The Mahathir Science Award Foundation is a Malaysian organization that presents an award for outstanding contributions in science and technology that address issues related to the tropics. [1] [2] The Foundation was established 17 August 2004 in honour of the former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad. [3]
Mahathir bin Mohamad is a Malaysian politician, author, and physician who served as the fourth and seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held office from 1981 to 2003 and later from 2018 to 2020 for a cumulative total of 24 years, making him the country's longest-serving prime minister. Before becoming premier, he served as deputy prime minister and in other cabinet positions. He was a Member of Parliament for Langkawi from 2018 to 2022, Kubang Pasu from 1974 to 2004, and Kota Setar Selatan from 1964 to 1969. His political career has spanned more than 75 years, from joining protests opposing citizenship policies for non-Malays in the Malayan Union in the 1940s to forming the Gerakan Tanah Air coalition in 2022.
Yuan Longping was a Chinese agronomist and inventor. He was a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering known for developing the first hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s, part of the Green Revolution in agriculture. For his contributions, Yuan is known as the "Father of Hybrid Rice".
The Highest Science and Technology Award also known as the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award, State Supreme Science and Technology Award, or China's Nobel Prize is the highest scientific award issued by the President of the PRC to scientists working in China. The award, given annually each January since 2000, is one of the five State Science and Technology Prizes established by the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
Tan Sri Datuk Seri Dr. Fong Chan Onn is a Malaysian politician and a former Minister of Human Resources. He is a former vice-president of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), a component party of the then-ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. He served as a Member of Parliament for Selandar from 1999 to 2004 and Alor Gajah from 2004 until 2013. In 1999, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad appointed him as the Minister of Human Resources.
Hybrid rice is a type of Asian rice that has been crossbred from two very different parent varieties. As with other types of hybrids, hybrid rice typically displays heterosis or "hybrid vigor", so when grown under the same conditions as comparable purebred rice varieties, it can produce up to 30% more yield. To produce hybrid seeds in large quantity, a purebred sterile rice variety is fertilized with fertile pollen from a different variety. High-yield crops, including hybrid rice, are one of the most important tools for combatting worldwide food crises.
Datin Paduka Marina binti Tun Dr. Mahathir is a Malaysian socio-political activist and writer. She is the eldest child of the 4th and 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Mahathir Mohamad and Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali. She graduated from the University of Sussex.
Malaysia–Russia relations are the bilateral foreign relations between the two countries, Malaysia and Russia. Russia has an embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and Malaysia has an embassy in Moscow.
Ungku Zeti Akhtar binti Ungku Abdul Aziz was the 7th Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, Malaysia's central bank. She served as Governor from 2000 to 2016, and was the first woman in the position and at 16 years, the longest to hold the position. Zeti was one of the members of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) in Mahathir Mohamad's second term, a special advisory council advising the government on economic and financial matters during this transitional period.
Ravindra Kumar is a Political Scientist, Peace Educator, an Indologist, a Humanist, Cultural Anthropologist and a former Vice-Chancellor of CCS University, Meerut (India).
The Confucius Peace Prize was a Chinese alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize established in 2010 by the Association of Chinese Indigenous Arts in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The prize was created in response to a proposal by businessman Liu Zhiqin that criticized the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. The chairman of the committee said that the award existed to "promote world peace from an Eastern perspective", and Confucian peace specifically. The original cash prize given to the winner in 2010 was ¥100,000 RMB (US$15,000).
The Asian Science Camp (ASC) is an annual forum for pre-collegiate and college students which aims at promoting discussion and cooperation among Asian students for the betterment of science in the Asian region. The first ASC was held at Taipei in 2007, and was subsequently held at Bali (2008), Tsukuba (Japan) (2009), Mumbai (2010), Daejeon (South Korea) (2011), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Jerusalem, Israel) (2012). This idea of an annual camp was co-proposed by Yuan Tseh Lee and Masatoshi Koshiba at the 2005 Nobel Laureate Meetings at Lindau. The ASC is modeled after the Lindau meetings.
Rajeev Kumar Varshney is an Indian agricultural scientist, specializing in genomics, genetics, molecular breeding and capacity building in developing countries. Varshney is currently serving as Director, Western Australian State Agricultural Biotechnology Center; Director, Centre for Crop & Food Innovation; and International Chair in Agriculture & Food Security with the Food Futures Institute at Murdoch University, Australia since Feb 2022. Before joining Murdoch University, Australia he served International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a global agriculture R&D institute, for more than 16 years in different scientific and research leadership roles including Research Program Director for three global research programs– Grain Legumes, Genetic Gains and Accelerated Crop Improvement Program. He has the onus of establishing and nurturing the Center of Excellence in Genomics & Systems Biology (CEGSB), a globally recognized center for genomics research at ICRISAT that made impacts on improving agriculture and development of human resources in several countries including India, China, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, etc. Varshney holds Adjunct/Honorary/Visiting Professor positions at 10 academic institutions in Australia, China, Ghana, Hong Kong and India, including The University of Western Australia, University of Queensland, West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement, University of Hyderabad, Chaudhary Charan Singh University and Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University.
Asian Scientist is an English language science and technology magazine published in Singapore.
The Nikkei Asia Prize is an award which recognizes the achievements of people and organizations that have improved the lives of people throughout Asia. The awards were created and presented by Nikkei Inc, one of the largest media corporations in Japan.
Events in 2016 in Malaysia.
Kerrie Ann Wilson is an Australian environmental scientist and the Pro Vice-Chancellor at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Wilson is also an affiliated professor in conservation science at the University of Copenhagen, honorary professor at The University of Queensland, a member of the Australian Heritage Council and the Australian Natural Sciences Commissioner for UNESCO.
Biswajeet Pradhan is a spatial scientist, modeller, author and who is now working as a Distinguished Professor and the founding Director of the Centre for Advanced Modelling and Geo-spatial Information Systems (CAMGIS), Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. He is working primarily in the fields of remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), complex modelling, machine learning and Artificial intelligence (AI) based algorithms and their application to natural hazards, natural resources and environmental problems. Many of his research outputs were put into practice. His research platform is mainly Asia and Australia, and he has been sharing his findings worldwide. He is also a permanent resident of Australia and Malaysia.