The National University of Singapore’s Department of History has introduced the first prize devoted to the Republic of Singapore’s history, launched as part of the nation’s SG50 celebrations in 2014. Created to stimulate an engagement with Singapore’s past and to make it more accessible to non-academic audiences, the NUS Prize will be awarded every three years. Six compelling publications have been shortlisted for this year’s award, with the winner to receive S$50,000.
The inaugural Singapore Prize was sparked by an appeal in April by Professor Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS, to support a prize “for scholarly work that genuinely engages with Singapore’s unique history and makes it more accessible to non-academic readers”. Mahbubani is the founder and managing trustee of the S$500,000 Singapore Prize Endowment Fund, which will manage the NUS Prize and award it every three years.
This year’s shortlisted works include a memoir about a family’s odyssey through war, recession and political upheaval; a narrative of the emergence of a Singapore-based company; and an exploration of the country’s relationship with the sea. The NUS Prize will be adjudicated by a distinguished Jury Panel that includes Emeritus Professor John Miksic of the NUS Department of Southeast Asian Studies; Prof Tan Tai Yong, President of NUS; Professor Peter A. Coclanis, Director, Global Research Institute, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and economist Dr Lam San Ling. The winner will be announced towards the end of October 2024.
NUS also recently launched the Singapore Prize for History, a biennial award for outstanding publication that has made an important contribution to the understanding of the history of Singapore and its people. The NUS Singapore Prize for History is open to both local and foreign authors, and a panel will select the winner each year.
A maker of solar-powered dryers, a soil carbon marketplace and groups that make electric car batteries cleaner and restore Andean forests have been among the 15 finalists of this year’s Earthshot Prize, Britain’s Prince William has said. William, who is a trustee of the charity that launched the 10-year award program, said at the ceremony in Singapore that the solutions presented by the finalists showed that “hope does remain” as climate change continues to impact the world.
The other winners included a young woman who runs a community garden in her village, an author and translator who specializes in Chinese fiction, and a comic artist who sparked laughter with his self-published story about a chicken from another dimension who ends up stranded on Earth. The winning teams will participate in an upcoming event in Singapore, hosted by the Earthshot Foundation and the government-backed MediaCorp, to explore opportunities for amplifying their solutions and bringing about real-world changes to help repair our planet. The event will be streamed online. Click for more information. The finalists were also interviewed by CNN’s Jason Hanna.