-immunogenic, nucleoside-modified RNA that built a strong foundation for the development of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna covid-19 mRNA vaccines.

Dr. Cullis, who has a PhD in physics, is a pioneer developer of lipid nanoparticles and a professor at the University of British Columbia. He is also a leader in the studies of membrane structure and function at the molecular level for the development of effective therapeutic agents. He created nanoparticles composed of pH-sensitive, cationic lipids that can induce the formation of non-bilayer structures and can carry DNA and RNA-based anionic macromolecules. Therefore, we can get these nanoparticles to encapsulate and store nuclear acid-based drugs as well as release them into cells. This is critical in the development of RNA-based vaccines, as RNA is quite unstable and difficult to be efficiently delivered into cells. Dr. Cullis has focused mostly on the roles of lipids in membranes by using model membrane systems which helped give birth to engineered liposomal nanoparticulate (LN or LNP) systems that can deliver conventional and nucleic acid-based drugs. His classical papers have been cited for more than 2000 times each, and a great percentage of FDA-approved or emergency medical usage of lipid nanoparticles have relied on the technology he invented. With his novel technology, Dr. Cullis became the founder of 11 companies. In 2014, he started a collaboration with Dr. Weissman, who was working with BioNTech on RNA vaccines, and Dr. Cullis’ expertise was crucial in creating a delivery system for the vaccines. 

About the Tang Prize

Since the advent of globalization, mankind has been able to enjoy the convenience brought forth by the advancement of human civilization and science. Yet a multitude of challenges, such as climate change, the emergence of new infectious diseases, wealth gap, and moral degradation, have surfaced along the way. Against this backdrop, Dr. Samuel Yin established the Tang Prize in December 2012. It consists of four award categories, namely Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Every other year, four independent and professional selection committees, comprising many internationally renowned experts, scholars, and Nobel winners, choose as Tang Prize laureates people who have influenced and made substantive contributions to the world, regardless of ethnicity, nationality or gender. A cash prize of NT$50 million (approx. US$1.7 million) is allocated to each category, with NT$10 million (approx. US$ 0.35 million) of it being a research grant intended to encourage professionals in every field to examine mankind’s most urgent needs in the 21st century, and become leading forces in the development of human society through their outstanding research outcomes and active civic engagement.