Speech by FS at Future Science Prize Science Gala Dinner
Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at the Future Science Prize Science Gala Dinner today (November 8):
Professor Dennis Lo (President of Hong Kong Academy of Sciences), Mr Zhang Yichen (Rotating Chairman of the Council of the Future Forum 2026), Future Science Prize Laureates, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good evening. It is a great pleasure to join you tonight, at the Future Science Prize Gala Dinner, celebrating the 10th anniversary edition of the Future Science Prize and this year's Laureates.
I am honoured to welcome to Hong Kong some of the world's finest scientists, many of whom have devoted decades to solving science's most complex theoretical questions and its most challenging practical problems.
There is a classic observation in business: great companies often lose their lead not because they are poorly run, but because they focus too closely on what already works. They serve their biggest customers and improve their best products, while new and innovative technologies quietly take root elsewhere.
Consider the smaller hard-disk drives that emerged in the 1980s. They stored less and seemed to hold little appeal for consumers. Yet they improved, found new markets and eventually transformed the industry. The incumbents saw the technology, but underestimated its promise. By the time its value became clear, it was already too late.
The same challenge confronts science. The most disruptive discoveries may initially offer little hint of their significance. If basic research has a customer, it is the future. And the future takes time to fully reveal itself. What seems obscure today may become the accepted starting point for the next generation.
The Future Science Prize understands that scientific and societal evolution. In 2016, a group of scientists and entrepreneurs committed their own resources to establish the first privately funded science prize in China. Ten years on, it has honoured 49 scientists and become a highly anticipated event on the international scientific calendar.
Tonight, we pay tribute to three outstanding laureates. Professor Zhang Hong has uncovered how autophagy works in multicellular organisms. Professor Zhao Dongyuan has pioneered mesoporous materials. Professor Yuan Xinyi has made foundational contributions to arithmetic geometry. Their trailblazing research is a reminder that the full significance of a discovery often takes time to emerge. And this is more the rule than the exception.
That is why the Future Science Prize matters. It celebrates groundbreaking research that has yet to fully unfold and reveal itself. It reflects the wisdom of science, the openness of society, determined to pursue what it cannot yet understand or foresee.
Hong Kong has deep ties to the Prize. The Future Science Awards Foundation is registered here in this city, and we are proud to host the four-day Prize Week. Over the past decade, six Hong Kong scientists have been named laureates of the Prize. We are part of this scientific community. And we will continue to develop Hong Kong as an international innovation and technology centre, where even the most modest beginnings can be recognised, nurtured and given room, and time, to flourish.
Tonight, we celebrate both remarkable discoveries and the possibilities that lie ahead. Let us salute our Laureates, the spirit of science and a future rich with promise.
I know you will enjoy this memorable evening. And the rest of Future Science Prize Week, right here in Hong Kong, Asia's world city.
Thank you.
Source: AI-found images
Speech by FS at Future Science Prize Science Gala Dinner Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Source: AI-found images
