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International royalsSaudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Khaled reveals winners of the 2019 King Faisal Prize

Saudi Arabian Prince Khaled Al-Faisal has revealed the winners of the 2019 King Faisal Prize.

The prize recognises significant individual and institutional contributions to fields including Service to Islam, Islamic studies, medicine and science, and Arabic language and literature.

The prizes were awarded from committees who had international scientists and experts in their fields. The Prize first began in 1979 and has grown in scale and categories since then.

The International Unversity of Africa, based in Sudan, was recognised for their service to Islam on their contributions to spreading the Arabic language in Africa. The University operates several colleges outside Sudan is an institution in Islamic sciences, as well as raising awareness of the teachings of the Islamic religion. The university also boasts the largest Islamic library in African languages.

The Medicine Prize was jointly awarded to Professor Bjorn Reino Olsen who was awarded the prize on his work on Bone Biology and Osteoporosis and the identification of some mutations in bones. It was also awarded to Professor Teitelbaum who helped develop a novel approach to osteoporosis that helped establish a new family of drugs.

The Prize for Science was awarded to Professor Allen Joseph Bard for his work in the field of electrochemistry. The Prize Jury acknowledged that his findings have a significant impact on all disciplines of chemistry. Professor Bard invented an electrochemical Microscope in 1987 and has published over 1000 papers.

Professor Jean M.J.J Frechet was also awarded the Prize in Science for groundbreaking work. He helped develop the Grant Wilson concept, which helped bring about new technology that all microelectronic devices have been based on since.

The Prize for Arabic Language and Literature was shared by Dr Abdelali Mohamed Oudrhiri from Morocco and Dr Mahmod Fahmy Hegazi from Egypt. They shared the prize on the topic of contemporary challenges to the Arabic Language. Dr Oudhiri is a professor at the University of Mohammed V, as well as secretary general of the Moroccan Linguistic Union while Dr Hegazi served as President of the Egyptian University in Kazakhstan, as well as Director of the Arabic Language Center at Cairo University.

The award for Islamic studies was not awarded this year, as no candidates work met the criteria for winning it.