The inaugural Singapore Prize was established in 2014 to commemorate 50 years of independence in Singapore. As its premier award, this honor recognizes an outstanding publication that has had an indelible mark on Singaporeans’ understanding of national history. Administered by the Department of History at National University of Singapore (NUS), it is distributed every three years.
NUS professor Kishore Mahbubani, chair of the jury panel for this prize award, states its purpose as to foster engagement with Singapore history broadly understood, including pre-1819 history. Additionally, this prize aims to foster appreciation of its unique characteristics while creating an increased sense of national identity among its citizens.
This year, over half of the writers shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize are newcomers to competition. Notable among these first-timers include Yeow Kai Chai and Pooja Nansi of Singapore Writers Festival as well as Mok Zining who writes both English and Malay works. Wang Gungwu and Suratman Markasan each hold an outstanding 91 rating in English creative nonfiction category.
Yeow Kai Chai and Pooja Chan – two nonagenarian poets competing alongside Mok Zining for top honour in poetry – as well as former Singapore poets Daryl Lim Wei Jie and Jee Leong Koh are in competition in this year’s poetry category. Winners will receive cash awards, an engraved trophy and be included on next year’s literary calendar.
William, Duke of Cambridge was in Singapore hosting an awards ceremony for the Earthshot Prize – a 10-year program to accelerate solutions to environmental challenges around the world. At this ceremony, Prince William lauded this year’s 15 finalists, saying their efforts proved that “hope does remain” as we move toward climate change.
Finalists include an Indian producer of solar-powered dryers, a soil carbon marketplace and groups working to make electric car batteries cleaner, restore Andean forests and prevent illegal fishing. The winner of the $50,000 prize will be announced in January 2022.
AI Singapore’s Online Safety Prize Challenge aims to advance AI research in online safety by developing end-to-end classification techniques capable of detecting memes with social bias, an area of harmful online content. This international challenge welcomes both academics and innovators with an interest in contributing to safer communication environments online, particularly regions with limited data about harmful material.
The Harvard Prize Book exists to encourage Singaporean students to see Harvard as an accessible higher education institution. Muhammad Dinie shared how he and his team went around Ang Mo Kio estates giving out food packages, groceries and thank-you cards during the coronavirus pandemic in Town Council cleaner’s homes; additionally they created a Facebook Group for communication among community members as well as connecting them with Harvard in Singapore – for this, Muhammad received a prize. For his efforts he received this year’s challenge prize! For his efforts, Muhammad received this year’s challenge prize; for more details please click here