​KAUST President Tony F. Chan has been awarded the 2020 SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession. The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is an international community of over 14,000 members. The society presents the Distinguished Service Award annually to a mathematician who has made distinguished contributions to the advancement of applied mathematics on the national or international level.

This year's award recognizes Chan for his extraordinary achievements in the development and promotion of applied and computational mathematics, as well as in imaging science and scientific computing more generally. According to the SIAM website, Chan has "made a profound impact on mathematical science worldwide, and has creatively championed the recognition of mathematics by the broad public."

"I hope my service work through SIAM, NSF, and elsewhere has helped to advance the awareness and importance of the mathematical sciences in the broader scientific and political arena," Chan told SIAM when interviewed about the award.

Chan is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of SIAM, IEEE, and AAAS. He has served as a member of the presidential advisory boards of KAIST, SUSTech, and the University of Vienna. He sits on the Board of Trustees/Directors of the FII Institute, KACST, Skoltech, the Yidan Prize Foundation, and the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the NEOM Higher Council.

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