Zakri wins prestigious environment prize in Dubai

Science Adviser to the Prime Minister Professor Emeritus Datuk Seri Dr Zakri Abdul Hamid won the Zayed International Prize for the Environment 2014 in Dubai Saturday.

He shares this year's Zayed Prize for Scientific and Technological Achievement with Indian scientist, Ashok Kosla.

According to a media statement issued by Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), of which Zakri is joint Chairman, he was touched to have been named one of the winners of the world's most prestigious environment prize.

"I am humbled to be included among the ranks of such distinguished world figures and proud to acknowledge that this coveted prize also recognises Malaysia's leadership in the world, in the realm of sustainable development," he said.

The statement noted Zakri's illustrious career in global environmental leadership, including being the founding Chair of the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and a member of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's elite Scientific Advisory Board.

In 2005, as co-chair of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report - a ground-breaking study with over 2,000 individual authors - Zakri was instrumental in developing a number of the report's key findings which included that humans changed ecosystems more rapidly over the past 50 years than in any comparable period of human history.

Tthe USD$1 million prize is to be divided among winners in three categories. The other categories are Global Leadership in Environment, Scientific and Technological Achievement in Environment, and Environmental Action Leading to Positive Change in Society.

Tthis year's Global Leadership prize went to Prince Albert II of Monaco, while winners of the Environmental Action category were Paula Caballero Gomez of Colombia and Luc Hoffmann of Switzerland.