The Award Ceremony of the 2023 WLA Prize. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The 2024 World Laureates Association Prize (WLA Prize) officially opened for nominations on March 1. Nominators may access the official website of the WLA Prize - www.thewlaprize.org - where they can follow the guidelines to submit nominations, announced by the prize management committee on the same day.

The nomination deadline is June 15, Beijing time. Announcement of the winning laureates is scheduled in late August or early September, followed by a grand award ceremony during the 7th WLA Forum in Shanghai, in October, said the committee.

Unveiled at the 4th WLA Forum on Nov 1, 2021, the WLA Prize is an international science prize initiated by the World Laureates Association (WLA), managed by the WLA Foundation, and exclusively funded by HongShan.

The 2024 WLA Prize, which opens for nominations on March 1, is scheduled to announce the winners in late August or early September, followed by the award ceremony in late October. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The prize is awarded annually and features two categories: "Computer Science or Mathematics" and "Life Science or Medicine". The total award for each prize, which may be divided among up to four laureates, is 10 million yuan ($1.39 million).

Nominations will be first evaluated by the selection committee for every single prize, after which shortlisted candidates will be submitted to the awards committee for the final decision. The awards committee will have a majority vote on the best nominees. The final decision will be confirmed and announced by the management committee composed of world laureates, including Nobel laureates and Turing laureates.

All together seven scientists including US mathematician Michael I. Jordan have been awarded the WLA Prize since its establishment.

The 2024 WLA Prize opens for nominations on March 1. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Randy Schekman, Chair of the 2024 WLA Prize Selection Committee for Life Science or Medicine, and 2013 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine said that the WLA Prize was set up "to identify people who have achieved great discoveries but who have not yet been recognized internationally", and he thought "more of these international prizes should be more original in doing the same".

Jordan, who currently also serves as Chair of the 2024 WLA Prize Selection Committee for Computer Science or Mathematics, said since there were no Nobel Prizes in Mathematics or Computer Science, the WLA Prize aimed to "fill that important gap".

"We hope that the prize not only fosters this multi-disciplinary integration but also inspires budding talents to delve into the emerging intellectual challenges of applied mathematics," said Jordan, one of the two inaugural WLA Prize winners in 2022.