First Stop:
East China Normal University
On October 21, 2025, the first session of the World Laureates Lecture Series was held at East China Normal University (ECNU). The event featured Scott D. Emr, Laureate of the 2025 WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine and Professor Emeritus at Cornell University, and Richard Schoen, Laureate of the 2025 WLA Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University.
Professor Emr gave a keynote speech on “The ESCRT Pathway: Mechanisms of Membrane Protein Trafficking to the Lysosome.” He provided a systematic review of his team’s groundbreaking discovery of the ESCRT pathway and detailed the molecular mechanisms through which ESCRT-0 to ESCRT-III complexes and ATPase VPS4 coordinate to drive membrane remodeling. He emphasized that dysfunctions in ESCRT are closely linked to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
Professor Schoen focused on “Research Themes in Riemannian Geometry,” tracing the field’s evolution from the foundational works of Gauss and Riemann to modern developments in geometric analysis. He highlighted the historical development of the Sphere Theorem, discussed the applications of the Ricci flow method, and presented his collaborative research with Brendle on the Differentiable Sphere Theorem.
During the discussion session, the two scientists engaged in in-depth exchanges with faculty and students. Professor Schoen encouraged young scholars to “not fear failure, but learn from it to refine research directions,” while Professor Emr emphasized the idea of “curiosity-driven scientific exploration.”
Second Stop
Tongji University
On October 22, 2025, the World Laureates Lecture Series continued at the Siping Road Campus of Tongji University. Participating laureates included Scott D. Emr, Wesley I. Sundquist, and Richard Schoen, winners of the 2025 WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine and the 2025 WLA Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics.
Professor Emr reviewed the process by which his team first identified VPS genes through yeast mutant screening, uncovering the molecular mechanism by which the ESCRT pathway accurately directs membrane proteins to the lysosome for degradation.
This discovery provided a critical theoretical foundation for understanding cell division and receptor regulation.
Scott D. Emr, Laureate of the 2025 WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine,
Professor Emeritus, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University.
Professor Sundquist gave a detailed explanation of how the HIV virus “hijacks” the host cell’s ESCRT pathway to complete budding and transmission.
He focused on the interaction mechanisms between the viral Gag protein and host ESCRT factors, noting that his team’s structural elucidation of ESCRT proteins provides a theoretical basis for developing new anti-HIV strategies.
Wesley I. Sundquist, Laureate of the 2025 WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine,
Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Biochemistry, University of Utah.
Professor Schoen systematically presented the key theories in Riemannian Geometry, reviewing the classic achievements of mathematicians such as Rauch, Berger, and Klingenberg, and illustrating the value of integrating Riemannian geometry with partial differential equation methods.
Richard Schoen, Laureate of the 2025 WLA Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics,
Professor Emeritus, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University.
During the event, students and faculty exchanged ideas with the laureates on frontier research topics. Lin Changdong, a faculty member from the School of Life Science and Technology, remarked that the lectures highlighted the innovative value of interdisciplinary research. Yang Kaiwen, a PhD student from the School of Mathematical Sciences, noted that the talks provided new perspectives and methods for studying traditional problems.
Source: Shangguan News and Tongji University
