RIYADH — The 2022 laureates of the renowned King Faisal Prize (KFP) have been announced at a ceremony attended in Riyadh.

Prince Khalid Al Faisal, Advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Emir of Makkah province and Chairman of King Faisal Prize Board, attended the annual event.

KFP Secretary General Dr. Abdulaziz Alsebail said that former Tanzanian President Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Egyptian academic Professor Hassan Mahmoud Al Shafei were named as joint winners of the 2022 King Faisal Prize for outstanding services to Islam.

The prize for Arabic language and literature was awarded jointly to Professor Suzanne Stetkevych, a specialist in classical Arabic poetry at Georgetown University, and Professor Muhsin Al Musawi, a literary critic, scholar, and professor of Arabic literature and cultural studies at Columbia University.

Professor David Ruchien Liu, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University and MIT, was honored in the medicine category.

The prize for science was awarded jointly to Professor Martin Hairer, an Austrian-British mathematician and professor of mathematics at Imperial College London, and Professor Nader Masmoudi, a Tunisian mathematician at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.

The Islamic Studies prize was withheld, as the entries did not meet the criteria set by the committees.

In September, Alsebail said the prize committees select each year a specific topic for each of the prizes.

The prize selection committees include highly-qualified specialists, scientists and public figures from 26 different countries.

“Pandemics and Vaccine Development” is the topic for the prize in Medicine and the “Islamic Heritage of Al Andalusia” for the Islamic Studies prize.

The topic for the Arabic Language and Literature Prize is “Classical Arabic Narrative and Modern Theories”, and the Science prize is accorded in the field of “Chemistry”.

The Service to Islam is an appreciation award accorded to someone who has had a prominent role in serving Islam and Muslims, intellectually, scientifically, and socially, through various works, activities, programs, and projects that have made a positive impact on the Muslim community.

The King Faisal Prize, initiated by the King Faisal Foundation (KFF), was established in 1979. Throughout its existence, 275 scientists from 43 countries have been honored in recognition of their outstanding merits and 21 of them went on to win the Nobel Prize. — SG