The Yidan Prize (/i:dan/) is a prize founded in 2016 by Chen Yidan for "contributions to education research and development". The prize is financed and governed by a HK$2.5 billion (about US$320 million) independent trust. [1] [2] [3] [4] It is a global, inclusive education award which recognizes changemakers who inspire progress in education for a better world, and has been referred to as the largest education prize on earth. [5]
The first prize winners were named in September 2017 as Carol S. Dweck and Vicky Colbert. [2] The award ceremony took place during December 2017 in Hong Kong. [6] [7]
The two 2018 winners were Anant Agarwal [8] [9] [10] and Larry Hedges. [10] [11] [12]
Usha Goswami and Sir Fazle Hasan. [13]
The American physicist Carl Wieman was awarded the prize for his work in STEM education and for his research-based improvements to university teaching and the transformation of how science is taught in major universities. When awarded the prize, Wieman stated:
I am thrilled and honored to have the work of my research group recognized in this way. This prize will accelerate our efforts to improve education for students throughout the world.
Lucy Lake and Angeline Murimirwa from Camfed, a Non-governmental organization (NGO) that seeks to eradicate poverty in Africa through the education of girls and the empowerment of young women, were awarded the prize for their contributions to education for girls and education development in Sub-Saharan Africa. [14] Lucy Lake, CEO of the NGO stated:
This Prize brings a spotlight to the power of our growing movement led by young women who are the experts on what it takes for the most marginalized girls to succeed. Together, we will launch our ambition to support five million girls in school, and it will be game-changing.
The prize for Education Research was awarded to Eric A. Hanushek, the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, while the prize for Education Development was awarded to Dr. Rukmini Banerji, CEO of Pratham Education Foundation. [15]
Michelene Chi [17] and Shai Reshef. [18]
The Yidan Prizes consist of a medal, a cash prize of HK$15 million and a project fund of HK$15 million to each of the two winners. It is supported by a US$320 million endowment. [19] Prizes are awarded at the annual Yidan Prize Awards Presentation Ceremony in conjunction with an education conference. [10]
Nominations may be submitted by universities, government agencies, and think tanks [20] and are reviewed by a committee involving Kōichirō Matsuura, Andreas Schleicher and Dorothy Gordon. [10] [21]
In 2017 the Yidan Prize Foundation released a Worldwide "Educating for the Future" Index [22] (researched by the Economist Intelligence Unit) [23] comparing the education in 35 developed and developing economies (ranking by 16 indicators of education policy, "teaching environment" and "socio-economic environment"), [24] placing New Zealand and Canada in the top two places. [25]
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and science.
Carl Edwin Wieman is an American physicist and educationist at Stanford University, and currently the A.D White Professor at Large at Cornell University. In 1995, while at the University of Colorado Boulder, he and Eric Allin Cornell produced the first true Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) and, in 2001, they and Wolfgang Ketterle were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Wieman currently holds a joint appointment as Professor of Physics and Professor in the Stanford Graduate School of Education, as well as the DRC Professor in the Stanford University School of Engineering. In 2020, Wieman was awarded the Yidan Prize in Education Research for "his contribution in developing new techniques and tools in STEM education." citation.
Sir Li Ka-shing is a Hong Kong billionaire business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the senior advisor for CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings, after he retired from the Chairman of the Board in May 2018; through it, he is a port investor, developer, and operator of the largest health and beauty retailer in Asia and Europe. As of July 2023, Li is the 33rd richest person in the world, with an estimated net wealth of US$37.7 billion.
Eric Allin Cornell is an American physicist who, along with Carl E. Wieman, was able to synthesize the first Bose–Einstein condensate in 1995. For their efforts, Cornell, Wieman, and Wolfgang Ketterle shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001.
David Ross Cheriton is a Canadian computer scientist, businessman, philanthropist, and venture capitalist. He is a computer science professor at Stanford University, where he founded and leads the Distributed Systems Group.
Theodor Wolfgang Hänsch is a German physicist. He received one-third of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for "contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique", sharing the prize with John L. Hall and Roy J. Glauber.
Steven Chu is an American physicist and former government official. He is a Nobel laureate and was the 12th U.S. secretary of energy. He is currently the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University. He is known for his research at the University of California, Berkeley, and his research at Bell Laboratories and Stanford University regarding the cooling and trapping of atoms with laser light, for which he shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William Daniel Phillips.
Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi is an American chemist and Nobel laureate, known for her wide-ranging work spanning both chemistry and biology. She coined the term "bioorthogonal chemistry" for chemical reactions compatible with living systems. Her recent efforts include synthesis of chemical tools to study cell surface sugars called glycans and how they affect diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and viral infections like COVID-19. At Stanford University, she holds the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professorship in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Bertozzi is also an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and is the former director of the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Carol Susan Dweck is an American psychologist. She holds the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professorship of Psychology at Stanford University. Dweck is known for her work on motivation and mindset. She was on the faculty at the University of Illinois, Harvard, and Columbia before joining the Stanford University faculty in 2004. She was named an Association for Psychological Science (APS) James McKeen Cattell Fellow in 2013, an APS Mentor Awardee in 2019, and an APS William James Fellow in 2020, and has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2012.
The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States.
The Barcelona School of Economics (BSE) is an institution for research and graduate education in economics, finance, data science, and the social sciences located in Barcelona, Spain.
Anant Agarwal is an Indian computer architecture researcher. He is a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he led the development of Alewife, an early cache coherent multiprocessor, and also has served as director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He is the founder and CTO of Tilera, a fabless semiconductor company focusing on scalable multicore embedded processor design. He also serves as the CEO of edX, a joint partnership between MIT and Harvard University that offers free online learning.
Gurdev Singh Khush is an Agronomist and Geneticist who, along with mentor Henry Beachell, received the 1996 World Food Prize for his achievements in enlarging and improving the global supply of rice during a time of exponential population growth.
Lui Che Woo, GBM, MBE, JP (Chinese: 呂志和; Sidney Lau: Lui5 Ji3 Woh6; born 9 August 1929) is a Hong Kong business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is a member of the standing committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Jiangmen, People's Republic of China, and is a Hong Kong gambling magnate, founder and chairman of listed firms Galaxy Entertainment Group and K. Wah International Holdings Ltd. As of June 2021, he had an estimated net worth of US$19.0 billion and ranked the fourth richest man in Hong Kong according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
edX is an American for-profit online education platform owned by 2U since 2021. The platform's main focus is to manage a variety of offerings, including elite brand bootcamps.
Chen Yidan, also known as Charles Chen, is a Chinese internet entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Tencent, founder of the Chen Yidan Charity Foundation, and founder of the Yidan Prize Foundation.
Vicky Colbert is a Colombian social entrepreneur.
The VinFuture Prize is an annual international award that honors remarkable scientific breakthroughs and promotes innovations for mankind, with involvement from scientists, policymakers, business leaders, and prize holders. It is the first influential and worldwide prize to be founded in Vietnam, and it is hosted by the VinFuture Foundation.
