Laureates of 2021 Mustafa (pbuh) Prize announced

TEHRAN (IQNA) – The laureates of the 4th edition of Mustafa(pbuh) Prize were announced in a press conference on Tuesday.

The 2021 Mustafa(pbuh) Prize Press Conference was held on October 12, 2021 with the presence of the organizers of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize in order to announce the 2021 Mustafa(pbuh) Prize laureates.

Hossein Naderimanesh, a member of the scientific committee of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize, introduced the award winners.

He said Muslims used to be the pioneers of science and technology, following the guidance of Prophet Mohammad(pbuh).

“This prize emphasizes the importance of science in Islam and recognizes Muslims who play a key role in the development of science and technology around the world,” he added.

He referred to Ugur Sahin, one of the laureates of the previous rounds, who contributed extensively to the wellbeing of the humanity by developing the first COVID-19 vaccine almost a year ago.

He said there are two ways through which the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize laureates are selected. One way is that elites nominate scientists. The nominee must have a scientific work which can be in the form of a theory. The second way is that we discover the prominent scientists ourselves.

For this round of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize, “515 works were received on the whole, out of which 484 works entered the primary evaluation and 213 were selected in the secondary evaluation. In the final evaluation, 41 works were chosen. Finally, 5 laureates were selected,” he announced.

“The national jury consisted of more than 100 members. In the final evaluation, 150 international members joined the jury. On the whole, about 250 national and international experts evaluated the received scientific works,” Naderimanesh continued.

“The evaluation process took 20,000 hours,” he added.

The first laureate in the field of All Areas of Science and Technology is Harvard University professor, Cumrun Vafa, for his work “F-Theory.”

“Cumrun Vafa was a candidate of the Fields Prize years ago,” he added.

The second laureate is Zahid Hasan for “Weyl fermion semimetals.”

“Zahid Hasan is originally from Bangladesh who is currently a professor at Princeton University,” he said.

Cumrun Vafa and Zahid Hasan share The Mustafa(pbuh) Prize in the field of Physics from All Areas of Science and Technology.

The next laureate is Mohamed H. Sayegh for “Novel Therapies to Improve Renal and Cardiac Allograft Outcomes” from Lebanon.

Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary for “Discovery of fascinating molecules with therapeutic applications,” is another laureate of this round.

“His expertise is organic chemistry. He has received Khwarizmi Prize from Iran years ago,” Naderimanesh added.

Yahya Tayalati for “Observation of the Light by Light Scattering and the Search for Magnetic Monopoles,” is the next laureate.

“Tayalati’s research has contributed extensively to the realm of dark matter and dark energy,” he highlighted.

Mohamed H. Sayegh, Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary, and Yahya Tayalati are the 2021 Mustafa(pbuh) Prize laureates from Islamic countries.

Naderimanesh said the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize seeks to elevate the position of Muslims in the world.

Mahdi Saffarinia, CEO of the Mustafa(pbuh) Science and Technology Foundation, was another speaker in the Press Conference. He talked about the previous rounds of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize and then the upcoming round.

He emphasized the importance of “the impact of the laureates’ works on the wellbeing of all humanity.”

He announced that the 2021 Mustafa(pbuh) Prize laureates will be awarded next week on Thursday October 21st.

Saffarinia stated that due to the COVID-19 situation, we had limitations in inviting guests for this round of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize; however, “About 50 scientists and scholars from 15 countries will attend the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize week this year.”

These guests will attend the different scientific meetings organized to be held during the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize week. They will give speech at different universities, and some will present their scientific achievements in the 4 Science Cafes, he noted.

He said the guests will also attend the meeting of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize Policy-Making Council which will revolve around the discussion of development of science in Islamic countries.

On Wednesday, they will have a technology meeting which will be held at Pardis Technology Park, he continued.

Saffarinia also talked about the Mustafa(pbuh) Science and Technology Foundation’s programs other than Mustafa(pbuh) Prize: Noor Student Competition, Knowledge Application and Notion for Society (KANS) Competition, Exposure of Industries to Scientists’ Achievements (EISA), and Science and Technology Exchange Program (STEP).

He said that the cash prize which is about a million USD on the whole, is from the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize Investment and Endowment Fund (MPIEF), adding that “around 500 individual and legal entities has contributed to the MPIEF so far.”

“This year for the first time, 20% of the cash prize is awarded in the form of scientific collaborations of laureates with the world,” he added.

Source: MSTF Media