HONG KONG -- Four scientists were awarded the Shaw Prize Award here on Tuesday for their prominent work in the prize's three categories.

The Astronomy prize went to Shrinivas R Kulkarni, George Ellery Hale Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science at the California Institute of Technology, for his discoveries about millisecond pulsars, gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and other variable or transient astronomical objects.

The Life Science and Medicine prize is awarded in equal shares to Swee Lay Thein from the National Institutes of Health in the United States and Stuart Orkin from Harvard Medical School, for their discovery of the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the fetal-to-adult hemoglobin switch that facilitated treatment for devastating blood diseases affecting millions of people worldwide.

The Mathematical Sciences prize went to Peter Sarnak, Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, for his development of the arithmetic theory of thin groups and the affine sieve by bringing together number theory, analysis, combinatorics, dynamics, geometry and spectral theory.

Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) John Lee said at the awarding ceremony that the outstanding contributions of the laureates and their remarkable insights and innovation open the doors of scientific possibility.

Lee said that the HKSAR government is determined to develop Hong Kong into an international innovation and technology center. Like the Shaw Prize Foundation, and the laureates they honored, Hong Kong is determined to thrive in this ever-changing world and is making good progress, too, Lee added.

Established in 2002, the Hong Kong-based Shaw Prize, an international recognition of remarkable scientific achievements, is managed under the Shaw Prize Foundation and has been awarded annually since 2004. Each prize carries a cash award of 1.2 million U.S. dollars.