Culture & Education | Sunday 1 March, 2015 9:29 am |

Winners of the 37th annual King Faisal International Prize will be honoured by HRH King Salman at a glittering ceremony at Al Faisaliah Hotel in Riyadh on Sunday, March 01.

The King Faisal International Prize (KFIP) recognises the outstanding works of individuals and institutions in five categories: Service to Islam, Islamic Studies, Arabic Language and Literature, Medicine, and Science. This year's award winners are Dr Zakir Naik for Services to Islam; Dr Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Kaki for Islamic Studies; Professor Jeffrey Ivan Gordon for Medicine; and Professor Michael Grätzel and Professor Omar Mwannes Yaghi, who were jointly recognized for Science. No prize was awarded in the Arabic Language and Literature category this year.

Prizes consist of a calligraphic certificate; a specially minted 24 carat gold medal; and a cheque for USD 200,000, which is distributed equally if there are joint winners in a particular category.

This year's winners

Dr Zakir Naik is the President of the Islamic Research Foundation in India and one of the world's most renowned non-Arabic speaking Islamic scholars. He was awarded the KFIP for Services to Islam for a lifetime's teaching about Islam, his work on comparative religion, and for founding the Peace Channel, the world's comparative religion TV channel.

Winner of the Islamic Studies category is Dr Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Kaki, a consultant at Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah Development Commission, who was recognised for his research on the cultural heritage of Al-Madinah Al-Munwwarah. His multi-volume treatise combines cultural research, field studies, period and contemporary images, maps and illustrations, making it one of the pre-eminent sources of reference in the field.

Professor Jeffrey Ivan Gordon, Director of the Centre of Genome Sciences and Systems Biology atWashington University in St Louis, USA, was honoured in recognition of his work defining the microbiomes genomic and metabolic role in human health.

Professor Omar Mwannes Yaghi, from the University of California (Berkeley) USA, was recognised for his research into metal organic frameworks and their applications in various fields, including capturing of gases such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen. He shares the Science prize with Professor Michael Grätzel of theSwiss Federal Institute of Technology, who was honoured for his discovery of the development of photo-electrochemical systems for solar energy conversion.