The City of Singapore provides an award every two years in recognition of achievements that create liveable, sustainable, and vibrant cities. For 2020’s prize, Vienna won and you can read about their compelling application here.
On March 14 at Media Corp’s theatre, Prince William and other presenters walked a “green carpet.” As per sustainability theme, he donned his 10-year-old Alexander McQueen dark green blazer while South African actress Mbatha donned an eco-friendly gown from Stella McCartney (renowned for eco-friendly clothing design).
Prof Mahbubani wrote an opinion column appealing for Singapore philanthropists to donate cash in order to award the best book written on Singapore history with cash rewards. Her plea was successful; an anonymous donor contributed S$500,000 and now self-supports this fund which now annually awards one prize, in this year’s case going to Prof Miksic’s work Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea 1300-1800 from NUS Press published by him; out of 29 submissions it was selected as winner by four-member panel; shortlisted titles included books about Sarong Kebaya, NUS East Asian Institute as well as Bukit Ho Swee fire in 1994 by four-member panels.
To be eligible for the Singapore Prize, works must cover any time period, theme or field related to Singapore history and must be written or co-written by any new and established authors alike. Books-length works should also be accessible to the general public and written in one of Singapore’s four official languages – translations may also be acceptable provided they can legally deposit them with the National Library Board.
As well as promoting research and development in Singapore, this prize aims to promote it as an international hub of science and technology. To be awarded this honor will require extraordinary contributions made towards Singapore’s S&T ecosystem and international stature; achievements which should have received widespread acknowledgement by other S&T practitioners and significantly raised Singapore’s S&T capabilities.
Singapore City has in the past awarded other prizes to recognize achievements in science and technology, such as an innovation prize awarded in 2022 to researchers who helped develop an A(H7N9) vaccine vaccine vaccine.
Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize recognizes outstanding contributions and achievements that foster liveable, sustainable and vibrant urban communities. In 2020 Vienna was honored with this prestigious prize – read all about their impressive application here. The next winner will be revealed in 2022.