SINGAPORE — Roll out the green carpet. Prince William has made his debut as a presenter at a high-profile awards ceremony in Singapore. The duke and other celebrities at the 2023 Earthshot Prize event walked a green carpet that matched a green sash worn by British actor Mbatha, who was nominated in the category of most sustainable actress. Keeping with the theme, William wore a dark green suit from Alexander McQueen that he had purchased in 2010. The awards were hosted at a theater owned by state-owned media corporation Mediacorp and were co-hosted by actors Hannah Waddingham and Sterling K. Brown.
The winners were announced at a glitzy ceremony on Thursday night (July 16) at the Theatre in Mediacorp. Prince William wore a sharp, 10-year-old dark green suit and dickie bow, while Mbatha wowed in a sparkling navy blue gown by British designer Stella McCartney. The duke, host of the Earthshot board and chairman of the United Kingdom-Singapore Business Council, praised the winners’ achievements in addressing global environmental challenges. He also praised the work of the award’s organizers and sponsors, including Singapore Airlines, the country’s flagship carrier.
Among the winning projects, which were selected by an international panel, was the use of wastewater as an early warning system to detect COVID-19 outbreaks in Singapore at the peak of the pandemic in 2020. Professor Gertjan Medema, a Dutch microbiologist, and his colleagues at the national water agency PUB, NTUC Health, Home Team Science and Technology Agency, and local universities used their research in wastewater-based epidemiology to implement systems that monitored traces of the virus in drinking water and wastewater to identify areas where the disease was spreading rapidly.
Other shortlisted projects included a book on the 1961 Bukit Ho Swee fire and a look at colonial Singapore’s botanical gardens. The winner, archaeologist John Miksic’s Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea, 1300-1800, was selected by a jury that was chaired by NUS Asia Research Institute distinguished fellow Kishore Mahbubani. The other members were historian Peter Colcanis; economist Lam San Ling; and Meira Chand, author of the historical tome Imperial Creatures: Humans and Animals in Colonial Singapore.
The NUS History Prize, which was launched in 2014, aims to encourage authors to take an imaginative approach to their work on Singapore’s history. Mahbubani, who mooted the prize in a Straits Times column, says nations are “imagined communities” that need to be held together by shared imaginations, which include a deep understanding of their history. The prize’s nominating committee reviewed 31 books submitted by publishers. In the end, three were selected for the $50,000 award. The other two were Meira Chand’s Sembawang, and Kamaladevi Aravindan’s novel Home Is Where We Are. The prize will be presented in October. The NUS Press will publish the winner’s work next year. For more on the prize, visit its website. – By Suhaili Osman, CNN; Editing by David C. Morrison; Design by Jodie Lai; Photo by Marko Jasic/NUS Media Office