Pioneering Scientist Behind Revolutionary Weight-Loss Drugs and Leading Mathematician Honored with 2026 King Faisal Prize

Professor Svetlana Mojsov and Professor Carlos Kenig, among other eminent figures, were selected to win the 48th session of the Prize

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Professor Svetlana Mojsov was announced this year's King Faisal Prize in Medicine laureate for her groundbreaking discoveries that are reshaping how we treat obesity, and Professor Carlos Kenig was announced this year's King Faisal Prize in Science laureate in the field of Mathematics for revolutionizing our understanding of nonlinear partial differential equations. Other laureates' names were announced to win King Faisal Prize in 2026 for enriching humanity with invaluable achievements and discoveries, and for excelling in the fields of Arabic Language and Literature, Islamic Studies, and Serving Islam.

Professor Mojsov, the Lulu Chow Wang and Robin Chemers Neustein Research Associate Professor at the Rockefeller University in New York, pioneered research on glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) that has fundamentally transformed how we treat obesity and diabetes. She discovered and characterized the biologically active form of GLP-1; a natural intestinal hormone that regulates blood sugar and appetite, and identified its receptors in the human pancreas, heart, and brain. Through cutting-edge peptide biochemistry and physiological studies, Professor Mojsov demonstrated that GLP-1 powerfully stimulates insulin secretion while reducing hunger and managing glucose levels.

Her groundbreaking work enabled the development of an entirely new class of medications that mimic this natural hormone, sparking a paradigm shift in obesity treatment. Today, these therapies provide life-changing benefits for hundreds of millions of people worldwide living with obesity and its complications—a global health crisis affecting 890 million adults and 160 million children and adolescents in 2022 alone according to World Health Organization.

Professor Mojsov is listed as co-inventor on patents for the use of GLP-1 that were licensed to the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, which led to the development of breakthrough medications. The medications based on Professor Mojsov's foundational work have transformed patient care worldwide. Her work has led to the development of a class of medications marketed under trade names including Victoza, Ozempic, and Rybelsus for diabetes treatment and weight loss. These drugs work by copying what the natural hormone does in the body: they help release insulin when blood sugar is high, slow down digestion, and reduce appetite by affecting the brain's hunger centers. The first drug to reach market, Victoza, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2010 and was based directly on the GLP-1 sequence that Professor Mojsov discovered. Professor Mojsov's contributions demonstrate how basic scientific research can lead to life-changing therapies that address one of the world's most pressing health challenges.

Her groundbreaking contributions have earned numerous prestigious honors, including the Lasker Award, Tang Prize, Breakthrough Prize, VinFuture Prize, and Princess of Asturias Prize, among others. Time magazine also named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in 2024.

This year's King Faisal Prize in Science “Mathematics” honors Professor Carlos Kenig for his groundbreaking contributions to mathematical analysis. His work has transformed our understanding of nonlinear partial differential equations—the mathematical equations describing how things change and move in the physical world—and provided researchers with a now-ubiquitous set of techniques. His insights have opened new research frontiers with applications spanning fluid mechanics, optical fibers, and medical imaging.

Professor Carlos Kenig, Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, is recognized for applying harmonic analysis techniques across different areas of partial differential equations. His work on free boundary problems—determining unknown boundaries such as where ice meets melting water or how fluids flow through soil—has been particularly influential.

Professor Kenig has spent three decades figuring out how complex waves behave over long periods of time, especially in tricky situations where they could either spread out peacefully or build up dangerously. This matters for understanding everything from ocean waves to light pulses in fiber optics to how energy moves through different materials. His work helps explain phenomena in quantum mechanics, optics, and ocean waves. By combining different mathematical techniques, he has solved longstanding problems that had puzzled mathematicians for decades. His research examines how solutions to these equations evolve over time, when they remain stable, and when they might break down or form singularities.

Another important area of Professor Kenig's work involves understanding how mathematical solutions behave near edges or boundaries. He has also contributed to unique continuation properties, which explore how much information about a solution you need in order to determine the entire solution. These mathematical insights have practical applications in medical imaging and other inverse problems where you try to determine internal structures from external measurements.

Professor Kenig's distinguished career includes the Salem Prize (1984), the Bôcher Prize of the American Mathematical Society (2008), the Solomon Lefschetz Medal from the Mathematical Council of the Americas (2021), and the ICMAM Latin America Prize (2024). He was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1984 and 2002, a plenary speaker in 2010, and delivered the American Mathematical Society's colloquium lectures in 2017.

In addition to Medicine and Science, King Faisal Prize recognized this year the achievements of outstanding thinkers and scholars in the field of Arabic Language and Literature, Islamic Studies, and exemplary leaders who played a pivotal role in serving Islam, Muslims, and humanity at large.

Professor Pierre Larcher, Emeritus Professor of Arabic Linguistics at Aix-Marseille University and Emeritus Researcher at the Institute for Studies and Research on the Arab and Muslim Worlds, won this year's King Faisal Prize for Arabic Language & Literature on “Arabic Literature in French”. His novel presentation of Arabic literature to French readers has earned widespread acclaim from critics and specialists, while his rigorous scholarly approach to classical Arabic literature has made it accessible and appropriate for French culture. His critical translation project of al-Mu'allaqat and rigorous study of pre-Islamic poetry demonstrate exceptional scholarly depth.

For this year’s Islamic Studies Prize on “Islamic Trade Routes”, Professor Abdelhamid Hussein Mahmoud Hammouda, Professor of Islamic History and Civilization at the Fayoum University, and Professor Dr. Mohamed Waheeb Hussein, Professor of Archaeology and History of Art at the Hashemite University, were announced as co-laureates.

Professor Abdelhamid Hussein Mahmoud Hammouda’s comprehensive work encompasses trade routes across the Islamic world—the Mashreq, Iraq and Persia, Arabian Peninsula, Greater Syria, Egypt, Sahara, Maghreb, and al-Andalus. This expansive scope delivers coherent understanding of Islamic trade trajectories across history, serving as an authoritative reference for both specialized research and broader scholarship.

Professor Dr. Mohamed Waheeb Hussein's groundbreaking work uses archaeological surveys, GPS documentation, and analytical mapping to systematically correlate Qur'anic texts with geographical data. His research offers definitive scholarly interpretation of the Route of al-Īlāf, significantly advancing documentation of early Arabian Peninsula trade routes.

As for the Service to Islam Prize, Sheikh Abdullatif bin Ahmed Alfozan and Professor Dr. Mohamed Mohamed Hassanin Aboumousa were announced as co-laureates for this year.

King Faisal Prize laureates' names for 2026 were announced today in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by HRH Prince Turki Alfaisal and the Prize's Secretary General Dr. Abdulaziz Alsebail. Since 1979, King Faisal Prize in its 5 different categories has awarded laureates who have made distinguished contributions to different sciences and causes. Each prize laureate is endowed with USD 200 thousand; a 24-carat gold medal weighing 200 grams, and a Certificate inscribed with the Laureate's name and a summary of their work which qualified them for the prize.

Attachments

• Professor Carlos Kenig announced King Faisal Prize in Science laureate
• Professor Svetlana Mojsov announced King Faisal Prize in Medicine laureate

Maysa Shawwa King Faisal Prize Maysa.Shawwa@kff.com